Poor little mousey

EU President, Herman Van Rompuy, isn't exactly the most charismatic of figures on the world stage. He's famously shy and has been nicknamed "the Grey Mouse". Ahhhhhh: isn't that just sweet? A little mousey. Lovely.

So why on earth did we vote for him? Oh no, wait, we didn't, did we?

He was chosen unanimously by the governments of the EU's member states to be the first permanent European Council president.

The same governments that fiddled or - like the UK - even prevented the various referendums that would have been our only chance to stop the Lisbon Treaty that created his new role.

So, now we've got him, like it or not. Unelected, but 'appointed'. At least he matches our own unelected Prime Minister, in both charisma and votes won. They're two of a kind, really.

Nigel Farage, former leader of UKIP, definitely does not like it, and yesterday he shared his views with the world.

Even though he and his party are vehemently anti-EU, Farage has managed to get himself elected as an MEP, so he is perfectly entitled to go to Brussels, get up on his hind legs and tell us exactly what he thinks of the whole tedious, statist charade.

Nige' started with that most British of disclaimers, "I don't want to be rude but..", and then proceeded to be lavishly, extravagantly rude to the poor little mouse.

As strong men blanched, and women fainted clean away, Farage informed Van Rompuy that he

"..possessed all the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low-grade bank clerk".

But the problem is, he's not a low-grade bank clerk. He's King of the EU. We've been told so. Farage continued:

"We were told that when we had a president, we'd see a giant global political figure, a man who would be the political leader for 500 million people, the man that would represent all of us all of us on the world stage, the man whose job was so important that of course you're paid more than President Obama."

True. Remember when we though it might have been Tony B-Liar in the hot seat? How worried we were, and how unjust a reward that would have been for that slippery bastard.

"Well, I'm afraid what we got was you... the question I want to ask is: who are you? - I'd never heard of you, nobody in Europe had ever heard of you."

Beyond the insults, Farage is worried that this man is not as harmless as he might look:

"I have no doubt that your intention is to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and of European nation states," he said. You seem to have a loathing for the very concept of the existence of nation states."

Yup. That's what the EU's all about, as Nigel knows. And that's what we should all be worried about.

But what a shame that this pointed, accurate criticism comes from a man from a fringe party, with an repuation for being, as the BBC put it, 'outspoken'. A bit of a nutter, in other words.

What a pity it wasn't Dan 'the Man' Hannan or even better, CallMeDave himself, saying such things.

Now that would have been a reason to vote Conservative.

.

8 comments:

patently said...

What a pity that the decent point that Farage made was so deeply buried within a stream of bile and personal attacks that everyone was able to ignore it.

Idiot.

David said...

Have to say the whole thing leaves me with a great feeling of 'meh'. The French have the perfect word for it, bof.

Farage is a twat and can't exactly criticise anyone else's wages. His party's candidates have been fiddling their expenses to a shocking state, to the extent that they got jail time for it. They're obviously not THAT against the EU gravy train.

hunkofjunk said...

What an outstanding bloke. It's wonderful that no matter how big or bad the crisis, the national DNA pool throws up an individual who's time has come. I'm just loving this and even if it makes no difference at all to the bowl of sick that is the EU at least it's brightened my day. I'm linking straight to my blog for my three readers to share the joy.

Uncle Marvo said...

Who gives a fuck?

I don't recognise the authority of the EU. I was born English (or British if you prefer - I don't) and if some traitorous band of self-serving goatfelchers have decided to sell themselves down the EU river, they can count me out.

I voted NON.

Anyhow, I thought this bloke was a Belgian. The Belgians didn't even have a government of their own last time I was there, and funnily enough the place was ticking over as usual.

Uncle Marvo said...

Hunk of Junk:

4 readers now.

I've put your site on my blog too, so it may even go up to 6 by the end of the day.

Fucking brilliant, the one with the penguin.

Umbongo said...

"Now that would have been a reason to vote Conservative"

The only reason to vote Conservative is to get rid of Brown. If the Conservatives do form the next government you won't notice the difference. For instance, on BBC Radio 4 Today Osborne - in an interview where he skated round his economic policy and (more or less) confirmed that the necessary cuts will be made later rather than sooner - couldn't forbear to spout populist abuse of the banks and imply that the Conservatives would implement the Robin Hood tax (if everybody else did). You know, even Darling disagrees with and stands up to Gordon occasionally: would it be too much to expect Osborne to do the same?

Hunkofjunk said...

Uncle Marvo

Thanks! Fvck me, I feel like I've arrived now; that feeling when you let your little kid play with the big kids for the first time.

Have reciprocated.

Simon M said...

Go Nigel - tell it like it is!

And hunkofjunk, Mental Crumble has another follower..