That EU budget

As Dan Hannan points out, no, they've again not managed to get the EU's books up to scratch so that the auditors can sign off on them and agree that they provide a true and fair recording.

Yet, strangely, I find hope in the indifference of my countrymen. If people were angry about Brussels malfeasance, it would indicate that, on some level, they believed in the possibility of reform. Anger comes from frustration, and frustration from the thwarting of something you had hoped for. But most people in Britain - as in much of the EU - are beyond frustration. They do not feel anger but contempt, not loathing but scorn. They know that the EU is structurally rotten. They have long given up on any hope of regeneration. They just don't give a fig any more. They have reached that terrible point in a doomed marriage when bickering gives way to disdain, and separation becomes more or less inevitable.

Quite right of course. Further, a good man is Dan, very sound on most issues as here. The only question is, what's he doing in a political party that shares so few of his sensible views?