Europe, it has been said, is a bore. The government of Europe bores absolutely. Not the least of the virtues of Larry Siedentop’s Democracy in Europe is that it serves to undermine this generalisation, rescuing as it does some of the key issues of our time from the arid grip of the politicians and the scholasticism of the social scientists.

European integration is, whatever the sceptics may say, now very much an accomplished reality, with the completion of the internal market and the launch of the euro. The trouble is, however, that increasing integration has been accompanied by increasing alienation. Last year, under half of the European electorate bothered to