ASKED if he would care to defend his colleague, Padraig Flynn, following the attack by Bruce Anderson in the Daily Mail last Friday, Sir Leon Brittan demurred. "Life," said the ELI commissioner for external relations "is complex and sometimes difficult. But there are a few elementary things one can do while responsibly carrying on one's job to make life a little-simpler band easier. And one of them is not to read what Bruce Anderson says about Padraig Flynn. And I have taken that elementary course so I can't defend him.
Britain's second commissioner - Neil Kinnock is the first - was in Dublin on Monday for a number of engagements and ministerial meetings. Asked about Euro issues and the coming British general election, he played down Tory divisions and emphasised Labour's. Such was the Labour desire to win, he said, that it overrode the creation of consistent, coherent and clear views. "We have seen emerge from the subterranean caverns different strands - and I speak with all the discretion and politeness of a European commissioner. I would say to my friends in Europe, those of you who are enthusiastic about European integration in general and EMU in particular, it would be unwise to put too much trust in the Labour Party."