How delightful and how timely is the EU’s decision to impose an extra charge of £1.7billions on Britain! This amounts to a 20% increase in our net contribution to Brussels.

Delightful and timely?

Of course. It is a terrific boost to Nigel Farage and UKIP just a few weeks before the Rochester by-election. UKIP is already well ahead in the campaign for that seat according to the opinion polls. To be certain of victory, all the UKIP agents need to do is to knock on every door in Rochester and tell all the voters the plain truth: our country is being fleeced by an unelected bureaucratic tyranny and there’s nothing Dave can do about it.

Actually, there is something he can do. He can tell the EU to stuff it. But he won’t do that. No, not for all his bluster about “Reclaiming powers from Brussels.”  We are in fact powerless under an agreement we signed up to in 1972 to set up a “mechanism” which calculates adjustments in member countries’ contributions according to how well their economies are doing. Britain is doing well – that is comparatively well beside the Eurozone.

On the other hand, the German economy is stagnant, so they get a rebate. France – thanks to Monsieur Hollande’s 75% tax rate and a sky high welfare budget – is a basket case. So they get a rebate too.

So, scandalously, good housekeeping is penalised and profligacy rewarded. But that’s the way it is with banana republics, African dictatorships and the EU

But here’s a queer thing: Greece and Italy are flat broke – yet, like us, they are being ordered to pay more too.

How’s all that for joined-up thinking? It’s not thinking at all, only EU doublethink.

There’s another twist in the tale. If a member country’s budget deficit exceeds 3%, a fine is imposed. And, as Dr John Redwood pointed out this morning on The Today Programme , the extra £1.7billions we have to pay will ensure our budget deficit is even higher!

The EU’s right hand doesn’t know what its left hand is doing – except that it’s got both its hands in Britain’s pockets.

Just carry on as you are Mr Farage. Don’t change a thing. Between now and the Rochester election, just remind the British public ten times every day that our country is paying through the nose to the centralised kleptocracy in Brussels. Remind us too that the EU Commission is an unaccountable gang of fraudsters who haven’t even signed off audited accounts for nineteen years.

Life is a whirlpool of delight this morning. For if – when? – UKIP wins Rochester, the party will be unstoppable and Dave will be finished.