Daniel Hannan: The Fractious EU Getting the Nutty Norwegians' Nobel Peace Prize Is Both Risible and Satirical

He writes:

Like most people, I reacted to the news that the EU had won the Nobel Peace Prize with a shout of delighted mirth. In picking this moment – just as the euro brings national antagonisms to a new high – the committee members have revealed a sublime comic genius. It is 40 years since, hearing that the award had gone to Henry Kissinger, Tom Lehrer declared 'satire is now obsolete'. Not even Lehrer at his most fanciful would have imagined the committee passing over Irena Sendler, who had repeatedly risked her life to save children from the Warsaw Ghetto, in favour of Al Gore. None of his conceits was as bizarre as Barack Obama picking up the award before he had properly started his presidency (although that one turned out to be oddly apt: those hopey-changey early days were his high point). But this? This beats everything...

Apropos Tom Lehrer, this cheery dirge seems to be the appropriate song to revive in light of the EU's less than praiseworthy, which is to say utterly ineffective, efforts to deal with a bitchin', enrichin' Iran: