Madam, - If Michael Parsons (Opinion, July 7th) has trouble understanding political groups in the European Parliament, maybe he should practise on the current Dáil, which has twice as many.
If he thinks the parliament is too big, he should reflect that the Dáil has 26 times as many members relative to the population it represents. And if he feels it has too many staff, perhaps he should consider that most of them work on producing European legislation in all the necessary languages and with regard to all the special treaty provisions for the individual member-states. This task will not go away - unless, of course, one thinks there should be no European legislation. I believe the motto, "Make law, not war", sums up our options in that regard.
As to pomposity: I have to deal with Austrian politicians at all levels from local to European, and I'd say the MEPs score highest on accessibility and on ability to give a normal answer to a normal question, and lowest on bling, oompah and bluster. Maybe that's different in Ireland. - Yours, etc,
BEN HEMMENS,
Graz,
Austria.