THAT'S JOLLY WELL NOT CRICKET FARAGE, YOU BOUNDER

The European Union is largely speaking a pretty unpopular institution. I’ve met very few people who actually like it. Of course, in fairness, I’ve also met no one who understand anything about it.

I don’t either of course. It’s all so complicated, and there is so little time and so many more interesting things in life to understand, if you get my drift.

Mind you, despite all the hatered for it from all over Europe, no one in government, no one who actually would have to actually deal with the fall out of leaving Europe has ever actually proposed that we should do so.

That arch Europe hater of all times Mrs Thatcher with her trusty lieutenant Norman Tebbit, whom I bet wore union jack underwear, actually got us deeper and deeper into it despite the fact that dealing with foreigners (except English speaking ones like dear Ronnie) always made them look like they were about to vomit.

It is a point to ponder that even they never proposed a referendum on whether to stay or leave.....

For my own part, I feel that, as long as Scotland is a member of the UK, I prefer that we remain a member of the EU. Mrs Thatcher once described it as “socialism by the back door”. I suspect that the English preponderance for right wing government has been somewhat tempered by that very "backdoor socialism". And for that I am grateful as I have always been ruled from that right wing England despite not once voting for it. An independent Scotland would be unlikely to need Brussels to tell us to treat our poor, old and sick like human beings, so, when that happy day comes, I’ll be content to take economists’ advice on whether or not Scotland would be better in or out.

I’ve never been much of a fan of UKIP. Their politicians have all been rather 4th rate (not to mention strangely orange in colour). It’s as if any self respecting right winger sticks with the Conservative Party, stays on the right wing and despairs a little of the “mad rantings” of the likes of Ken Clarke, Michael Heseltine and 彭定康 (Chris Patten).

But presumably members of UKIP, who despite hating Europe and everything European seem very content to take full advantage of the salaries and expenses grtanted by the hated enemy... some take rather more than full advantage... think of themselves as English gentlemen/women.

It was then, rather a surprise to see the unpleasant, ill-mannered, personal rant from Mr Farage in parliament yesterday against the new President of the Council.

Mr Van Rompuy may not be a spectacular politician in the mould of Thatcher, Obama, Gorbachev or Mandela; maybe no one in the UK had heard of him until recently (but then as a large slice of the population hasn’t heard of Gordon Brown or David Cameron either, what does that tell you?). And it’s true that Belgium is a small country, in fact a 'united kingdom', which, like our own, is hardly really united, but surely Mr Farage’s mother taught him some basic manners. You don’t say that kind of thing out loud.

What was all the more remarkable about this ill-bred outburst of bile which shamed the UK was that Farage was obliged to admit that Mr Van Rompuy was competent and capable.

It seems to me that for all his faults of being foreign, and Belgian at that, that it would be rather nice if the UK had a few politicians who could claim even one of these adjectives?

And, as an afterthought, as unspectacular as Mr Van Rompuy may be, at least he's not a war criminal, reconsiable only by his socks and shoes jhanging from the backside of Geroge W Bush. In short he's not Tony Bloody Blair.

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