Browsing through a new publication of the European Parliament's information office for the UK in London entitled "What are your MEPs doing about the environment?" I notice that there are no fewer than 13 British MEPs on the European Parliament's committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. Yet there is not a single member from UKIP!

This committee probably deals with more European legislation than any other - and rightly so. The environment is one of the areas where it makes absolute sense to have common laws and standards across Europe; pollution does not respect national borders and it would be next to useless for countries to try to address these problems on their own.

Yet UKIP has chosen not to place even a single MEP on this committee. Is this because they're work shy? After all, and they haven't taken up their full allowance of places across the board, and this isn't the only committee they ignore. Or is it because they don't want to be seen to be doing anything constructive in terms of European legislation, preferring to shout general obscenities from the sidelines rather than actually get to grips with the detail?