The news over the last few days seems to have been dominated by the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as the new president of the European Commission, and David Cameron’s unsuccessful attempt to thwart his appointment. Putting aside the issue of whether Juncker is a suitable person for the role or not, Cameron’s naked politicking brought to mind the Yes Minister Christmas special “Party Games”. Though not exactly the same, there are enough similarities to provide the excuse I need to share some clips.
The episode is set up by Hacker discussing European plans to standardise the sausage:
After convincing the EEC to allow Britain to keep the name “British sausage”, Hacker decides to boost his popularity by first pretending the sausage issue is still live and then giving an impassioned speech railing against European regulations:
What’s this got to do with Cameron? Not a lot, but I do question his sincerity in opposing Juncker. ISTM he was looking for a fight to pick with the EU and decided this was his moment. He could have entered this fight 6 months ago when the process for choosing the next Commission president was being decided, but it seems to have been agreed without much fuss. It looks like he just did it to appeal to his party and a certain section of the electorate. Some polls taken over the weekend seem to show his opposition to Juncker may indeed have been popular with the public, but given he failed in his bid to stop his appointment, I’m not sure he’ll get much lasting credit, and it’s pissed off a lot of people in Europe which might impact on his stated desire to secure important reforms to the way the EU is run.
BTW, the whole episode of Party Games is also on Youtube. If you haven’t seen it before, watch it here. It’s a joy:
alittleecon 