Next year, Gordon Brown will have to choose a new European Commissioner. His or her term starts in October 2009. Geoff Hoon and Margaret Beckett remain favourites for the job. However, no one seems to have commented on an unfortunate precedent Gordon Brown has created in recalling Peter Mandelson before his time is up.
If David Cameron wins the next election, say in mid 2010, he will be stuck with a European Commissioner from a rival party. Normally, convention would suggest that he would just leave matters be. However, now that Gordon Brown has set a precedent and replaced a Commissioner mid-term, he and his party could scarcely now complain in David Cameron did the same thing.
And for this reason, Hoon and Beckett may decide that they don't want the job, if it would last less than a year.
32 comments:
Why Hoon, for the love of God, why Hoon? Mandy - I could understand, Mags & Kinnock too. Leon Britten(sp) was, well, something I'd never have done. I'd leave Mags there but Hoon has never ever shown the slightest ability at all - ever.
I refer the honourable gentleman to the question I asked some moments ago - "Why, for the love of God, Hoon?"
Next year, Gordon Brown will have to choose a new European Commissioner.
Bit of a rash assumption there, Iain. Do you really think he'll last that long?
Iain, let's try and take your thinking one stage further.
It seems incontravertible that the Conservatives' EU issue, currently being conveniently sidelined, is bound to re-surface when they form a government. There is the question of a referendum on the EU Constitution, sorry, I do of course mean Lisbon Treaty, as well as the still unresolved relationship with the EPP.
Might it not in fact suit the Conservatives' purpose tactically to leave a McBroon-appointed Commissioner in place? It would enable the unavoidable EU travails to be firmly linked to the (by then) Labour opposition by constantly reminding the people of "..the objections to reform or greater democratic accountability within the EU, whose Trade (or whatever) Commissioner is of course the Labour appointee........"
Plus there's the fact that UKIP and Tories are going to give Labour (and Britain's current position in the EU) a huge beating next year in the Euro Elections.
Ridiculous Iain. Baroness Ashton is a splendid appointment to be going on with. Hoon will get Neil Kinnock's place in due course. Labour put up with that vile Leon Brittain for ages did we not? And besides the polls will tell the tale over the next 12 months as Tory EU Toxicity comes home to roost in June, and as the people clearly see through the vacuous anecdotes to the lack of "New Tory" substance. Thatcher getting the biggest cheers for both Hague and Cameron tells us all we need to know.
The next Tory Govt. is going to be obliged to overturn lots of "gentlemen's agreements" and conventions because, lets face it, Labour has just seen that as a weakness...
Utterly ruthles pursuit of whatever needs to be done to turn Britain around will be the order of the day. Massive, massive clear-outs of the cronies and the inept and the time-servers. We can't afford them. They have had their go. Our turn now.
I just can't wait for the Glenrothes result.
At least Brown's removal of the Trade Commissioner mid-term is within his remit, a lot more than more can be said for Boris Johnson's "unfortunate precedent" of removing the head of the MPS mid term.
For an EU Commissioner pension, they'll take the job.
They will recall and appoint
Michael Howard as he has been promised the role! end of story!
Is not Baroness Ashton the other half of Peter Kellner, the You Gov fame, who was putting down Tories when his comments are called for by the BBC and the left-wing press, sometime ago. I heard not even once him saying that
his views were biased.
Baroness who? I can still see someone here thinks that she could do a good job. Cameron government will be no worse than Brown's. We should remind the Labourites what he said while taking office last year. Mandelson's expertise is as
a politico EU commissioner. No more. It should be interesting to see Brown+Campbell+ Mandy + Blunkett +even Blair asking to trust them
during the next election! I can imagine the poll ratings for Tories then!
Why wouldn't they want the job for less than a year? The pension alone would mean they would never have to work again.
Except a couple of oddball Labour supporters here, I have been reading every left-wing blog, no support for the Blair2 the Commissioner in any one of them. Well done Boris. I voted for Boris, and this act of removing a PC-spinning top cop is enough for me to keep faith on Boris!
If Boris was Tory leader he would not hessitate to remove a labour commissioner, as Sir Ian will confirm.
Are you suggesting that Dave hasn't got the balls to do so unless he is given a precedent?
Just the weeniest bit of nitpicking here: Boris did not 'remove' Ian Blair, he simply said he had no confidence in him. The rest is history.
Wonder if he thought it out or someone suggested to him it might have been a master stroke.
I don't think it's a precedent at all. Mandelson chose to leave his EU job in order to accept a job offered him by Brown. That's not at all the same as a British PM "recalling" an EU Commissioner, something which I think (I haven't checked) he has no power to do.
Anonymous @ 2:23 PM is right - there is no ability for the member state government to remove the appointment of a commissioner. European Commissioners are nominated by the member states but they are not representatives of them.
Whomever is appointed for the 2009-2014 period will serve and cannot be forcibly removed from office by the UK Prime Minister at any stage.
More to the point - if either Hoon or Beckett heads off to Brussels, won't that lead to a bye-election in mid 2009, one which Borwn surely could not afford to loose. Hoon sits on a 10k majority, Beckett, just 5k. Curiously both in Derbyshire and neither could be considered "safe"
Becks carries more gravitas than Hoon - in fact, I think she'd be bloody good at the job - and I also think her seat is safer as she's a professional politician who's probably watched her Labour party with a certain evel of disgust.
