Sunday, December 05, 2004
Keith Vaz and Europe
European debate should focus on three-point reform agenda from the Scotsman has some thoughts on Europe and the recent comments by Denis MacShane, current minister for Europe.
Vaz and Peter Hain's difficulties with the post are given some room, with this on our Keith:
For instance, the job involves many junkets to Brussels, inviting the incumbent to go native. Thus did Keith Vaz turn overnight from eurosceptic to Brussels partisan. His subsequent fall from grace had a lot to do with his entanglement in the affair of the Hinduja brothers, but it also reflected the extreme ire of the Chancellor of the Exchequer that a junior Foreign Office minister had presumed to make EU policy, and the wrong policy to boot.
MacShane's comments, given at a university, are interesting, The Scotsman sees them as being something of a breath of fresh air.
I wonder sometimes how much of an effect Vaz's entanglement with Europe would impact on Leicester East in a Euro referendum. It's still something bandied about fairly regularly, it's what non-constituents remember Vaz for (is being well known for all the wrong reasons better than being unknown?), will it ever be forgotten?
Vaz and Peter Hain's difficulties with the post are given some room, with this on our Keith:
For instance, the job involves many junkets to Brussels, inviting the incumbent to go native. Thus did Keith Vaz turn overnight from eurosceptic to Brussels partisan. His subsequent fall from grace had a lot to do with his entanglement in the affair of the Hinduja brothers, but it also reflected the extreme ire of the Chancellor of the Exchequer that a junior Foreign Office minister had presumed to make EU policy, and the wrong policy to boot.
MacShane's comments, given at a university, are interesting, The Scotsman sees them as being something of a breath of fresh air.
I wonder sometimes how much of an effect Vaz's entanglement with Europe would impact on Leicester East in a Euro referendum. It's still something bandied about fairly regularly, it's what non-constituents remember Vaz for (is being well known for all the wrong reasons better than being unknown?), will it ever be forgotten?
