The consequences of the EU’s ill-founded attempt to impose “woke” rules on language continue to be felt. The Pope compared the EU to a dictatorship for suggesting that words such as Christmas should be avoided, and warned Brussels not to go down the path of “ideological colonisation”. 

Now Emmanuel Macron has entered the fray. Setting out his priorities for France’s EU presidency yesterday, he said: “A Europe that comes to explain to people what words they should or shouldn’t say is not a Europe to which I totally adhere. It’s nonsense, basically.”

This is a rare occasion on which we agree with Mr Macron. It is also probably a wise political calculation, given that his main opponents in the coming presidential election are united in their derision for political correctness. Mr Macron’s education minister has even launched a think tank dedicated to resisting a wave of “wokeism” imported from the United States.

Some in the EU, however, foresee a new split within the bloc on issues such as identity politics. After the years of fudge and ambiguity under Angela Merkel, Germany now has a Left-wing government that Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, has branded as “pro-immigration, pro-gender, federalist”. He added: “We now prepare for battle with our eyes wide open.”

There have long been tensions between the more socially liberal members in the West and the more conservative nations of eastern and central Europe on issues such as migration, alongside the old north-south splits on the economy. Will battles over woke ideology add a new dynamic to the EU’s eternal feuding? It is surely another reason why the UK is better off out.