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The real concern about Ashton

The appointment of Cathy Ashton prompted UKIP's Nigel Farage to say this:

Baroness Ashton is ideal for the role. She's never had a proper job, and never been elected to public office.

I don't agree with either of these criticisms.

It is not true that she has not had a proper job. She was head of Business in the Community, a highly successful and innovative charity for several years. And she was very good at it, incidentally.

And it is more revealing about Nigel Farage than about her that he doesn't regard that as a proper job.

It is true that she has never been elected to anything. But I don't regard that as a disqualification.

One of my concerns about the job, and reason for opposing the Lisbon treaty, is that politicians used to elected office would take a role to which they had not been elected, and which should be diplomatic rather than political, and turn into a political platform. 

My concern is different.

What makes Cathy Ashton's appointment "surprising" as she noted herself, is that she has little background in foreign policy.

She has, I suppose, been trade commissioner for a year. But aside from that, her one demonstration of interest in international affairs was as an employee and later Treasurer of CND.

I don't regard that as reassuring.

Do women make worse voters?

Think you’re pretty clued-up when it comes to voting on the issues?

Can you stand firm in the face of a candidate with a sparkle in his eyes and two tidy rows of pearly whites?

Not, according to a new Eurobarometer poll, if you’re a woman in Lithuana, where 52% of the fairer sex are influenced by the candidate’s charisma when it comes to voting.

The report - called, rather sternly, Women and European Parliamentary Elections - aims to examine 'womens’ attitudes and behaviour towards elections in general and their opinions about the European elections and activities of the European Parliament in particular.'

Across Europe, it finds, 41% of men vote on the issues compared to only 37% of women. Twenty-five per cent of women, on the other hand, cast their vote under the spell of a candidate's personality compared to only 21% of men.

This conclusion was reached by asking respondents the question “In general when you participate in elections, how do you decide whom to vote for?”

It's pretty obvious, of course, which response makes you look the cleverest. Could it just be that the women were less inclined to lie?

(Hat tip: The Croydonian)

How Susan Boyle lost twice

While reporting on the European election results, (and unearthing an excellent piece of footage in which Nick Griffin answers the sticky question of how to define ‘indigenous’ with a sage “you just look, you just know”), John Stewart happens upon the similarity between Brown and Boyle and asks: “How could she lose twice?!”

(Watch from around the 03:15 mark…)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2009 - Everywhere but Here Edition
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Newt Gingrich Unedited Interview

No sharp move to the left...

An interesting feature of last night's results was what didn't happen. There wasn't the sharp move to the left that you would anticipate following such a crisis of capitalism.

As Anatole Kaletsky explained in a brilliant recent Times columns, in difficult economic times voters tend to shift to the right. The appeal of prudence on public spending is increased as is fear of rising taxes.

Last night's results across Europe settle the debate about the impact of the banking crisis on the political mood.

Election results - best of the web's comment

• Matthew D’Ancona in Coffee House: The symptoms of a sickly political system
• Phil Hendren in Dizzy Thinks: Will the “protest vote” become a justification for further pro-EU integration?
• Bruno Waterfield in Telegraph Blogs: Europe’s elites deserve this EU election result
• The Croydonian: And people reckon the British Socialists have problems…
• Tim Montgomerie in Conservative Home: Labour are to blame for the rise of the BNP

Why the European Parliament is a belgian chocolate tart

Or: the BBC's step-by-step explanation of the EU...

The shape of the European Parliament to come

Wondering how the shape of the European Parliament will change after results are totted up on Sunday?

Predict09 sees it happening like this. The inner semi-circle shows parliament's current composition, while the outer predicts the shape of things to come.

By their calculations, the two biggest groups (European People's Party and the Socialist group) see their majorities shrink, while three of the smaller groups grow in influence. So, a more fragmented parliament.

The centre-right will remain stronger than the centre-left, and the number of anti-European and extreme right MEPs should stay roughly the same. But, because the overall size of parliament is shrinking (from 785 to 736 MEPs) they could end up with increased influence.

Watch this space...

Take the European elections quiz

Europrofiler is a short multiple-choice quiz to take before voting in the European elections. Here’s how it works...

They present you with a range of statements, you click on an answer ranging from ‘completely agree’ to ‘completely disagree’. They generate a graph plotting your position on the key issues and comparing it to the positions of the main parties.

Fascinating. Especially if your answers put you close to parties you hadn’t considered yourself affiliated to.

A useful European Election tool...

Le Monde has created a clever widget showing the results from the last European elections, country by voting country.  

Once the polls begin to close on this year's voting, the 2009 results will start to appear on this too. 

Scroll through the results using the top bar. You can change the display from bar-chart to pie-chart by clicking the circle in the top left.

Berlusconi's blunders: The list goes on

Silvio Berlusconi has done it again. While talking about the victims of the Abruzzo earthquake, he made the following statement:

"Of course, their current lodgings are a bit temporary. but they should see it like a weekend of camping".

This is not, of course, the first time that the Italian Prime Minister has put his foot on it. Just last week he managed to irritate the Queen during a photo call and miss out on the NATO bridge walk because he was busy on his mobile phone.

This is, after all, a man who once claimed that:

"I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I am a patient victim, I put up with everyone, I sacrifice myself for everyone."

But just occasionally, people have to put up with him too. Comment Central takes a look at some of the victims of Berlusconi's blunders.

1) The Italian Prime Minister is known to be susceptible to female charms. But he managed to insult an entire chunk of the nation's women during the last election when he made the following comment:

"The left has no taste, even when it comes to women".

2) Then there was the time Berlusconi leapt to the defence of Putin during a press conference. When a Russian reporter asked about rumours of an affair, Berlusconi mimed pointing a gun at her and pulling the trigger. In a country with limited freedom of the press, this did not go down well.

3) The Spanish Foreign Minister also suffered from Berlusconi's jesting at an EU meeting in 2002 when the Italian Prime Minister made a cuckold sign behind his back. He said he did it to entertain some children. Diplomatic circles were less amused.

4) Berlusconi's romantic spats have also gripped Italy. After he told a former model that, 'If I weren’t already married, I would marry you straight away,” his wife wrote a furious letter to La Republicca demanding an apology. They published it on the front page. She has barely appeared in public since.

5) And finally there's Obama. When Berlusconi's not heckling the new president during photo-calls, he's trampling over nuance in his statements. His congratulatory message after the election praised Obama as a 'handsome, young and also suntanned' man (not perhaps the best phrasing for the first black occupant of the White House).