A NONENTITY AND AN UNKNOWN

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The 'election' of former-short-lived-Belgian-premier Herman van Rompuy as EU president and the never-elected-by-the-general-public-in-her-entire-life Baroness Kathy Ashton as EU foreign minister was the lead story on last night's Newsnight. The BBC was not shy of calling Mr Rompuy a 'nonentity', though it preferred the less pejorative term 'unknown' for the Labour placewoman. (They seem to have been very keen to have Blair, pushing this point at every opportunity) - as he would have been a charismatic projector of Europhile power). I have no great complaints about David Grossman's report, though I note that his only talking-head was a Europhile - Jacki Davis of the Brussels-based think-tank the European Policy Centre.
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The report was followed by a discussed chairpersoned by Gavin Esler with Nigel Farage of UKIP and Baroness (Joyce) Quin of the Labour Party.
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Esler put the first question about the noble baroness to the other noble baroness, and it was the question we're all asking (for example, see http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2009/11/democracy-eu-style-part-2.html) - though note that it was prefaced by praise for Kathy Ashton: "She's undoubtably a woman of qualities, but does it worry you that she's never been elected to any elected office, ever?" Joyce Quin's answer went uninterrupted.
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"Nigel Farage, whatever you think of today's appointments, it does not look as if we're on the way to a European superstate, does it?", Esler then asked. Nigel trenchantly noted that both appointments were 'political pygmies' and informed us that, when Baroness Ashton's appointment was announced, Gordon Brown couldn't even pronounce her name properly! (Because of his bad eyesight, maybe?). Unlike with Labour's Joyce Quin, Nigel Farage was soon interrupted by Gavin Esler (who had his arms folded and that sardonic expression he often puts on when interviewing right-wingers): "You're sort of making my point for me, this would not be the way you'd go to create a great power, wouldn't it?"
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The pattern was thus set. Baroness Quin's next two answers also went interrupted, and her final answer was only interrupted because time had run out - and even this was what I call an 'abortive interruption' because she got to finish both her sentence and her point. The ends of each of Nigel's remaining two answers, however, were both talked over by Gavin Esler!
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Whether asking Joyce Quin if these appointments (unlike that of Blair's) mean the EU will have a "very small voice" on the world stage or asking Nigel Farage whether they show that "this remains a union of sovereign states", all Esler's questions came from a Europhile perspective (though not an uncritical one).
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