How not to do it

Pathetic, really. The Independent reports:

Gordon Brown will travel to Lisbon tomorrow to sign the new European Union treaty but will miss the official signing ceremony.
... Mr Brown will be the only one of the 27 EU leaders not to be at the official ceremony at the historic Jeronimos Monastery in Lisbon. He will sign the treaty later.
His planned absence from Lisbon raised eyebrows in other EU capitals and at his own Foreign Office, provoking fears that it would be seen as anti-European. But aides insist that he always wanted to fulfil both engagements and had now found a way to do so.

Neither one thing nor the other. Discourteous to his Portugese hosts. What hope of future co-operation from his counterparts in Europe? The Prime Minister is being stupid.