Humpty speaks

José Manuel Barroso, one of three presidents of Europe, is lunching attending the G-20 summit in Mexico. Asked by a reporter 'Why should North Americans risk their assets to help Europe?' he replied 'Frankly we are not here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to handle the economy.'

Many people, in particular those living in Spain or Greece, will have an opinion on how brilliantly the ruling European élite have handled the economy, but I wanted to pick up on this 'democracy' business.

You see, the G-20 is not just a meeting of 20 nations, it is a meeting of 19 nations plus 'Europe', and Europe, 500 million odd people, is represented by Barroso. Remember voting for him?

I have mentioned before how these Alice-in-Wonderland characters believe that merely saying something makes it true, but it defies belief that he thought he could get away with this: that a former Maoist, not elected to leadership but chosen by a few pals for whom he subsequently had to do favours, should purport to represent an entire continent and then tell the world he needed no lessons in democracy.

I think we all need a lesson in democracy, so we can identify Mr Barroso for what he is.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less'