Alex Massie Alex Massie

Backroom Deals in Brussels Are No Big Deal

It’s always heads they win, tails you lose with the euro-sceptics isn’t it? For instance, they were adamant that they didn’t want a high-profile figure such as Tony Blair to become President of the EU Council. No Big Beasts please, we’re British! Now it turns-out that they’re equally disappointed that an unknown Belgian and a scarcely-known Briton have become President and EU High Representative respectively. There’s no pleasing some people…

All this reflects the euro-sceptics belief that nothing that happens in Brussels can’t be spun to their advantage. Sure, as Iain Martin says, perhaps the elevation of this pair of nonentities is “a decision so bizarre that satire is temporarily rendered redundant” and, sure, many Spectator readers are unhappy that neither has been elected to their new positions or, in the case of Baroness Ashton, ever been elected to anything. But, since the posts exist, what’s the alternative? Direct elections? That would, obviously, make the holders of each post vastly more powerful figures.

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