Sensible Europeans are having to watch as Juncker argues for a centralised super-state. Irish voters will never go for it - as well we shouldn’t

Coulrophobia, apparently, is the new name for an old condition – fear of clowns. Those of us who remember the brilliantly scary portrayal by Jack Nicholson of the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie or by Heath Ledger in the 2008 Dark Knight movie didn’t need a new fancy word to describe the feeling.

We have our own creepy clowns now. There was a definite aspect of a circus ring populated by prominent ...