In other news

AFP reports that President Klaus, the last bastion of democracy in the European Union, will not drop his objections to the Lisbon Constitutional Treaty.

I explained that I fear, and I am not the only person to fear, a deepening of European Union integration," he said after talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

"For me it is something of vital importance. In my opinion, the conditions that I have made for signing the agreement are serious and the idea that I can forget what I have said is not well-founded.

Those of us who want a referendum - which I think is roughly the same as saying 'Those of us who don't want to be part of a federal Europe' are lucky to at least have someone to help stall until we in Britain have a General Election and kick out Brown. Or, of course, until Cameron grows a pair and says he will hold a referendum on Lisbon no matter what. Because that, of course, would be providing much needed armour to President Klaus who right now is doing a rather good impression of Britain in 1939.

His comments came the day after European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso told the Czech president -- who has become the last major obstacle to the long-awaited reform treaty's entry into force -- to quit stalling on the issue.

Quit stalling? Has the man with the unnaturally dark hair taken on a minor position in an American SitCom?

Barroso said Tuesday: "We expect the Czech Republic to honour the commitment it has taken. It is in the interests of nobody, least of all the interests of the Czech Republic, to delay matters further.

Hey - we expected Gordon Brown to honour his commitment but he bent us all over and laughed whilst he did it.

It's in the interests of democracy, you freakish hater of humanity, that the Czech Republic delays matters further. It's in the interest of the millions of voters in the UK who were denied what they were promised that we get a chance to have our say. It's in the interests of everyone under 50 that we get an opportunity to vote on the future of our country and debate exactly who we want to govern us.

It goes right to the heart of everything that is wrong with this European Union, so ably represented by the man that is Barroso.

How fitting is it that Tony Blair is the main man to take the position of President of the European Council - the man who could boldly talk about Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq being able to be deployed in 45 minutes knowing that Hans Blix had concluded nothing of the sort and in fact said that Saddam Hussein was complying with the weapons inspectors. The man who sent troops to this war without the required provisions because he joined the table too late and made a rash decision.

Still, it's quite convenient if they're all in the same building a lot, I suppose.