Ignorance is bliss - by Richard... Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Ignorance is bliss - by Richard... Wednesday, November 11, 2009

On balance, it is much easier to write portentous leaders in a national paper when you don't know what you are talking about.

Thus does The Daily Telegraph leader offer its recipe for reforming the EU budget and reducing the fraud and mismanagement.

This is after the European Court of Auditors has published its annual report on the EU's £110 billion budget and, while noting some improvements in the management of funds, we learn that it has refused to sign off the accounts for the 15th year running.

But the leader-writer's idea of achieving "reform" is to have the new president making it his priority to encourage a root and branch overhaul of the EU's finances. It might, he as, "then be a job worth having".

The very slight problem, of course, is that the president of the European Council will not have any executive powers, and nor will the institution he will chair. The purpose of the European Council is to give "political direction" to the EU.

The man in the hot seat, when it comes to managing the finances, is the president of the EU commission – and we already have one of those. If he made it his priority to encourage a root and branch overhaul of the EU's finances, would his then be a job worth having? Or would it be better to get rid of the budget altogether?

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Howling in the night - by Richard... Tuesday, November 10, 2009

David Cameron, that is, according toSimon Heffer - when it comes to Europe

How long he [Cameron] can hold the meaningless new line remains to be seen. He must hope it will last until he has had his meeting with destiny – or, rather, the electorate – next spring, writes the earnest columnist.

Heffer suspects it will not be long after the treaty comes into force on December 1 that the full implications of it will become apparent to even the most casual observer, and with it the emptiness of Mr Cameron's promises. He does seem to make European policy without ever considering its consequences.

As Norman Lamont's boot boy, Mr Cameron had a ringside seat for the travails of John Major during the last civil war. He appears to have learned little from the exercise. Sir John encouraged false expectations and they were destroyed by the reality of the European project. Mr Cameron, even before he gets into power, risks making the same, corrosive mistake.

Perhaps when we all realise how much has been sacrificed for us in the name of European unity. Heffer adds, it will be easier for alleged sceptics like Mr Cameron to tell the truth.

One thing, though, is never in doubt. To pretend that Britain might one day dine à la carte from the menu of the Treaty of Lisbon would be just the latest grotesque deceit practised upon this country in the name of Europe.

The only thing Heffer is uncertain about is whether Cameron is "obtuse or simply dishonest." I suppose he could be both.

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Cowboys and Indians - by Richard...

You get the feeling that our military haven't quite got the measure of Afghanistan. See: Defence of the Realm.

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Leaderless - by Richard...

Divisions in the EU make it increasingly unlikely members will agree unanimously on the appointment of a Europe Council president and a high representative.

Thus are we informed by Reuters which records that Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has been consulting EU leaders, but unanimity has proved elusive. He is now mooting filling the posts by majority vote.

With the British candidates effectively out of the running, though, the parochial British media seems to have lost interest in the "contest" – especially as this blog's predicted winner, Luxembourg leader Jean-Claude Juncker, remains very much in the running.

You have to give it to the EU though, when it even manages to make the selection of its president boring.

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Brigadier Anthony Cowgill - by Richard...

Died on October 29 aged 93. He had a varied career as a soldier; as chief industrial engineer for Rolls-Royce; and providing high-level liaison between many of Britain's leading companies and government policy-makers. But his two most notable contributions – illuminating one of the most controversial episodes of the Second World War and explaining the "gobbledegook" of EU treaties.

Two weeks before he died, from a massive and sudden stroke, he rang me to tell me about a piece in the media about global warming. Amongst his many attributes, he was very "sound" on this issue as well. While we were talking, I took the opportunity to ask him about his experiences in India, and he recounted that, as India prepared for Independence in 1947, he had been seconded to the Partition Commission, organising the separation of the country's armed forces between India and Pakistan

After that, he was assigned to the new Pakistani army. This led to what he described as the most worrying moment of his life. Returning to his Lahore headquarters one day he found himself, in British Army uniform, the only white man on a train overrun by thousands of armed Pathan tribesmen bent on seizing Kashmir. Sure his last hour had come, he was highly relieved when, addressing him as "sahib", they treated him instead with friendly respect.

That story found its way into Booker's obituary of the great man in The Daily Telegraph. They don't make them like that any more. He will be missed.