MEPs On The Move: Madness Of 'Strasbourg Shift

Perception or reality; everything wrong with the EU is encapsulated in one word - 'Brussels'.

But how does 'Brussels' actually work? What does it do for the UK? Does it really impose its laws on us?
An attempt to answer those questions requires a journey five hours south of Brussels to the French city of Strasbourg.
Why? Because once a month, for just four days, the European Parliament moves city.
All 751 of its MEPs and everyone else who works at the European Parliament move offices and work from one city to another.
At a cost of £150m a year, the staff arrive in Strasbourg by train, plane and car. Their paperwork - crate loads of it - are driven down from Brussels in a fleet of lorries.
We watch the spectacle at Strasbourg station where a chartered train pulls in from Brussels. From there, it's a bus to the parliament.
Like its sibling in Brussels, the parliament building is vast and impressive. The number of tourists is striking.
The European Parliament has a cross-generational draw. Flocks of schoolchildren take selfies, elderly retirees stare at the glass fronted structure, a group of Czech teenagers sing. There's a real sense of a European patriotism.
"When we are together, we are strong... but we have to stay together." an elderly German tourist tells me.
The chamber inside is huge. There is a seat for each of the 751 MEPs. They sit, not according to nationality, but are grouped dependent on their political stance.
It is a forum of consensus and compromise. They debate and decide on proposals put to them by another EU institution - the executive arm - the European Commission.
Looking down at the chamber from the public gallery, a Parliament insider points out the diversity among MEPs: among them, a former Miss Italy, a convicted IRA bomber-turned politician, a champion poker player and a county cricketer from the West Midlands called Dan Dalton.