This is from the inside, the bit they don't tell you about on the BBC, and we've been paying billions a year to keep this farce up and running.

Claire Fox MEP

"I have enjoyed my first fortnight back as a civilian after my temporary stint as an MEP. Along with other Brexit party representatives, we had one job, and we did it. I am rather proud of my modest contribution to bringing democracy home.
Looking back at my experience as an MEP, there are lessons worth noting. I had assumed that a gathering of 700 or so MEPs from all around Europe, would, at the very least, provide a fascinating exchange of views from an international perspective. But the parliament operates through artificially federalised political groupings; behind closed doors the leaders of each grouping carve up who gets to speak, for how long (typically 60 seconds), and in stage-managed terms.
Topics for discussion are similarly preordained, prescribed by legislation initiated elsewhere. There are few opportunities for actual free discussion, so very few listen to each others’ speeches. The chamber is regularly empty save for a lone voice and the chairpersons. Interaction is reduced to a formulaic blue card system for asking questions, which in too many debates are ruled inadmissible due to time restraints and fiat. No wonder the parliamentary chamber is only full when voting takes place; because financial penalties operate if you don’t turn up for a minimum number of votes per year.
But it’s not just the technical process that so deadens debate. Without accountability to voters back home, the atmosphere is one of a feudal court with MEPs forced to vie for favours. Interactions with other organisations are often confined to professional lobbyists. European civil society and NGOs that petition for favours and influence for their special interests are often themselves funded from EU coffers. This creates a system of patronage that encourages self-reinforcing group-think and a cloying sycophancy.
It has to be said that one of the most impressive aspects of the parliament are the brilliant unsung translators, who ensure that whatever language you speak, you are understood. Ironically, the Lingua Franca is jargon and bureaucratic wokeness. Everyone bangs on about diversity except diversity of opinion. So whatever is being discussed, the outcome must always be further and deeper integration into the EU project. And while it is estimated that EU sceptics now represent a quarter of seats in the European parliament, a behind-the-scenes cordon sanitaire has been erected by the main political groups to ensure they are shut out of positions of influence.
One issue that is likely to shatter the consensus has been Brexit. There was a strange atmosphere in the European parliament in the weeks leading up to 31 January. Not quite the end of days, but there’s no doubt Brexit got everyone thinking about the future. A mood of jolting reflection was prompted by the knowledge that if the UK can survive – even thrive – outside the EU, Eurosceptic public opinion in some other member states could also grow.
The shift was reflected in a distinct change in attitudes to Brexit party MEPs. Regardless of winning the European elections and the support of millions of British voters, during our seven-month tenure the majority of mainstream MEPs from the other 27 member states were almost universally disdainful.
But in the final weeks, that hostility ebbed away. (Admittedly, amongst the UK Remainer contingent it got worse and more vicious). When we arrived, it was common to hear Europeans trotting out the line that the British public had been duped (and probably regretted their decision), or that the British working class and the UK was on the brink of fascism.
Lib Dems and Labour MEPs of course fanned the flames of these untruths, while Brexit party MEPs worked hard in committees and parliamentary plenaries to counter this misinformation and appealed to fellow democrats across Europe – and there are many – to make the case for national sovereignty and the defence of democracy.
So it was lovely that, towards the end, so many MEPs – from left and right and from countries right across the continent – approached me, shook my hand and wanted to chat.
It seems the inevitability of Brexit helped them relax a little. Some complimented our group for making them see another side of Brexit. Others admitted that while disagreeing with us, they admired our dogged coherence as a group. Many found our contributions well-informed and useful. One MEP said he and colleagues had been plotting together on how to make the spirit of Brexit come alive in other countries across Europe. Another said she was determined to take inspiration from Brexit party speeches to try and kick-start a livelier debate in what is a dull and technocratic institution.
One thing we can be sure of is that Brexit will leave its mark on the EU. Indeed, the European Commission’s proposal for a two year-long conference (that’s right, a two-year long conference!) on the Future of Europe is specifically designed to counter the damaging impact of a “Brexodus”.
In my final session at the Strasbourg parliament it was surreal how almost every contribution referred to the “lessons of Brexit”, and stressed the alienation of EU institutions from rank and file citizens throughout the continent.

She goes on to point out that the Future of Europe conference is being strictly managed, arch-federalist Guy Verhofstadt has been put in charge, who else, and after two years deliberations it will conclude that the answer to Europe's Brexodus problem is simply.....More Europe.