Nothing like a bit of personal abuse to get a Frenchman onside
Lord Myners was City Minister in the last Labour government. Michel Barnier is the European Commissioner for the Internal Market and Services and a former French foreign minister, and is the man responsible for the deluge of proposed regulation raining down on the City (click on our Europe category for details).
Yesterday in a debate in the House of Lords, Lord Myners had this advice regarding M. Barnier:
“I worry very much about Mr Barnier. I met Mr Barnier when he was a Minister. He came to see us at the Treasury. He came down the corridor and I was watching him. I am a great fan of art and I was rather impressed that he stopped to look at every painting. I thought this is a man with whom I share a common interest-until I realised he was actually looking at his reflection in the glass on every painting, and adjusting his hair or his toupee. This to me is a man whom we should treat with a very long spoon.”
More of Lord Myners’ tips on handing powerful Eurocrats at Hansard, 15 Nov 2011 : Column 664.
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