EU’s moved on from giant turtles

SO, TO the political earthquake of last week, then. My father was in the first intake of directly elected Euro MPs in 1979 and has always led a colourful life (he once stormed a G8 summit costumed as a turtle).

But this new lot make him look almost beige, and perhaps prove that most politicians are elected by good people who don’t vote. Of late, there’s been an easing of the rules that insisted you needed a certain percentage of the vote to claim a seat, so lo, as of last week, Europe has elected several neo-Nazis, a 91-year-old communist Greek war hero, an Italian called Mussolini, a Dane called Messerschmidt with firmly Right-wing views, and a Swedish woman from the Feminist Party, which is nice (the feminist, I mean).

All the European Parliament lacks is a seat for Austrian bearded songbird Conchita Wurst to achieve its full quota of glorious diversity.