A year from now Britain will leave the European Union. A year from now Britain will give away control. Here’s why.

Today we send billions of pounds to the EU but we have a say how the money is spent and we can veto its budgets. In a year’s time we’ll still be sending billions of pounds to the EU, but we will have no say how the money is spent and we will have lost our ability to block future budgets even if (as seems certain) we go on contributing to them. We will have lost further control of our money. Today we abide by the EU rules and European Court of Justice judgments on everything from the way our cars are made to the safety of our medicines and the regulation of our banks, but we help shape those rules, have a vote on their adoption and appoint one of the judges that interprets them.

In a year’s time we will go on abiding with every letter of all those rules and the interpretations of the ECJ — and any new ones the EU comes up with — but no elected British minister or MEP will represent Britain in that rule-making or be accountable to our Parliament for them, and none of the officials who draft the rules or the judges who judge them will be British. We will have lost further control of our laws.

Today we have to admit foreign-registered fishing vessels to our waters and allow them to catch an amount of fish determined by the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council; but our fisheries minister sits on that council, with a voice and a vote on those quotas and the quotas for our vessels fishing in other countries’ waters.

In a year’s time we will be subject to the future decisions of that fisheries council about how much fish can be caught in our waters, and all we’ll have in return is a promise to be consulted about that but with no vote to fight our corner. We will have lost further control of our waters.

Today we accept the free movement of other Europeans to work and study in our economy and for Britons to do the same on the Continent. In a year’s time that free movement stays in place but we no longer have any influence in how it is interpreted — influence that the previous Home Secretary used to secure changes, to things such as the way we handle foreign criminals and bogus marriages, and changes that will now not be implemented.

We will have lost further control over our borders. The British Prime Minister will no longer be present at the European Council, which Theresa May just so successfully made the case to for action against Russia. The British Foreign Secretary will no longer be part of the European discussions on the Balkans, as Boris Johnson was last month. We will have lost further influence over world events that affect us.

That is what Brexit means in reality. A loss of influence in the world and a loss of control at home. This paper has always accepted the verdict of the British people that we should take this step. It has urged the Government to take further steps to mitigate that loss by remaining in European arrangements such as the customs union, the European Economic Area and the European Free Trade Association that the British people never said we should leave.

The Government wouldn’t listen to us and many others who wish the Tory party well, and as a result large parts of the country no longer listen to it. So we await to see if Parliament finds the courage to act. The nativists on the Right and the Corbynistas on the Left are celebrating. The rest of the country looks on in dismay. Meanwhile the countdown to a diminished Britain continues and the day when we Britons lose further control over the forces that shape our lives approaches. Happy anniversary.

Malala makes it home

Malala Yousafzai has returned to Pakistan on a short visit for the first time since she was shot by the Taliban, aged 15, after campaigning for the right of girls to be educated. Her bravery is not in doubt.

Nor is the brilliance of the example she sets. Sometimes, individuals really do change the world for the better.

Malala is one of them: and the fact that she has been able once again to see the country of her birth is a heartening sign of progress.