Don’t be fooled: the EU’s claims about the ‘rule of law’ in member states is far from indisputable.

The Swiss climate change case has revealed what is wrong with human rights as practiced in Europe today.

Suppressing remarks or attitudes that could harm a “peaceful social climate” may be great for genteel Council of Europe meetings, university seminars, or dinner parties, even if it might make them a trifle dull. But it won’t work for any kind of effective 21st century politics.

Bismarck succeeded, by a combination of chicanery and bullying in uniting Germany militarily, legally, and culturally in the image of Prussia. Subtract the military element, and the EU seems to have been trying to do the same thing to Poland, albeit using more subtle methods.