Select group of euro-elites use double standards with impunity

THE former British minister for Europe, Denis MacShane, tells a good story from one of those negotiating sessions in Brussels where European leaders advanced, bit by bit, the creation of the new Europe.

"I am helping myself to a ham sandwich and chatting to Germany's foreign minister, Joschka Fischer. Suddenly, a figure rushes up. 'Quick, quick, I need something to eat and a drink.' It is Jacques Chirac. He looks eagerly at the ham baguettes on the German's plate.

But Fischer says: 'You're not having mine.' I step forward and say he can have my untouched food. 'Merci, merci, l'Angleterre,' he says, and grabs a glass of beer to loop back into the meeting."