23 October 2007

Dancing in the passerelle

Ann Treneman on the Prime Minister's Europe statement yesterday:
Plus he has secured opt-ins and, when there aren’t opt-ins, he has managed to get some opt-outs. He is proud to call this the Hokey-Cokey Treaty for, as Mr Brown sang: “I put the opt-in in, I put the opt-out out, In, out, in, out, Shake it all about. I did the hokey-cokey and I turned it around That’s what it’s all about!” OK, so those weren’t his exact words but they were pretty close. I think Mr Brown might be a secret dancer, you know. As he told us about the hokey-cokey, his feet were shuffling away, treading over his papers that had escaped from his trembling hands. Nor did his argument stop there. In addition to footnotes and protocols and the hokey-cokey, Mr Brown says the nontreaty has a passerelle. This, too, sounded like a dance or, possibly, a poncey sort of casserole. But, apparently, it’s a viaduct in Luxembourg as well as being something that allows Britain to move from unanimity to QMV (qualified majority voting) without a change to the treaty.

Don't you feel better now?

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