Mandy: I'm taller than Sarko

So Sarkozy blamed Mandelson for the Irish voting no, presumably because Sarko is actually a bit of an economic illiterate.

And Mandy responded by saying "his shoulders were broad enough and his skin thick enough" to take the blame.

There is some sense in what Mandy is saying about international trade, but they still react to other people imposing trade tariffs by doing it back which is nonsensical. So what if other countries want to damage their own economies by failing to grasp Ricardo's theory from centuries ago? And that, of course, is yet another reason why we should not be in the EU. Because our interests are being represented by Mandelson who is having to deal with the squabbles over the Irish no and the basic fundamental differences in belief between countries like the UK and The Netherlands and countries like France and Spain.

If only we could represent ourselves and say, 'bugger you lot, in the UK it's free trade; come and enjoy as we will be!!'