First there was Barrot

and then Toubon and now Joseph Daul!

For those of you who don't remember, Jaques Barrot was the Commissioner who Nigel Farage revealed had received a two year suspended jail sentence for misuse of party funds but who had been granted a presidential amnesty by Chirac because...well, just because. M. Toubon was the MEP from the same party as Barrot who, during the speech by Farage, started running up and down the Hemicycle saying that it shouldn't be spoken about. (Kilroy told him to sit down and told him to "speak English" so people could understand him). MEP after MEP stood up and denounced Farage for telling the truth, including the effortlessly kickable Toady Watson who never apologised, of course.

Anyway, now there is a new chapter in the 'how many French politicians can threaten to sue Nigel Farage for telling the truth' feature. On Tuesday night, Joseph Daul was elected to be President of the EPP group in the European Parliament, which is, of course, where the British Conservatives sit.

All well and good, you may say. Can anyone be worse than that nasty little fucker Hans Gert Pöttering? Well, at least we are fairly sure that Harry Pottering wasn't facing any criminal charges in the near future, unlike M Daul who, as reported in the financial times today, may be having a bit of bother in the future.

Even more amusing is that even though the UKIP team were in touch with the lawyer involved in the case, Daul has threatened to sue Farage for his 'lies'. Nothing to do with the fact that Daul has parliamentary immunity, and like M Barrot, it will probably be a crime to mention the case in public.

Le Monde picked up on a rather nice angle to the story: the misuse of funds which Daul is charged with (yes, you are) is to do with agriculture and the unions involved were hoping to get support for their case from the EU Agriculture Committee.

And guess who their chairman?

Well, I am sure that the British Conservatives will have a lovely new time with their President, and will fully support Hans Gert in his coronation to be the EP President, even though he expelled Roger Helmer from the EPP for doing what he was elected to do....

And, of course, they can join the delightful Lid Dims, Labour and Greens in voting through huge amounts of legislation and then conveniently ignoring it so the news doesn't get reported over here where the people who elect them can read about it.

Ah, I love politics.