One great advantage Brian Cowen has over his predecessor David Andrews is his gift of mimicry. At Nice last weekend he hit the high notes on several occasions. Many world statesmen were targets, in particular Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac, whose habit of fiddling with his spectacles Cowen gets perfectly. Cowen can even, it is said, mimic a conversation.
At one stage in the chamber, our Minister for Foreign Affairs was heard to mutter, much to the amusement of several bored politicians, "will you hurry up, its nearly Christmas".
But the Taoiseach can be amusing too. After three and half hours of debate, 33J (if you must know, it was an attempt to impose EU majority voting on social partnerships) was finally defeated. "There will be dancing in the streets of Clara tonight about this," said Bertie Ahern.