As Britain prepares for Brexit, what will happen to the EU that we leave behind? To understand the EU and its direction of travel, you have to understand Germany – the bloc’s richest, most populous and most powerful nation. Sir Paul Lever has worked in the Foreign Office and the European Commission, he was the British ambassador to Germany between 1997 and 2003, and is author of Berlin Rules: Europe and the German Way. spiked caught up with him for a chat.