I was intrigued to see the news today of the imprisonment of Tom Wise, a former member of the European Parliament for the highly Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) – who want Britain to leave the EU.
In retrospect, I got a hint of the eventual downfall of poor Mr Wise, a few years ago, when I attended the monthly dinner of the UKIP delegation to the parliament – which was held in a bierkeller in Strasbourg. I soon got bored of talking to him about the European Union and discovered that Wise and I shared an interest in wine. When I teased him about how he reconciled his love of fine claret, with his distrust of all things French, Wise became rather indignant. He said that actually his favourite wine of all is Ridge Montebello Cabernet, which is Californian. He was so insistent on its merits, that I later went to try and buy some - and discovered that a single bottle would set me back £100.
I did vaguely wonder how Wise funded his wine habit – and now I know. Apparently quite a lot of the money he embezzled was spent on cases of fine wine. At least it went in a good cause.
For views and opinions on the European Union from Peter Spiegel, Joshua Chaffin, Alex Barker and Stanley Pignal, follow the 