Dr Julian Lewis: At the risk of adding another quotation to those already deployed, what does my hon. Friend [Bill Cash] make of the remarks of Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, who was quoted in The Times of 27 October? He referred to the European Commission as the "European government"? Asked to justify that term, he said:

"But what is the Commission? We are here to take binding decisions as an executive power. If you don't like the term government for this, what other term do you suggest? ... I speak of a European government because we take government decisions."