Responding to my discussion of the European arrest warrant, I received the following e-mail from a somewhat regular Eurosceptic correspondent (reproduced in full, minus the writer's name):

"Your latest blog offering - European Arrest Warrant.

"You wrote:-

"'Without the European Union, fleeing to Rome might have been beneficial to Osman Hussain. But thankfully, we live in a world where there should be no hiding places for terrorists - especially not in our neighbouring European countries.'

"Mr Corbett. Are you being deliberately obtuse? Or is all this tosh merely wishful thinking?

"You know as well as I do that Osman Hussain won't be extradited from Italy for years.. if ever.

"So much for 'EU Co-operation'!!"

It's good to know that this blog is prompting discussion. My reply was as follows:

"Dear [name],

"Thank you for your e-mail.

"I think it is best to wait until due process has run its course before we judge whether Mr Hussain will be extradited. That is why I avoided speculating on that in my blog entry.

"In the meantime, I note that this seems to be the first time you have complained to me about a lack of EU co-operation. Surely you can't have it both ways?

"Either the European arrest warrant facilitates rapid extradition from one EU country to another, or it does not. If the scheme works, then Eurosceptics complain that it infringes our civil liberties (as in the Bruges Group piece I linked from my blog). But if it doesn't work, then Eurosceptics complain that European co-operation is not what it should be and we are powerless to extradite suspects quickly (as in your e-mail to me). These two complaints are mutually incompatible. Which is it to be?

"Best wishes, Richard"

Not one, not two, but three EU stories made the national headlines this morning. I wish I could be confident that the trend will continue, but sadly, it's more likely that the summer lull has temporarily reduced the availability of what the BBC usually sees as "proper" stories.

The first is tobacco advertising, which I discussed here; the second is vitamin supplements, which I discussed here (though it was most interesting to hear a spokesperson for the Alliance for Natural Health on the news this morning forced to retreat from the substance of the issue and fall back on the absurd myth that this is the EU forcing Britain to do something it doesn't want to do); and the third is the EU arrest warrant.

The arrest warrant is something that has gone the whole distance in the UK, from something dreadful that threatens to undermine our way of life (because, of course, it comes from Europe), through to an essential mechanism by which we can catch suspected terrorists and bring them to justice on home soil.

In 2002, the Telegraph published Frederick Forsyth's predictable insistence, in the best tradition of Eurosceptic hyperbole, that the new arrest warrant would "abolish habeas corpus, presumption of innocence, the Magna Carta and half of the Bill of Rights of 1689". Yet so great has been its transformation in the eyes of the public since then that the legal affairs editor of the very same Daily Telegraph was this morning explaining to Radio 4 listeners, in calm and measured tones, how the scheme will greatly speed the extradition of a terrorist suspect from Italy.

As he explained, the truth is simple and, until the Eurosceptics got hold of it, uncontroversial. Normal extradition proceedings between countries take years because the domestic courts must establish all kinds of basic facts about the foreign country that's requesting the extradition: whether its laws are compatible with the domestic country's laws, whether the suspect will get a fair trial, and so on. The arrest warrant is a recognition of the fact that EU countries already trust one another to provide such guarantees; in fact, the mutual acceptance of such basic principles is a cornerstone of the Union.

Without the European Union, fleeing to Rome might have been beneficial to Osman Hussain. But thankfully, we live in a world where there should be no hiding places for terrorists - especially not in our neighbouring European countries. Funnily enough, the eurosceptics have fallen silent on this now their rhetoric has been exposed.