THE OPPOSITE OF THE ANGLOSPHERE:

spiked: Obviously, there has been a series of mistakes made in this crisis in relation to vaccines. But does that speak to a deeper problem with the EU's governing philosophy?

Waterfield: Yes, it really does. It speaks to a profound malaise in European political culture. What were the governments of important states like Germany and France thinking when they outsourced the commissioning of vital medicines to a bunch of middle-ranking lawyers in Brussels?

The EU wants to make decision-making technocratic and to hide behind institutions. It was very interesting to see the German health minister, Jens Spahn, talk about Germany's decision to suspend the AZ jab. He kept talking about public confidence in the vaccine and in the medical authorities. Of course, what Germany and other countries actually did was undermine trust in the vaccine, in the name of shoring up their own authority. This is the problem with the precautionary principle - it departs from science in favour of reassuring people. It has become about handing out comfort blankets rather than vaccines.

This saga has also shown how hostile the EU is when faced with a contest with an independent country like Britain. In many ways, that contest is one of ideas - and the EU is losing it. Instead of getting better, the EU just wants to kill the contest. After all, it is fundamentally an organisation determined to snuff out the idea of politics as a battle of ideas. If that battle isn't visible or isn't there at all, it's very difficult for the public to judge the rulers.

Hopefully, the EU might learn lessons from this mess. But looking back at the financial crisis, the Eurozone crisis, the migrant crisis and Brexit, we can see that the EU does not learn lessons.

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