JOB WELL DONE, SIR:

Jim Dougal: Why I can no longer sell Europe to the British (Independent, 05 July 2004)

Last week I resigned from my job as Head of the European Commission in the United Kingdom, because convincing people in the UK to tolerate, let alone love, Europe, in present circumstances is an impossible task.

The bureaucracy in the Commission is stifling. The organisation has not yet come to terms with the fall of the Santer Commission five years ago. Staff are more interested in watching their backs than moving ahead. I came to the Commission as a former broadcaster with, I hope, a skill in communications. However I spent two years in London pushing paper around my desk, generally the same pieces of paper recirculated, dealing with rules which appeared more to impede communication than facilitate it. [...]

[I]t is not good enough for those who, for one reason or another, have failed to sell the European ideal, to blame this failure on the eurosceptic press and the Euromyth industry. Those who hate the very thought of any European integration have an open goal because nobody challenges them. The pro-European lobby must get out of its permanently defensive and reactive mode. It must have credible leaders and a credible voice.

A lost referendum and eventual withdrawal from the EU is now a possibility, by default.

Give the man a knighthood.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 6, 2004 12:08 AM