Opinion polls plotting people's three highest concerns continue to bear this out. The economy, immigration and Europe regularly top the list and the consequences of the recession — still evident everywhere despite the government's optimism — are exacerbated by the failure to deal with the EU over the decades. Nowhere is this clearer than on immigration and the loss of border control, in line with the EU's free movement rules.

Immigration remains the number one issue for many voters. They are not xenophobic, but pragmatic about the limits and costs of an open border policy. For them the debate is no longer just about curbing benefit tourism or the red tape of Brussels. Rather, across England's complex electoral landscape there is scepticism about political will, and a sense that British politicians are no longer on the side of voters when it comes to the EU. They see neighbourhoods changing; soaring house prices and the pillaging of the green belt; overcrowding in schools and pressures on the health service. Although these are not new problems, they have been exacerbated by the influx of EU nationals from poorer countries, who often provide employers with cheap labour and are seen as undercutting British working people. In the words of UKIP's leader, Nigel Farage, people "want their country back".

Across the channel, France's small centre-right party, the Debout la République (Arise the Republic), "twinned" earlier this year with Mr Farage's UKIP. Though this suggests some similarities between French and British Euroscepticism, there is also a less agreeable form of Euroscepticism on offer in France, as championed by Marine Le Pen, which is frightening the French political establishment through its popularity. Altogether, France may prove the EU's greatest headache, mainly because of another of its extremist politicians, the unfortunate François Hollande. His socialist policies (only now, too late, becoming more moderate) combined with the economic effects of EU requirements have made him the country's most unpopular leader. They may also end by threatening the European project. French economic growth is slow. GDP is expected to rise by just 0.4 per cent this year, by 1 per cent in 2015 and reach 2 per cent by 2017. Meanwhile France's deficit exceeds the EU-permitted 3 per cent of GDP, but Hollande does not intend to cut it quickly. Rather, the plan is to meet prescribed budget limits two years later than promised, reducing it to 4.4 per cent this year, 4.3 per cent next, only reaching the prescribed 3 per cent in 2017. That scenario not only threatens France's AA credit rating, but also implies that the Élysée Palace is both out of step if not at odds with its EU co-founder and partner in the project, and unable to control its leftist troops at home. President Hollande has had a turbulent rentrée. Having sacked, in late August, ministerial colleagues who opposed him on deficit reduction in line with Angela Merkel's austerity policy, his reforms inspire little confidence from any quarter. These amount to a paltry £16 billion annual budget cut (local authorities and welfare benefits will take the hit), modest tax rises on petrol and television licences and some business-friendly gestures, and it's unlikely they will do enough to close the gap or promote growth. If anything, the left wing of his party has won this round, powerful in parliament and unconstrained by office.