A YouGov poll commissioned by the Daily Telegraph and published on the eve of the accession of 10 new members showed, perhaps not so surprisingly, that only 36 per cent of Britons believe the country's membership of the EU is "a good thing".
On the European constitution, on which Mr Blair has promised a referendum, the poll found that "76 per cent knew little or nothing about it. A further 4 per cent did not know whether they knew anything about it. Despite that," the Telegraph continued, "a big majority believed that it offered few or no benefits and was likely to work against Britain's interests."
Enlargement of the Union was however a good thing, the Telegraph thought, its front page headline on the following day addressing to the new members a "Welcome back to the free family of Europe". Inside Ambrose Evans-Pritchard explained what was particularly good about it: "The era when France and Germany could impose their will on the European Union is at an end." The central Europeans," Evans-Pritchard thought, "instinctively look to America as a benign force in world affairs" and "will not easily yield to dictates from a distant bureaucracy in Brussels so soon after liberation from Moscow".
Yet in spite of the new members' admirable pro-Americanism, not everything in the central European garden was rosy: in Slovakia, Evans-Pritchard told us, the average bribe for a judge was £175 and "for years to come the EU's energies will be spent digesting these dysfunctional states". Some problems up ahead then for that distant bureaucracy in Brussels.
The tabloids were less concerned with the direction of Europe and more with the imminent invasion of job or dole seekers, 10,000 of whom were expected to arrive in Britain this very weekend. "Many flights have been booked up for days with low price fares into Stansted from throughout Europe on Sunday and Monday expected to be particularly busy. The influx will mean hold-ups for other travellers heading for a bank holiday break," the Daily Mail warned.
The Daily Express's Pádraic Flanagan reported that "Eurocrats have spent millions of pounds of taxpayers' money urging jobless east Europeans to head for Britain. EU chiefs have opened offices in the 10 new member-states to advise locals on how best to take advantage of the gravy train after May 1."
An "immigration source" told the Express he was expecting total chaos at the Channel ferry ports: "We will get all the criminals coming here and it will be a new hunting ground." Over in The Sun it "emerged" that "East European vice girls are set to join the march into Britain. Busloads are expected to flee their homelands to boost their earnings with wealthier Western European clients. However the UN has warned that some of the girls planning to cash in on the sex trade are HIV positive."
A police spokesman in Tallinn, Estonia told The Sun it was "certainly possible" that many of these girls would go to the UK. Described as a "Warsaw hooker", Christa Latta was more definite: "It's lottery time for the girls from the East because they can earn in a night what they get in a week in Poland."
Meanwhile, The Scotsman reported the findings of a poll on the level of awareness in Britain of Europe, old and new. The poll, conducted by the telecoms provider One-Tel, "found that the British population is so baffled by political Europe that about one in 10 believe a fictitious country is about to join the European Union. The online poll asked people to select the countries they believe are set to join the EU on 1 May from a shortlist.
But the list of countries contained a red herring, Luvania, which not only did 8 per cent of people think was a country, but also that it is to become an EU member." Carol Barnes, a spokeswoman for One-Tel, said: "We don't believe the actual countries that are joining have been particularly well represented, and the UK public has not been particularly well educated on it."