The Boundless arrogance of Brussels.

Fraser Nelson has got his bit in on the Coffee House, but here is my Tuppen'th.

It is the way they tell'em that cracks us up. If you were going to offer a massive great bribe then you have to ask how you would do it. This of course is a thought experiment, I wouldn't expect anybody to even contemplate such a thing in reality. Anyhow, how would you do it.
Would you quietly make the proposal hugger mugger, or maybe ask for somebody else to do it for you, a go-between, somebody that you both trust?
Or would you set you terms for the bribe in an incoherent couple of hundred words in a national Sunday Newspaper?
That the EU Commission President Barroso in offering David Cameron a 25 billion Euro bribe in this week's Sunday Times tells a number of stories.
The first is to shine a bright light on the arrogance of the European Union elite. The feeling that in some he would bounce the UK into accepting a significant increase in the EU budget. To do this he would appeal over the heads of the UK politicians directly to the public - no doubt bizarrely thinking that the British public are;

a) More pro European than their politicians

or

b) More stupid than their politicians.
Sadly for Mr Barroso he and his advisor are transparently out of touch and disconnected with the British public who are

a) Significantly more Eurosceptic.

and

b) Not as stupid as their politicians.

He must have calculated that the public would rise up against the Government and demand the cash on offer. The point is of course that he is trying to bribe us with our own money. After all where does he think it is going to come from except the taxpayer. We are not that daft.

He also tried to sugar the pill by suggesting that the money would become available to the UK just before the next slated general election, allowing Cameron to go on a vote winning spending spree. So far the Treasury have rejected the offer, as Barroso always knew they would. But that great pile of cash will look increasingly tempting as the austerity measures start to bite and as public sector workers continue to strike.