Cheeky Simon Carr, a sketch-writer for the Independent, accuses MEPs of being a waste of space. In particular, he seems to think that MEPs are unable to do any legislative work! I wrote him a reply, with no particular hopes of its being published.

But I later learned that the European Parliament office in London had also written as follows:

“Simon Carr (Sketch, 10 February) does not appear to know the difference between an elected parliamentarian and an appointed functionary, or 'official' as we call them in English. Insulting MEPs just compounds his error.

“Of course MEPs amend and indeed sometimes reject legislation; that is partly what they are for. And MEPs have other functions - remember the fates of Mr Buttiglione and Mr Santer?

“MEPs take decisions on all sorts of things that affect the citizen: the EU budget, legislation on the environment and on the internal market, to name just a few.

“Time to visit Strasbourg? Be our guest, Mr Carr.

“Yours functionally…”