The Transatlantic lobbyists of the Conservative Party are also among its fiercest critics of the European Union. When Henry Kissinger spoke to the Atlantic Bridge last year, he’s said to have argued that “Europe [is in] decline as countries subordinate themselves to the European Union“. “The EU,” he concluded, “Is no substitute for the nation state“.

There’s plenty of overlap between the two lobbies. Patrick Minford, a long-time Thatcherite, sits on the Bridge’s board, and is a firm supporter of the Better Off Out campaign, which argues that, where the EU’s concerned, we’d be…Well, you can guess the rest. That organisation’s Chairman, Roger Helmer MEP, agrees that “the Trans-Atlantic Alliance must be sacrosanct“.

For many on the right, this isn’t merely a defence agreement, it’s a hammer to be wielded against a malleable world. Nile Gardiner, while railing against “the rise of a European superstate“, believes that the Transatlantic Alliance must “project power and influence across the globe“. Later in his speech to Bridge, Kissinger argued that “on its own the U.S. cannot create a new order” and, thus, “the U.S.-U.K. special relationship [is] still valid [and] essential in the emerging environment“.

This is rather sad. I’m no fan of the EU, but Tories who oppose one corrupt, expansionist alliance should hedge their bets: if their dreams are realised, they may find themselves lumbered with another.