British MP reads German poem in Tube station

January 18, 2006 Dr MacShane amused hundreds of commuters, tourists and passers-by with his rendition of Hans Magnus Enzensberger's ‘Optimistic Little Poem’ (‘Optimistisches Liedchen’), the BBC reports. Among his audience were the German ambassador Thomas Matussek and the French deputy ambassador Stephane Gompertz. The poem is among works chosen from all fourteen of Britain's EU partners. The poems will be displayed in original and translated versions on London Underground trains, and are available to commuters in free booklets during the eight-week campaign.

MacShane argued that the project was the best way to turn the European Union anniversary into something that would connect to the Brits. "The British people are the most poetical in the world - there are more amateur poets and historical poets living and working in Britain, and so we decided this would be a fun way of doing it. The alternatives were a big pompous speech or boring ceremonies - that really isn't our style. The EU has so many poets in it. The idea that we can lose our identity into one single Europe is a rather fatuous idea. Perhaps this will calm down the anti-Europe feeling in British politics," he told the BBC.

The inspiration behind the campaign came from Judith Chernaik, of the Poems on the Underground initiative. The project is funded with 20.000 pounds from the Foreign Office.