One has to hand it to Gordon Brown: fixing it for Baroness Ashton to become the new EU High Representative was pretty fancy footwork.
I’m sure Lady Ashton is a thoroughly decent person and was no doubt an outstanding chairman of Hertfordshire health authority. None of her life experiences thus far, however, would appear to render her over-qualified for the role of European foreign minister.
And that, of course, is the point. Lady Ashton will not be a foreign minister; she will, in effect, be a manager, seeking to coordinate the frequently mutually contradictory foreign policy of the 27 EU member states. It will, of course, be an impossible task.
Already, continental Eurocrats are complaining. Agence France Presse quotes an aggrieved European diplomat bemoaning:
“The British wanted to kill the post of High Representative. They have succeeded. This will set us back five years.”
The whole affair is redolent of the famous Yes Minister episode in which Humphrey patiently explains to the Minister precisely why Britain is in Europe:
“Britain has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last 500 years: to create a disunited Europe… Divide and rule, you see; why should we change now, when it’s worked so well?”
Plus ça change…
Oh I do hope you are right.