Every political group has a leader within the European parliament, who represents the current position of the group as a whole. Among the leaders with the most exemplary record of attendance, with a rate of 90%, are Irish republican Brian Crowley, French conservative Francis Wurtz, French Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Italian Monica Frassoni of the greens, and British liberal Graham Watson.

At the other end of the scale, German socialist Martin Schulz, Italian republican Cristiana Muscardini and British nationalist Nigel Farage still have some serious catching up to do to improve their attendance levels (see also votewatch.eu). These attendance figures will be available to view from now on in the files of every MEP on the website europarl.europa.eu.

When he does attend, Nigel Farage certainly has something to say. Here in 2006 | (Video: ©ukipwebmaster/ Youtube)