The European Movement celebration of its 70th anniversary has just finished in The Hague. It was a great privilege to represent the Movement and the tone of the discussions - from Norway to Sicily - was so different to the usual UK discussions. The clips of Churchill's phenomenal oratory told the whole story of what "Europe" was about when it launched - liberty, equality and fraternity (to borrow a phrase!). 

The audience may have sat on the same chairs as in 1948 (and they are still just as uncomfortable!) but that did not distract from the earnest - though inspiring - speeches about the values behind `better together'. In a highly uncertain world of power blocs, the tone was so much more appealing to the heart than carping in a mean-minded way about an economic game of modest sums of money. Truly uplifting!