After rather a long silence, Jacques Delors gave a speech last week. It was a formal occasion: the Conference of European Statisticians. However, although he recognised the importance of statistics as the basis for the judicious conduct of European affairs, it was not statistics he talked about. He took the opportunity to sketch out an overview of the situation of the EU. And he did so in his own inimitable way: a vision, the clarity, and this open-mindedness, which derives both from his...