An interesting piece caught my eye the other day, asserting that politics was dead in the Irish Republic. The Irish parliament, wrote Vincent Cooper, was now "little more than a rubber stamp for the Troika, the generic name for the European Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Union, the three powers to which the country is in hock".

What makes this thesis intriguing is that it could just as easily apply to the UK – and virtually every other country in Europe (and elsewhere). Ireland is not the only country that is seeing the powers of its parliament atrophy.

On the other hand, the piece also serves as a launch pad for a further dissertation. We can take Cooper's basic premise, that power had been sucked from his country's parliament by a trio of international bodies, but then ourselves assert that far more than three organisations are involved. Cooper is only addressing economic issues, and the problem is far more widespread than that.

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Can someone help me with the pronunciation of that fascinating, not to say revelatory word "diqule"?

I imagine the first syllable might be pronounced variously as dih, dee or die.
The second syllable might be kyool, cool or kuhl.

Dee-kyool? Die-cool?

Until help arrives, I must continue to pronounce it "Ermintrude".

Er, I'll be in the library, with a glass of brandy and a revolver...

I tend towards dick-kuhl.

A major argument put forward by the pro-EU parties is that Europe will be a more powerful power bloc if it comes together. Assuming, arguendo, that this is true, and that the EU will not turn into a sclerotic dictatorial bureaucracy, I think it is important to examine WHO will actually have the power.

At the moment we in the UK live in a poor shadow of a former democracy. Each of our votes counts for about 1 in 60 thousand - a typical constituency size. If we were to vote at country level, each vote would be worth about 1 in 60 million. A thousand times less. If we were to vote at EU level we are talking approximately 1 in 600 million - effectively, no vote at all. The chance of winning the top prize in the UK lottery is about 1 in 14 million.

So it seems to me that merging all the European countries into one might give the President, or someone in the ruling elite, a great deal of power (assuming the process works as planned) - but would achieve this by dropping the practical levels of individual voter power to around one 10 thousandth of their current value. In other words, this is a plan to concentrate Europe's power in the hands of an elite, and take it away from the people.

Remind me again why 'being in the EU' will make ME more powerful? As far as the maths goes, it will diminish my power very considerably....