...only our British Colleagues in the European Parliament seem to enjoy themselves in using the email system for extensive conversation in funny ways and, with language and comparisons which are sometimes more then obscure for a German mind.

The vote on housing census was one of those topics where the email system got bogged down by our friends from the island. I read many of their remarks but I must admit I got lost! How would you read the following two comments?

"funny though, LORD Digby Jones, one of Labours GOATS said the same thing as Godfrey Bloom did THREE YEARS AGO. WHY DO we seem to be ahead of the game all the time?"

"Would your UKIP MEP colleague who advised women to stay at home and clean behind the refrigerator agree?"

What was this all about? A vote foreseen in the European Parliament, Tuesday Feb 19th 2008. The vote on the "Population and Housing Census" obviously included highly insensitive questions, like "Women's first Concensual Union", and subsequent acts of consensual union!

One question obviously asked women about the date of their first sexual act, and of subsequent acts. "It is despicable. It is nothing less than voyeurism and I explained my anger to the house on December 10th, for I had spoken against this question in committee on Nov 22nd 2007 when the Commission representative acknowledged my anger, agreed it was an "insensitive question" and promised to delete it from the text. It has reappeared in amendment 39, with a parallel question in Amendment 40 asking about same sex relationships, in spite of the rapporteur's efforts to delete them."