Where is the Baroness?

Back in October there was a great hoo haa about the appointment of the cipher, Baroness Ashton to take up the role of Britain's EU Commissioner. Was she up to the job? Could she defend Britain's interest? Did she have any experience (better than an undergraduate economics degree) in global trade and so on?

So how has she performed in her first 50 odd days?

Well looking at her website we see a great raft of activities.

Yes the most recent post on her front page is the 20th October when she was soaped by the Parliamentary hearing.

Digging a bit deeper we see that she has indeed done a couple of things since then.

She was a conference in Brussels on the 28th October

Then she spoke to a bunch of Russian industrialists in Cannes on the 13th November (This meeting will have been organised when everybody thought that Mandelson was still the Commissioner.

"Peter where do you want to meet up with some Russian industrialists?"
"Oh I don't know, shall we go to Corfu?"
"No Peter that was your summer holiday, and it has to take place in France, they do hold the Presidency you know".
"Well I guess it will have to be Cannes then, after all how am I going to get invited on their yachts if we do it inland?"

(I wonder if she went on any of their yachts? God they must be missing Peter).

Next up is an article for the Wall Street Journal on the 22nd November - written no doubt by a member of her Cabinet.

Hot foot from that tiring engagement she issued a joint communiqué to the ACP in Abidjan on the 26th November, countries with Louis 'le Gob' Michel but decided not to deliver it in person,

She visited Paris on the 27th November

And finally she turned up here in the Parliament to talk to the Trade Committee on December the second. (A key promise at her 20th October hearing).

And for this we pay her tens of thousands of pounds a month?

Better still is the media activities of DG Trade. It appears that she is making some brief comments to the press other press releases are being made by her spokesman Peter Power. Now I know that spokesmen are often quoted in the Press, but it is very weird indeed for the press release to be from the monkey rather than the organ grinder.

Where is she, and what is she doing?