What our MEPs think about the EU and what it can do for us

In June next year, Jim Allister, Bairbre de Brun and Jim Nicholson will ask the electorate for five more years as a Member of the European Parliament for its most westerly and remote region.

Because the Ulster Unionists have held a European seat for decades and because Sinn Fein have topped the nationalist poll since the turn of the century, Mr Nicholson and Ms de Brun can feel relatively safe. Mr Allister, on the other hand, was voted in on a DUP ticket before walking out over policy. His stand on principle has reduced his chances of returning to Brussels.

One rule on which all three can rely is that their election will not be based on the effort they put in on behalf of their constituents in the European Parliament.

The nature of our politics is that the 2009 European elections will witness the same battles as its predecessors. Sinn Fein and the SDLP will claim to lead nationalism. The DUP will continue to warn unionist voters that only it — not the Ulster Unionists or Jim Allister — can stop the relentless rise of republicans.