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But while most commentators are concentrating on unpicking the meaning of every dot and comma, I’d like to make a suggestion: the real story isn’t Mrs May’s speech, it is that we are probably less than a decade away from the collapse of the EU itself. So although her words might matter a lot over the next year or two – pointing out that we are moving towards agreement on a two-year transition period and some crossover payments over those months – what she said yesterday is almost entirely irrelevant to everything except the very short term. The EU is an institution that is so anachronistic and so overburdened by the weight of its own contradictions – to coin a phrase – that it cannot survive. As an absolute maximum I’d say it has 10 years left. That is one of the many reasons why it was so right that we voted to leave the EU. And Mrs May’s speech makes not the least difference to any of that – nor should it. We are leaving a sinking ship. But although we will be so much better out, the determination of the EU elite to hold its life’s work together at all costs means that membership for those left in will be an increasingly intolerable burden.

GETTY The European elites have always sought the creation of a superstate

Mandatory solidarity is building tensions

So yes, Mrs May’s speech has some relevance to the terms of our departure and over the next couple of years. But in the bigger picture – we are leaving an organisation that is on the edge of collapse – her words are irrelevant. Across the Netherlands, in Greece, Eastern Europe, Italy, Germany and France there is widespread unrest at the EU political class’s inability to do anything to reflect popular anger over the continuing flood of refugees. Every week or so there are reports that President Macron or Chancellor Merkel are considering some sort of new brake on free movement but it is all meaningless. Neither of them, nor the European Commission, nor the European Parliament, nor any of the other EU leaders, have the least interest or intention of changing any of the fundamentals of the EU. Instead they preen themselves in a mirror that reflects only their parallel universe of an EU built on “solidarity”. Has there ever been a more ludicrously unsuitable word to describe an institution than “solidarity” for the EU?

GETTY Theresa May delivering her biggest Brexit speech yet in Florence, Italy

This month the European Court of Justice told Hungary and Slovakia – who were backed by other Eastern European member states such as Poland – that they had no choice but to accept thousands of supposed asylum seekers under a quota system imposed by the EU. No matter what their democratically elected governments might want to do, no matter what their populations might want, they are forced to bend the knee to the orders of the European Commission. Asked if a voluntary quota scheme might not be more sensible, the EU’s migration commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos replied: “It is mandatory… member states should show solidarity now because it is clear that some member states need solidarity now.” Solidarity! This is not so much pressure cooker politics as a policy almost designed to cause rioting in the streets. Which was of course exactly what we saw in Greece as its government was forced to obey German orders when the euro crisis first bit. The EU’s fundamental problem has been its leaders’ overreach. As a free trade area it has much merit. But that was never the ultimate aim: for the EU elites it has always been about building a European state. It is possible that one day nations as varied as Sweden, Hungary, Italy and Germany might decide that they no longer wish to have even a semblance of self-government. Possible, but unlikely – and they certainly do not think so now.