"He takes the view that the debate in the Republic has polarised between the mainstream parties on one side, the slightly constitutional Sinn Fein and what he calls the disreputable right … He takes issue with Michael McLaughlin's view that the EU is a product of compromise between to great blocks of European opinion, arguing that beyond those two, there is a growing opinion, not least in the accession countries which holds in opposition to "EU federalism and renewed respect for subsidiarity". the second of Slugger's Lisbon Essays, Michael McLaughlin described the EU as a compromise between the forces of Christian Democracy and Social Democracy."