Thus George Soros in the Financial Times today. “The UK has the best of all worlds,” he explains. “Any change would be for the worst.” He lived through both Nazi and Communist occupation of his native Hungary, he starts, and he learned how important it was what political system prevailed. Thus he stands for values and principles of the “open society,” which is his name for capitalism and democracy. Most important, he believes that the European Union is the embodiment of such a society. Current problems have to do with the policy of austerity that Germany imposed upon the Union in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Now that the long period of stagnation is over, many in the Union are disenchanted with it. There is a real threat of disintegration of the Union, and the British referendum only contributes to it.

But Britain is in the best of all possible worlds right now, he argues, and it would be wrong to make any radical changes in its position. What the Union actually now needs is greater integration. The crisis in Ukraine also points in this direction, he concludes. The article closes with a note on Soros’ new book, Tragedy of the European Union: Disintegration or Revival? It was just published by Public Affairs in New York. Chances are that what the article has to say about Britain, the book has to say about all major countries in the Union. Every one of them is in the best of all possible worlds, that is.

Which is why I would expect it to be read by many but heeded by few. To wit, time to stand up for the Union was in the early Nineties, not today. This is when it had a good chance to make it in this world, but it blew it. Ever since the signing of the Maastricht treaty, the Union has dithered. Over an entire generation, it has not become even a club, let alone a union of any kind. All of its major projects are floundering by now. Its institutions, topped by the European Commission and the European Parliament, are but jokes on the executive and legislative powers. So, what miracle could ever change the moribund Union? Soros’ book is not that miracle, it goes without saying. I do understand his chagrin, and I share it to some extent, but I feel sorry for him well in advance. As well as for the so-called Union.