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The economic momentum is with us. Britain has been growing continuously for 12 years, during which time other EU countries have suffered at least one recession and in some cases two. The sick man of Europe has made a remarkable recovery.

“The divergence in economic performance between the main continental economies and us began about 10 years ago and will continue for the foreseeable future unless we get dragged down by the constitution and the charter of fundamental human rights,” said Ian Milne, a businessman and author for the think tank Civitas.

The contrast with Britain’s shaky economic past during the painful dismantling of empire, sterling crises and strikes could not be more stark. International businessmen, says Milne, now regard Germany as a “flyover zone” and France, despite a few niche opportunities, as an overregulated “nightmare”.

In a policy that would have been regarded as dirigiste in Britain even in the days of prices and incomes policies, Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s finance minister, has ordered the country’s retailers and their suppliers to cut prices by 3%.

The CBI, once regarded as unquestioningly pro-EU, is increasingly critical. “The model that took the EU through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s is now failing the people of Europe,” said Digby Jones, its director-general.

“It is not British arrogance or Little Englander to say this. Britain has taken some very hard decisions over the past 25 years, both the Tories and Labour, and these policies have delivered the most successful economy in Europe.

“I don’t blame anybody who says, ‘We’re not going to give up on this’. So much of what I see coming out of Brussels wants to take us back to 1970.”

The recognition that Britain has turned the economic tables on Europe is starting to go deep. Even for voters sceptical about the claims of governments, there is a recognition that the attraction of Britain for migrants, while it may have a bit to do with benefits and lax controls, has a lot to do with the strength of the job market in contrast with most other EU countries.

“The argument is not a negative one about Europe; it is a positive one about the UK,” said Gerard Lyons, head of research at Standard Chartered, the international bank.

“We have proved that we can set economic policy to suit our own domestic needs. In a global environment where competitiveness is vital, it is clear that the European economic model is not working.”

INTELLIGENT scepticism about Europe, based on economics, does not imply that everything is perfect about Britain. We know we have some of the worst football hooligans in Europe.

When Matthias Matussek of Der Spiegel, the German newspaper, wrote two months ago of Britain being a “troubled nation”, with understaffed hospitals, drunken brawls reaching epidemic proportions and an island with “more delinquents, more queueing patients and more gymslip mums” than ever, we can recognise elements of truth amid the hyperbole.

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