Sound and Fury signifying nothing ...

Following David Cameron's nomination of the former Education minister and current Lerader of the House of Lords, Lord Hill, as Britain's next EU Commissioner, the newly re-elected President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz was asked about the nomination by a journalist.

Schultz, a German socialist, said that

"I cannot imagine Hill, whose views - in as far as he's got any - are radically anti-European, getting a majority in the European Parliament."

This was an exceptionally silly comment from someone who now admits, according to Reuters, that he has "no personal knowledge" of Lord Hill's views.

The UKIP leader called his comments a "declaration of war" at almost exactly the same moment that Mr Schultz was back-pedalling away from them, blaming the journalist who asked the question for telling him that Lord Hill was supposedly an extreme Eurosceptic. Apparently his friends have today told him something different. I would take both sets of information with a pinch of salt.

I note that Lord Hill's nomination was welcomed by a number of prominent business organisations such as the CBI. Whatever the President of the EP originally said, I doubt if Lord Hill will have too much difficulty getting confirmed.

I hope he is given a role which helps him to make the EU more business-friendly - goodness knows that business in both Britain and the rest of the EU needs that in the present climate.

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