But can someone please tell me what has Hoon to offer and why isn't there any redress for being conspicuously negligent / incompetent etc? It's a slap in the face of our armed forces which one would guess would make dealing with NATO problematic.
If we're meant to be serious about Europe how can we possibly send such an amateur to deal on our behalf.
I don't like Kinnock, Mags, Mandy, Brittan but I'd be damn foolish to start an argument with them (well, Brittan is the weak one there). But HOON can't debate - he just can't He's out of his depth being an MP let alone a Minister or Secretary of State (good grief!)
Please Iain - can you explain how this will come to pass as I can't join the dots.
To add to what anonymous and David Boothroyd have said, there is no mechanism for the UK PM recalling the EU Commissioner from the UK.
The only way that an EU Commissioner could be removed against his or her will would be if the European Parliament passed a vote of no confidence in the Commission as a whole. All seats on the Commission would be vacant, allowing the nations to submit new names if they wished.
Unless that happens, the only way in which David Cameron would be able to 'remove' the UK's Commissioner before 2014 would be to support the Lisbon Treaty's changes, which would see fewer Commissioners who hold their seats on a rotating basis. This could see the UK's Commissioner 'out of rotation' before 2014.
Neither the implementation of this aspect of the Lisbon Treaty (this issue being important to the Irish), or a vote of no confdence in the entire Commission are particularly likely.
If Brown appoints Hoon/Beckett/Sion Simon to becmoe an EU Commissioner before he leaves office, there is nothing Cameron can do about it.
Morus - or shoot the guy. Accidents can happen.
What a load of twaddle your anonymous contributors and David (Labour SEER) Boothroyd talk.
If our democratically elected Prime Minister was to say we wish to change our commissioner. Would the EU say NO?
Of course they would not. It is a game in which they all scratch each other's backs!
If they said NO that would be a perfect peg on which to say to the British people. Whilst I promised a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty I do believe we must determine if we are our own masters or subservient to the EU. So we shall have a simple IN or OUT referendum.
Stuff the bloody EU. Send David Boothroyd over there he is one of their apologists!
Anon 16.44 - party pooper - I had a plan. Right, you're not playing with my footy now - i'm off in for me tea.
Seriously though - as if anyone when sat in the cabinet room could refuse when the PM hands them their resignation letter & the promise of some non-job near their home. "You have 2 choices".
http://www.vote-2007.co.uk/index.php?topic=2385.0
when is something going to be done about the EMA another disaster created by this government. around 10,000 or more applications are bacl logged like heathrow baggage terminal. With people being asked to reapply and original proofs lost.
Anon - 5.44 - Ed Balls. Any questions?
Oh dear, anonymous @4:44. I don't doubt your decision to hide your identity was wise because you have made a total fool of yourself.
The truth is that there is in fact no such thing as a "British EU Commissioner". There is a body of 27 Commissioners who each serve the whole of the European Union. They are nominated by each of the member states in order to get geographic balance but do not represent their member states.
In other words, the UK government has no more power to dismiss the Commissioner it appointed than it does to dismiss the Commissioner appointed by the government of Estonia, and that is zero.
It would be a very strange fit of pique to hang a referendum on that, given that it's been the case since the EU was set up and was well known when we joined. And to answer your last point, I am in the EU right now.
I wonder who Cameron would pick. Perhaps a certain well-known blogger?
Why don't they appoint a Lib Dem to the post. There is feck all they are good for otherwise. Vince Cable springs to mind.
And then, let's have a referendum on Europe and just get out and stop being told what shape our bananas have to be and supporting the Lithuanian peasantry.extd
Anonymous at 4:44
It's not a case of whether the EU would say yes or no. They themselves have no legal means to remove a single commissioner. They couln't legally say 'yes', and Cameron would never ask - there is no point wasting political capital on such a non-issue.
I agree we should be more independent of the EU, and would love to have a referendum on Lisbon, but in absence of Cameron suddenly revoking treaties or pulling us out of the EU altogether, he would have no say over who the Commissioner was or is - and by doing either of those things, wouldn't have that power either.
It's like the PM gets to appoint the Archbishop of Canterbury. Once in position, he has no legal means to remove him. The Commissioner nominated by the PM is not the PM's representative - it might not be right, but David Boothroyd is correct on the issue, whether we would like him to be or not.
With what has happend so far I would not bet against Leo Blair
Reading the comments, thank God there are some people that actually bother to understand the rules of the European organisation to which the UK belongs constitutionally.
There's no mechanism to recall a Commissioner because he or she is not to the political taste of the governing party. It'd be fun to watch anyone try - after all if the EU is so fundamentally unimportant to the UK way of life or unpopular you'd think it would matter very little indeed to an incoming government who was left marooned over there in Brussels as a remnant of the former administration.
The reality for Commissioners is that the Commission President can sack them, or a Prime Minister can recall them to government.
By the way, another commenter doesn't seem to have realised we only have the one Commissioner from the UK these days - the UK having championed EU enlargement accepted having just one Commissioner in return.
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