The European politburo

The First Post is carrying an appropriately scathing piece comparing the European Commission to the communist structures of the Cold War era.

Think about it: the Evropeyskiy Soyuz, like the old USSR, is run by an unelected politburo of 25 commissioners. These commissioners rule through five-year plans, rubber-stamped by a powerless parliament. They are ferried about in limousines. They have special passports to whisk them through airports. There are even special shops reserved for senior apparatchiks.

No wonder the Eastern European communist parties led the pro-EU campaigns in their home countries: they must have felt they were coming home. It is like the horrible closing scene of Animal Farm: you look from man to pig and pig to man, and it is impossible to tell which is which.

Read it all.