We are all citizens of Europe now, and the benefits row is just the beginning

Yes, that law case the European Commission is taking against the UK is mission creep, or ‘a blatant land grab’ as Iain Duncan Smith has it. The eurocrats are trying to extend EU control over the benefits systems of member states, and they are going to the European Court of Justice to do it.

But what the commission is after is more than just that. Jonathan Todd, a European Commission spokesman, spelled it out at yesterday’s midday briefing in one line, and in his perfectly English voice: ‘UK nationals automatically have the right to reside in the UK. EU nationals do not have that automatic right.’

That is what is objectionable to the commission: the British insist on claiming that HM’s subjects are born with rights within the UK and foreign-born people are not, and the British government has the power to arbitrate the difference.