Frank Schnittger:

Whatever about the UK - and they are as entitled to their internal traditions as anyone else - how is this relevant to the EU?

Because everyone is making Ashton being a life peer an issue in her EU appointment, including you to whose comment I was replying.

You are hardly advocating a second, unelected Chamber of the EU Parliament?

I'm not. If you read my comment you'll infer that I would oppose a second elected chamber which is not the same thing as advocating a second unelected chamber.

But, really, as I am forced to point out repeatedly, the German Federal Council (Bundesrat) is an unelected (that is, indirectly elected) second-reading chamber and nobody clamors for its removal, and it is very analogous to the European Council itself, where representatives of the Member States' governments act in codecision with the directly elected parliament in the EU's legislative process.

Appointing a Baroness to a top EU post is going to do nothing to challenges the faux "unelected Brussels elite" argument they so love to pedal

So the British Eurosceptics peddle inconsistent nonsense, what else is new? I thought the point of our debates was to do our own honest analysis of sorts. And I disagree - attacking a fellow Brit, and a former Leader of the House of Lords and President of the Privy Council would be a bit muchfor the British Eurosceptics.

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