Never mind the fact that, as Adam Boulton says, the Conservatives’ Europe policy is a muddle. Hague’s speech in the Commons chamber yesterday – riffing on the theme of how Gordon Brown will feel if Tony Blair becomes President of Europe – is hysterical. Even David Miliband and Jim Murphy were cracking up. As Boulton puts it,
Now we no longer hear John Prescott’s Les Dawson routine (thank goodness) at the end of the Labour conference, the undisputed king of Westminster’s northern stand-up comedians is William Hague. As the Register of Members’ Interests confirms, the former Tory leader charges up to £20,000 a turn for his jokes on the after dinner speaking circuit. But as MPs in the Commons debated the Bill to ratify the Lisbon treaty, we got to hear William’s wisecracks, gags and mockery of Gordon Brown and the Government for nowt, as they say in Yorkshire.
Predictably, Hague ridiculed the Prime Minister for turning up late for the signing of the treaty last month and for not turning up at all to vote for it in Parliament. But he saved the best until last. His lampooning of Tony Blair’s apparent bid to become the new EU president, a grand new post created by the treaty, was hilarious and had MPs across the chamber howling and roaring with laughter.
