As regular readers will recall, I have written at some length about the bewildering complexity – and stunning simplicity – of the EU Budget process.

When all the feuding and whining subsides, it comes down to the banal fact that a few countries Give, and most countries Get.

Those who Get damn the reluctant Givers as meanies, and proclaim themselves to to be the true high-minded Europeans. They fulfil all the lofty moral attributes of angry beggars snarling at the selfishness of anyone who hands them anything less than a fiver. 

Here at European Voice the line-up for the next round of sordid haggling is explored.

But with rather more polite nomenclature.