Curiously, all this was foreshadowed nearly 70 years ago by one of the two men who, more than any others, were responsible for creating the government we now live under. Altiero Spinelli, an Italian Communist sitting in a Fascist jail, sketched out how, in order to build a new United States of Europe after the Second World War, it would be necessary to piece together the new form of government gradually over many years without explaining its ultimate aim.The day would come, however, when enough of it had been assembled and a convention could be summoned to draft, as its "crowning glory", a constitution. At last, said Spinelli, the peoples of Europe would see what had been done in their name and would greet it with "acclamation".