Daily Inspiration Quote by John Hutton

The line is an optimistic rebuke dressed up as reassurance. Hutton’s contrast between “midnight deals” and “the light of objective evidence” isn’t just about process; it’s about legitimacy. “Midnight” evokes the familiar Brussels caricature: smoky rooms, insider trading of favors, outcomes cooked before the public wakes up. By switching to “light,” he taps an older civic fantasy that politics can be disinfected by transparency and data, as if evidence is a floodlamp that makes self-interest behave.

The key maneuver is in the phrase “should itself provide some reassurance.” It’s deliberately modest, almost pedagogical. He’s not promising better outcomes, only a better method. That’s a strategic retreat in an era when faith in institutions is brittle: sell the procedure, because the policy will always disappoint someone. The appeal to “objective evidence” also carries a quiet assertion of authority. Evidence doesn’t just inform decisions; it disciplines the debate, implying that opponents are guided by ideology, rumor, or vested interest.

“After consulting those who will be affected” signals a second reform impulse: participation. But it’s also a pressure valve. Consultation can mean genuine co-design, or it can mean a carefully managed listening exercise that launders pre-made choices through stakeholder meetings. Hutton’s intent, as an educator-turned-public communicator, reads like civic instruction aimed at skeptics: trust the EU not because it is lovable, but because it is learning to justify itself in public, with receipts.