Winning hearts and minds

Ireland's referendum on the reform treaty may be six or seven months away but already the electorate is running for cover. Voters are battening down the hatches in Howth and shutting up shop in Skibereen at the prospect of an invasion of Very Important (European) Persons who have announced that they intend to visit Ireland to join in the argument. Hans-Gert Pöttering, the president of the European Parliament, was one of the first to announce that he would be visiting the Emerald Isle, possibly in February. Which presumably will render unnecessary the visit promised by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission. There is even speculation that Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, might campaign for a ‘Yes' vote. The ‘No' campaigners would be strengthened – if that is the right word – by visits from Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde and French far-right MEP Jean-Marie Le Pen, though only if they are invited. “I would have no hesitation in going there to oppose it,” Le Pen said last week (24 October) in Strasbourg. The natives may be well advised to carry on doing what they do for any invasion of folk from the continent, be it for sporting occasions or the tourist season: put up the prices and pray for rain.

Lenin is supposed to have said: “Trust is good but control is better.” The European Parliament seems to have taken this lesson to heart, judging by the changes agreed last week to the organisation of debates during plenary sessions. According to the agreement, there will be “time set aside for spontaneous interventions and questions by members”. Lest anyone try to take the term ‘spontaneous' too seriously, the agreement adds: “These extra minutes will be distributed beforehand between the groups, proportional to their size.”