The most pathetic feature of the European Parliament is perhaps the one that hits you first. On the outside wall of one of the new Brussels tower blocks is a huge poster, perhaps 40ft high, with the message “Free Aung San Suu Kyi”. This is the forum of the greatest union of free nations the world has ever known: 27 countries, half a billion people. Here’s our message to the tinpot dictators of Burma. A poster! They do the same in students’ unions.

You are never far from absurdity inside either. In the huge media briefing hall, I glimpsed a woman apparently giving a press conference to an empty room. It turned out she was a Polish radio reporter who needed somewhere quiet to do her broadcast. She chose well: no one can remember the room ever being more than half full.