MEP Nigel Farage and his complaints

Here's Nigel Farage, the leader of the UKIP in the European Parliament. For more on him, check wikipedia and this article.

As the following clips show, Mr Farage has decent points, but his cynical and personal rhetoric typical of the Westminster Parliament, does not work so well in a sensitive Europe. Where as in the UK that rhetoric is acceptable, and normal, in Europe it becomes offensive and is unacceptable. He has good points, but wouldn't they be better made if they were put according to the rules of the game everyone else is playing?

Sarkozy, Lisbon Treaty, Van Rompuy and Lady Ashton, Van Rompuy and No apologies to Van Rompuy

On another note, I feel sorry for the members of the European parliament who can't speak either French, English or German, but still try. They ought to make better use of the translators. The bulgarian lady who talks about "popo" is just sad...

So what do you think about the Lisbon treaty? Should there have been a referendum? Was it worth having it? Was it possible to come up with a better treaty, and if so which one?

Mr Herman van Rompuy, President of the Council of the EU

This is why Van Rompuy might be a good president of the Council of the EU. Summary: Consensus builder; from a small, core EU country; Why does this matter? Because the EU does not need a big ego. The EU system is not about one country or institution imposing its will but rather about the ability of political actors to reach consensus. This is obviously a problem for a country like the UK, used to majoritarian decision making typical of its FPTP electoral system. Tough luck though. You can't accommodate 27 different countries by giving them a president that tells them what to think. A Belgian might just be the best thing that happened to the EU. After all, if you can manage Flemish and Wallons, that's probably as good a practice for a EU job as there is. Regarding Turkey? No worries. He is not the only one with a word on the issue as the HRUFAS also has a vote on the matter. Regarding Van Rompuy's ability to stand up to Hu Jintao and Obama, I believe that the weight of 500 million EU citizens and 13 trillion $ of GDP ought to do the trick. After all the EU is the biggest trading partner of both of those countries.