More than forty years later, the prolonged euro zone crisis has shown us all the wisdom of Powell’s words. It is folly to believe, as continental European politicians persist in doing, that a single currency can be made to work over the long-term without a strong central bank and single euro-wide fiscal policy.

Yet, as Powell understood, such centralised government is impossible because there is no single European identity by which it might be legitimised. European unity can only come about, as Powell said in 1969, ‘through a settled, deep and instinctive conviction felt by those concerned that they belong first and foremost to the whole and that its interests override those of the parts.’

In 1973 Britain joined what was essentially a trading organisation, indeed we were told it was a ‘common market’; we have never signed up to a United States of Europe. As the Chancellor George Osborne said in an interview in July, what Britain wants from the EU is ‘a single market of free trade.’ Trading with our European neighbours is in our national interest, being subsumed into a European super state is not. It must never happen.

In their old age, however, they have brought the Church in from the cold and are gracious and experienced hosts for regular papal visits.When Pope Francis lands in Cuba on September 19, he will be the third pontiff in a row to visit the Communist-run island.

His three-night stay highlights the new relationship between Church and state in Cuba and a marked softening of the Castros' stance toward the religion they grew up with and then fought. In return, the Church has become less confrontational and it played a major role in securing last year's rapprochement between Cuba and the United States.

They showed more than 1,500 victims were under 13, and in some cases both the victims and the suspects were just 5-years-old. Jon Brown, head of Sexual Abuse Programs at the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), said, "We know that for some older children, accessing hardcore pornography is warping their view of what is acceptable behavior. And the very young – those of primary school age or even younger – may be copying sexual activity they have witnessed."

Chief Constable Simon Bailey, head of child protection at the National Police Chiefs Council, fears the figures may merely be the "tip of the iceberg".

Christians all over this country are being put into positions where they must choose to either submit to the “new morality” or potentially lose their jobs. For Kim Davis, deciding to take a stand meant that she was thrown into prison. The radical judge that threw her into prison has said that she will stay there until she is willing to change her mind.

The pace at which our nation is circling the toilet is absolutely breathtaking. Just eleven years ago, a state constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage in Kentucky received support from 75 percent of the voters. Now, Kim Davis has been locked away, and more county clerks may be next. There is news that another county clerk named Casey Davis has stepped forward to say that he won’t issue any same sex marriage licenses either.

What in the world has happened to America? We live in a country where Christians are being imprisoned for what they believe, but Planned Parenthood is free to slaughter babies, chop them up, and sell off their parts to the highest bidder. We better start paying attention. What is happening right in front of our eyes is eerily reminiscent of what happened in Nazi Germany…

In the future, Bible-believing Christians are going to be completely disqualified from being county clerks or holding any other government position that deals with marriage. But it won’t stop there. Ultimately, any Christians that will not go along with the new morality will be labeled a “bigot” and a “hater” and will essentially become unemployable.

The culture is turning radically against us, and what we have seen so far is just the beginning. So are you willing to give up your job, your future and potentially even your freedom for your faith?

Such a quantum leap in the constitutional structure of Europe – effectively the creation of an EU superstate, with a parliament comparable in power to the US Congress – is unthinkable in the current political atmosphere.

It would require referenda across Europe, and a two-thirds majority in both houses of the German parliament. “The chances of political union are close to zero,” he said, speaking at the Ambrosetti forum of world policymakers on Lake Como.

If Europe were to jump the gun and force the pace of integration, this would lead to a rogue plenipotentiary with unbridled powers over sensitive issues of national life. “It is hard to see how it could be given democratic accountability,” he said. Professor Issing has always been open to an authentic United States of Europe similar to the US federal democracy. What he objects to is a deformed halfway house where supra-national bodies take decisions behind closed doors.

Because Starbucks aims to “embrace diversity of all kinds,” Shultz told a specific shareholder, who supports traditional marriage, he should sell his shares and go to another company. A Forbes report stated that Shultz seemed extremely intolerant of any shareholder who opposed gay marriage.

During the meeting, Tom Strobhar, founder of the Corporate Morality Action Center and Starbucks shareholder, pointed out that when Starbucks backed gay marriage in Washington State, traditional marriage supporters boycotted the coffee store and sales venues dropped. When Strobhar mentioned the facts, Schultz responded by telling him to sell his shares and invest in another company.

A staunch conservative and Vatican bureaucrat, Burke had been demoted by the pope a few months earlier, but it did not take the fight out of him. Francis had been backing a more inclusive era, giving space to progressive voices on divorced Catholics as well as gays and lesbians. In front of the camera, Burke said he would “resist” liberal changes — and seemed to caution Francis about the limits of his authority. “One must be very attentive regarding the power of the pope,” Burke told the French news crew.

Papal power, Burke warned, “is not absolute.” He added, “The pope does not have the power to change teaching or doctrine.” Burke’s words belied a growing sense of alarm among strict conservatives, exposing what is fast emerging as a culture war over Francis’s papacy and the powerful hierarchy that governs the Roman Catholic Church.

Since then, liberals have tested the boundaries of their new freedom, with one Belgian bishop going as far as openly calling for the Catholic Church to formally recognize same-sex couples. Conservatives counter that in the current climate of rising liberal thought, they have been thrust unfairly into a position in which “defending the real teachings of the church makes you look like an enemy of the pope,” a conservative and senior Vatican official said on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely.

“We have a serious issue right now, a very alarming situation where Catholic priests and bishops are saying and doing things that are against what the church teaches, talking about same-sex unions, about Communion for those who are living in adultery,” the official said. “And yet the pope does nothing to silence them. So the inference is that is what the pope wants.”

In a speech to thousands of people in St Peter’s Square, the pope said it was not enough to say “have courage, hang in there” to those marching toward what he described as “life’s hope.” Referring to the “tragedy of tens of thousands of refugees that flee death in conflict and hunger and are on a journey of hope,” Francis said, according to Vatican Radio, “the Gospel calls us to be close to the smallest and to those who have been abandoned.” He specifically asked that the European bishops support the effort.

It was Francis’ first direct message to Europe — and the world — about how to embrace and integrate the largest mass migration Europe has seen since the end of World War II.

David Cameron is under intense pressure to agree a number to show that he cares, whatever the practical consequences may be. He is being unfairly traduced for resisting these blandishments and there is something deeply unpleasant about the picture of a dead child being used as a stick with which to beat a political opponent.

The Prime Minister is as moved as anyone by the sight of a dead child; but he is right to say that it is better to help the refugees remain in situ, in camps in countries bordering Syria, in the expectation of one day returning home.

Indeed, that is the view of the UNHCR, whose aid chief Stephen O’Brien has urged wealthy countries to step up assistance so that refugees are not forced to seek safety in Europe. To that end, Britain spends more than the rest of Europe put together.