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It's van Rompuy and Ashton | 105 comments (102 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: It's van Rompuy and Ashton (4.00 / 5)
She's British, and it's rather upsetting to have a US mole as foreign affairs secretary.
And she's a peer, which is not the best of symbols in my books. The House of Lords is an aberration and has been for centuries.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi
by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 01:55:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: It's van Rompuy and Ashton (none / 1)
Zum Beispiel.

"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage." - Anaïs Nin
by Crazy Horse on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 02:04:16 PM EST
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Re: It's van Rompuy and Ashton (none / 0)
That's over the top just because she is British. What do we know about her foreign policy views (as opposed to her, AFAIK positive, social views)? Really a standard British Atlanticist?

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.
by DoDo on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 02:06:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: It's van Rompuy and Ashton (4.00 / 4)
So how does that make her preferable to (say) Mary Robinson who has actually been elected to something... and whose views on a wide range of foreign policy issues are well known.

notes from no w here
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 02:19:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: It's van Rompuy and Ashton (none / 1)
Robinson didn't want the job.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:11:25 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Biography (none / 1)
.
Catherine Ashton, Baroness Ashton of Upholland (pdf) and as EU Commissioner of Trade.

"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

Amnesia and Gaza Genocide

by Oui on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 03:46:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Maybe not such a bad background? (4.00 / 3)
wikipedia has this:


Ashton studied economics at the University of London. Between 1977 and 1979 Ashton worked at the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and was later elected as its national treasurer and subsequently as one of its vice-chairs. As of 1983 she worked for the Social Work Training Council.[2]

From 1983-89 she was Director of Business in the Community working with business to tackle inequality, and established the Employers' Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship.

She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001, and her children's school governing body, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families.

(and that text has been updated significantly over the past hour... The earlier version had this:


Cathy Ashton studied economics at London University.

From 1983-89 she was Director of Business in the Community working with business to tackle inequality, and established the Employers' Forum on Disability, Opportunity Now, and the Windsor Fellowship.

She chaired the Health Authority in Hertfordshire from 1998 to 2001, and her children's school governing body, and became a Vice President of the National Council for One Parent Families.

So the CND bit has been added recently...


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 03:48:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 1)
We should have In Wales' view of her, but she's busy tonight.
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 03:55:31 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (4.00 / 2)
She changed it herself, according to the history of edits page.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 03:57:32 PM EST
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Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 1)
Isn't that interesting?
by afew (afew(a in a circle)eurotrib_dot_com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 03:58:48 PM EST
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Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 0)
It is a violation of wikipedia policy...

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:01:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 0)
...if true.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:18:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 0)
How do you know this? I see a bunch of anonymous edits.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:16:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 1)
Click on the IP address.

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:42:11 PM EST
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Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 0)
okay???

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:49:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Maybe not such a bad background? (none / 1)
[ET Moderation Technology™]

I know anyone can run a whois search, but posting someone's address and phone number on ET just because they added some edits to wikipedia is a bit much.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 05:22:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Oops! (none / 1)
Assumed whois search is public domain info and it looked like a business address - but am happy to comply with ET policy.

notes from no w here
by Frank Schnittger (mail Frankschnittger at hot male dotty communists) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 07:14:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Oops! (none / 0)
It is public domain info, like I said anyone can run a whois search.

It's just a bit too much for my personal privacy radar - not site policy per se.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Fri Nov 20th, 2009 at 02:31:07 AM EST
[ Parent ]
This is pretty unbecoming... (4.00 / 3)
...actually, and I don't mean it personally about you.

I wasn't aware being British was a disqualifier. Being British Prime Minister and failing to lead your country into closer EU integration is a disqualifier, but by that token Vaclav Klaus was out but not some other Czech.

What it seems to me from reading Ashton's biography on wikipedia is that, well, she doesn't have much of it.

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma

by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 03:54:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: This is pretty unbecoming... (4.00 / 4)
"I wasn't aware being British was a disqualifier."

This is disingenuous -of course there's nothing in the treaty to disqualify Brits particularly (though I would like to see the EU starting to suggest that they leave if they don't want to integrate, something unlikely with a Brit as foreign affairs secretary).

To start with, you know that there are symbols in those appointments. And this is an unfortunate one, particularly for the foreign affairs position, given the recent past. We are talking about the country that did the most to ensure that the EU could never have a coherent policy, at any rate a coherent policy not decided in Washington.

The symbolism of appointing to possibly the most important position in the EU someone from an anti-European integration country is hard to swallow. If she had fought tooth and nail to get the UK to be more pro-European I would of course waive her nationality as a point of regrets, but that is far from being the case.

Then, you also know that EU appointees rarely sever the ties with their home country and do take some instructions -again, not exactly a nice outcome in that regard.

Plus, she did get to her position via peerage. It's not just that she's a baronness -it's that it's BECAUSE she's a baronness that she has a political existence at all. Again, a very unpleasant symbol.

Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed. Gandhi

by Cyrille (cyrillev domain yahoo.fr) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 05:12:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: It's van Rompuy and Ashton (4.00 / 5)
Is Ashton a US mole because she's a US mole, or because she's British?

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Carrie (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Nov 19th, 2009 at 04:01:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]

It's van Rompuy and Ashton | 105 comments (102 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden)
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