Elements of the EU reportedly do not accept the reality of Brexit – they imagine that a mix of rudeness and indifference can make it go away. They have even threatened to hold negotiations in French. We would urge readers to remain dispassionate: this is the EU leaders’ game plan and, frankly, it betrays how weak their position truly is. Theresa May should respond with resilience – and lay out a confident vision of what Britain is trying to achieve.

The British are used to insults from the EU, so nothing coming out of the European Council meeting in Brussels has been a surprise. The messages have been mixed. European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber said that the UK was attracting anger for its intransigence. And yet Lord Hill, the UK’s former Brussels commissioner, spoke of a “surprisingly widely-held view that Britain might still decide to stay in” – something Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said that he hoped would happen. Mrs May was given just five minutes to discuss Brexit after dinner on Thursday night.

This behaviour betrays fantasy and arrogance. But also distraction – for the EU leaders have a lot of other, local problems to worry about. Their failure to conclude a free-trade deal with Canada has been symbolic. Getting all 28 European members to agree to a deal was tough enough – but constituencies within constituencies threw up barriers. Belgium as a whole was for it. The Belgian region of Wallonia, on the other hand, was against it, holding up progress for everyone else. Canada’s trade minister concluded that the EU is “incapable” of forging international agreements. The British have known this for years, and it is one of the most compelling reasons why they voted Leave.

Then there are internal economic strains: ongoing crisis in Mediterranean markets, turbulence in Deutsche Bank. The refugee crisis continues to pose challenges for national security and will only be resolved with Britain’s help. Nor would the Europeans want to encourage a rift across the English Channel while squaring off against Russia – and Mrs May rightly called for a united stand among democratic Western nations.

David Fuller's view

Well said, and you will also see the Mafia kiss in the PDF of this Editorial.