It’s spine chilling. It’s painful to hear. It’s a grave indictment. It’s also true.

Guy Verhofstadt was giving one of his European Parliament speeches that go around Whatsapp and Facebook as clickbait. It’s true that surrounded by the staid, scripted and halting performances of MEPs it should be easier to stand out, the man’s performances, even through translation, are remarkable.

And yesterday he summed it up succinctly. We must face the painful truth: Victor Orban’s Hungary, Jaroslaw Kaczinsky’s Poland and “the corrupt political system in Malta” are not European. Not in the geographical sense. In the political sense of functioning and free democracies.

This is where we have got to.

Watch the clip here.