They thought they were going to do something about President Sarkosy’s persecution of the Roma in France but they failed and the Roma were persecuted.

When it took eight months to form a new EU Commission few of us felt any sense of panic that we were ungoverned for so long. The sun rose in the mornings, the birds sang and babies were born. Perhaps we could do without them on a permanent basis. It would certainly save us a great deal of money.

It is always a dilemma for me when I hear about the EU Commissioners and other unelected EU figures going off on lengthy freebies at our expense; freebies such as Emperor Rompuy using his EU limo and driver to take his whole family on holiday. I am, like anyone else, annoyed that my tax is being wasted by these unwanted officials but this feeling vies with my relief that while these lazy neer-do-wells are swanning about, skipping their meetings, etc. at least they are not governing us, bossing us, preaching at us, screwing everything up or wagging their fingers at us.

I suppose that I should rejoice that our unelected and uncharismatic Head of State is so ineffective and that Baroness Ashton (EU High Representative for Laziness, Throwing a Sicky and Inactivity) should be absent from so many meetings.