Only (re) Connect!

As EM Forster wrote in Howards End is a fundamental requirement of humanity. Which is why the European Unipon is constantly going on about reconnection.

The latest version ofthis can be found in a paper launched today by the Foriegn Policy Centre. and supported by the European Commission Office in the UK.

Reconnecting the European Parliament and its People

is its title, which is a slightly hubristic phrase given the findings of the study. The Parliament might believe that we are its people, but that belief is not reciprocal.

To be fair to the paper it does recognise that its title is a little bit high falutin,

"When has the European Parliament ever been connected to the people?”

An oft-heard refrain from our four public seminars

What the paper makes clear is that essentially, nobody inthe UK gives two hoots about the European Parliament.

Only 31% of respondents could remember a positive news story about the European Parliament or MEPs since the June 2009 elections, but 61% of respondents could remember a negative news story.

And don't think that the survey was of a representative sample. Not a bit of it, it was a very politically engaged crowd indeed.

MEPs have a serious problem on their hands.