The sorry truth about the “European model“ won’t dissuade the socialists lurking in the Dem Cong, but it’s still fun to see the facts in black and white.

The Association of European Chambers of Commerce in Brussels warned that the transatlantic gap had widened yet further in the past five years by all key measures, despite the pledge by EU leaders at the 2000 Lisbon summit to transform Europe into the world’s “most dynamic knowledge-based economy” by the end of the decade.

It found that the European Union’s research and development levels were achieved by America as long ago as 1979, while the lag time on per capita income is 18 years.

It will take the EU until 2072 to reach US levels of income per capita, and then only if the EU income growth exceeds that of the US by 0.5pc,” the study said.

That puts them 75 years behind the US. If current demographic trends persist– Europeans are slowly dying off and being replaced by Muslim immigrants — Europe never will.

Of course, by then, Europe will be a backwater to the US, India and China.