Van Rompuy's chief visier pours scorn on Hungary

Richard Corbett, the former dire, bean-counting Labour MEP has slated the Hungarian Presidency in the current edition of European Voice (£),

I was curious to read your special report on the “Hungarian Presidency of the EU” (16 December 2010-5 January 2011). There is, of course, no such thing!
Hungary merely chairs one of the EU institutions, not the EU as a whole. You (and others) may wish to elevate the Council (and its president) above all the others, but I dare say that the presidents of the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament may have other views.
The rotating presidency of the Council was always an over-rated function. It is short-term, without executive powers, and inherits a pre-set agenda. Since the Lisbon treaty, its prime minister no longer chairs the European Council, its foreign minister no longer speaks for the EU on the world stage, nor even chairs the foreign-affairs configuration of the Council.
Special supplements about new member states are welcome, but do not imply that they are suddenly in charge!

Van Rompuy's website lists Corbett's responsibilities as,

Institutional Issues
Relations with the European Parliament and the National Parliaments
Relations with the Committee of Regions and the Economic and Social Committee

Which carries the suggestion that he should now a little bit about diplomacy. Obviously not. I initially wondered if he was a tad tired and emotional when he wrote the above.

I mean is this an official statement from Van Rompuy's office to the Hungarian Presidency? And if so I was the speaker of the Hungarian Országház I would be demanding his head on a plate.

However that being said, and despite the mean spirited way in which he says it I cannot believe he was really drunk, and I do believe that he is representing his master's voice. He can hardly suggest that he isn't acting in an official capacity after all. And what he says isn't in itself inaccurate, just nasty. And if anybody knows the dark corners of institutional wrangling it is Corbett.

Van Rompuy, as a Belgian, has a hatred of functional nation states. The Council of Ministers of which Hungary now holds the Presidency is a thorn in the side of the federalists who he represents and his contempt for national interest and the approach that encapsulates the actions of democratic nation states brings him out in hives.

He really is a scum sucker

That'll be Richard Corbett, First he whinges that the Ashley Mote trial is not attacking UKIP enough,

"It was disappointing to see that elements of the press chose to cover the story without mentioning that Mote was elected as UKIP and spends most of his time hypocritically denouncing the EU as corrupt. Instead, Eurosceptic newspapers turned a story about an opponent of the EU into an anti-EU story, with headlines such as "£70,000 MEP con" and "MEP fleeces taxpayers".

Thus desperately trying to tar all the UKIP MEPs with the brush of Mr Mote's alleged corruption. Then he has the brass neck to say,

"Let's hope that Mr Mote's case is swiftly resolved and that other MEPs are not tarred by his brush".

Of course he wouldn't want to be tarred with that sort of brush at all would he, particularly since he deliberately and publicly broke the Parliamentary rules about using the premises for personal pecuniary gain only last month.

Four legs good, Two legs bad

Richard Corbett is, well how do I put this, a dull greying figure who has spent his life chasing through the intricacies of the Co-Decision procedures, the Comitology procedures, indeed the Parliament's rules of procedure.

He is also fanatically opposed to UKIP, running countless stories on his UKIP Watch blog and his own blog. Any failing, real or perceived by any UKIP member big or small is grist to his mill.

So it brings me great pleasure to out the wretched, dry-boned, Antwerp-dwelling, faux Yorkshireman for what he is a stinking, money-grubbing hypocrite.

You see the picture up there, it is our Richard and two of his chums, two very senior Parliamentary officials. The poster is an ad for their new book,

It came with this email,

"Dear All,

Tomorrow will be the launch of the 7th Edition of "The European Parliament". There will be a book signing by the authors next to the Forum Bar between 11am and 3pm and copies of the book will be on
sale.

Best Wishes,

Office of Richard Corbett MEP
Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and the Humber

The point is, and this is a point that Mr Corbett is well aware that any exhibition organised in the parliament is governed by ComArt rules. These rules forbid the sale of articles in the Parliament.
He is flogging the book hard - the entire Parliament has been spammed three times about his precious book (I must point out that the book is an invaluable guide to the Parliament) and he is personally making money out of breaking the rules. I do not know if there is a special clause saying - 'No sales in Parliament (expect for notorious federasts)', maybe there is. But at the very least this breathtaking hypocricy.