May 3rd is the day on which Poles celebrate the anniversary of their 1791 constitution, which is considered by some (mostly Poles) the most progressive in Europe of its day. Only the American constitution beats it, the national mythology goes. It did not liberate the peasants but it did take on some of the worst abuses of serfdom. The anniversary is celebrated with pomp and splendour. There are parades and speeches, buildings are bedecked with proudly flapping red and white standards of the Polish Republic, sitting on park benches around the country are old boys in their uniforms with the square caps…

So what a pity it was that Strasbourg chose yesterday, May 3rd, 216th anniversary of Europe’s most progressive constitution, to state the bleeding obvious: Lech Kaczyński acted illegally when he banned the “Equality Parade” in Warsaw in 2005. Freedom of expression is particularly important to the functioning of democracy, those eurofascists in Strasbourg said. 216 years is a long time to spend learning this elementary lesson but Kaczyński is a trained lawyer so no doubt he will have grasped the essence of the matter by now.