“A lot of the rubbish written about us, Judith, is based on the fundamental misjudgment that we are anti-Europe,” he says, jerking forward again. Sorry, Nigel, what was that? You look pretty “anti” from where I’m sitting. In your Brussels office you keep a coffin that you once used to bury the euro, complete with last rites and holy water. “We’re not anti-Europe! That would be moronic! Nor do we believe that Sodom and Gomorrah begins at Calais. Europe is vibrant and exciting, which is why I stand against its harmonisation, homogenisation and pasteurisation. When I first came here in 1999 I thought Britain was a square peg in a round hole. Then in 2005, when the European constitution was rejected by the French and Dutch, the EU response was just to ignore them. That’s when I realised I wanted to get the whole of Europe out of the European Union. Here they are building a superpower which, of course, is doomed to failure, but is also, I honestly think, a very dangerous project. These people are fanatics.”