Mr Stein told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that someone who was well would find it difficult to understand what it felt like to be told you were likely to paralysed for the rest of your life.

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If each faction chooses to push its own Islamist, modernist or Berber agenda, parliament will be paralysed, and the authorities will be able to play one off against the other.

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"The exchange rate obviously needs to be devalued but the government appears paralysed on that score, " said Roger Hawkins.

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Ten newcomers are about to join the club and, if the expanded Union is not to find itself paralysed, agreement must be reached on a new constitution.

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Mrs Pretty, who is paralysed from the neck down, has to be fed through a tube, and uses a computer attached to her wheelchair to communicate.

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She had to be fed through a tube, was doubly incontinent and was paralysed on her right hand side.

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Having solved the problem of urination, however, most of those paralysed by spinal-cord injury would like to be able to move again.

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Designing a truly adaptive brain-robot interface that allows paralysed patients to directly teach a robot to do something could be immensely helpful, liberating them from the need to use a mouse and keyboard or touchscreen, designed for more capable users.

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