Thanksgiving

A gold star for the BBC for not being on a complete downer about the Treaty of Rome anniversary, & coming up with a list of ten things the EU has done for you. And one which, furthermore, professes to transcend from the europhile-eurosceptic bickerings, and stick to the cold, hard incontestable facts. So not only is it positive - it's positive and neutral! Surely not. Anyway, I won't list them all here for you, but here are my top 3, in descending order. If you look closely you might notice a theme running through it.

3. Easy travel "In the old days, travellers in Europe had to put up with different currencies, regular border crossings and customs checks, and even trains of different gauges... Now one currency, the euro, suffices for most European countries and border posts have been abandoned between the 15 countries that have implemented the Schengen accords"

2. Cheap Flights "Between 1992 and 2000 prices at the cheaper end of the market fell by 40%. At the same time, consumers benefited from a wider choice of both carriers and destinations, the number of routes linking EU member states increasing by nearly 50%"

1. Foreign Study "Thousands of students take part in foreign exchanges ever year under the EU's Erasmus programme. The programme helps students learn foreign language, gain experience of another culture, and profit from the host country's expertise in their field of study."

No surprises then, that I'm primarily grateful to the EU because it's the reason I've been to 8 countries so far this year (9 if you count Luxembourg, but who counts Luxembourg) and most of them more than once, extremely cheaply and with a minimum of currency, passport & security hassle. Because it's the reason I'm able to to do this Erasmus lark. And of course, because it puts money in in my bank account every month for the pleasure of faffing around the Parliament.

Cheers, the EU. Have a good one.

We'll talk about the protectionism, eurojargon & democratic deficit when the party's over.