To turn now to another theme the BBC do biasedly, this article from Stephen Sackur looks like it's trying to soften the blow when it becomes clear that the Euro-elections are not only farcical in the UK- they're farcical in lots of countries.

Take the Czech Republic- a very nice country the BBC visit a great deal. Not sure if this is due to cheap flights or the loveliness that is Prague, or the world's finest cheap beer.

First of all I take issue with the notion that the Czechs were drinking 'cheap champagne' on May 1st. I'm pretty sure they'd be drinking (if not their gorgeous beer) the Czech alternative to champagne, which is delicious, tart and fruity, luminous and bubbly, but not entitled to call itself champagne, due to EU rules.

Also readers of the article will probably not notice the absence of mention of Vaclav Klaus, Czech president and euro-sceptic (or, as he put it recently, 'Euro-realist'). We hear plenty though from a representative of Vaclav Havel's POV- Havel is the most pro-EU Czech grandee around.

This source gives us some excuses in advance for a pitiful turnout or some odd elected representatives:

'"It took us so long to be accepted into the club, you made it so hard for us, and now we're wondering what all the fuss was about," he says. '
- which is one way of looking at it, rather like the old Heathite argument that our problem was not being in the EU [EC, EEC] from the beginning.

The source, Jiri Pehe, also gives us the optimistic note that 'we'll see our MEPS taking important decisions, and we'll benefit from the experience." '

Meanwhile Sackur is at pains to blame the usual suspects behind EU failure: lack of information and education.

He's also keen to explain away a possible eclipse of the ruling SDP, who are 'suffering a familiar case of the mid-term blues.' -except that in a country where democracy is not fifteen years old (since re-birth), I don't suppose 'mid-term blues' will be all that familiar.

Finally, Sackur tries to prepare us for the shock that 'unreconstructed communists' may be elected- to which my response was, they'll fit right in amongst the pinkos and the greens that will already be there.

After all,

'Nowadays the communists don't demonise the EU as a capitalist plot, they simply want to "remodel" it for the good of the workers.' - which is surely quite respectable Europolitical sentiment.

Add to this Sackur's vignette about aspiring Euro MP and expired porn star 'Dolly Buster', and we're ready to hear that

'in the absence of an informed debate on European issues the best way to rouse interest in this lacklustre campaign season is to provide novelty, human interest.
Some would call it opportunism. '-

At which point my antenna are twitching and I half expect to hear tell of Rob K.S. or Joan Collins.

But we end on a sober, if positive note. Sackur is clearly more impressed with the Euro Parliathingy than me when he says

'Being a player in the EU club can be challenging and rewarding, but rarely do MEPs or their constituents describe it as "fun". '

I suppose it's challenging for us and rewarding for the Euro MP's.

(Meanwhile more Reynolds- on the EuroParliathingy here)