Have you noticed how different the EU parliament works compared with the House of Commons? The EU parliament looks stilted with no real debate. MEPs like Farage and Hannan make rude remarks about von Rompuy and others to their faces but there never seems to be a reply. Perhaps it's because all I see are short clips taken from YouTube and posted on either UKIP's or Hannan's web/blog. Only on two occasions have I seen a response or perhaps some intervention, one by a Dutch or Belgian europhilic MEP and the other by Cohn Bendit who had accused UKIP of being fascists but of course who having been an extreme leftist or communist in his youth would know all about democracy in the modern or British sense. Presumably the EU parliament is based on some continental version. This is a great pity as I have never seen the chamber full. One based on the Mother of Parliaments would I feel give us a greater feel for the heart and lungs of the EU but as it is one just has the feeling that MEPs are merely going through the motions as they know the exercise is pointless - even being rude to the likes of von Rompuy, however satisfactory and amusing it is for those of us who watch the YouTube clips. As the EU parliament has virtually no powers I suppose it is not at all surprising that one should feel it is a total waste of time. Yet another reason for turning our back on the whole dangerous but outmoded and useless charade that is the EU.