Simon Hix’s determination and steadfastness deserve our admiration. For close on ten years now, he has sustained, contrary to accepted thinking, his demonstration that the European Union is not as unique as is claimed and that the democratic deficit it suffers, real though it be, is not inescapable. Having designed, then conducted a vast research programme on the political leanings of European elected representatives, he proposes to demonstrate that the politicisation formulae we are familiar with – those of our national partis an systems – are also at work in the Union, and more specifically in its Parliament.