Absent Baroness Ashton leaves Britain without a voice

This woman was an unknown.
Now she is known as one of the biggest spongers and spenders in Office in Brussels.
She was chosen due to her inability.She is just another freeloading ineffective knob in the House of Lords!!

Doesn't this explain my comments of some weeks ago that woman should not be in a position of power???
I think I read that she earns about Stg350,000 a year plus any expenses she can top up on.
Her Office costs STG millions a year with all kinds of other parasites running the office.


Article from todays Telegraph Newspaper.

Lady Ashton, Europe's foreign minister, is also commission vice-president and Britain's only full representative on the EU's executive.

On Wednesday, she again missed an entire Brussels meeting, her 17th since January, 2010, because of a trip to the Middle East.

Officials and diplomats have questioned her commitment to the job, which has a salary of more than £230,000 a year, and especially her reluctance to be away from her London-based family at weekends.

David Heathcoat-Amory, a former Tory minister for Europe, said the attendance record was proof that Lady Ashton was not the right person for a senior political role. "She is not up to the job and everyone knows it," he said. "I opposed the creation of an EU foreign minister but I at least thought we would get someone who would bother to turn up."

Lady Ashton has also been absent from 40 per cent of 42 meetings of the commission "college" in the past year, gatherings at which the EU's 27 commissioners – one for each member state – take critical legislative decisions on issues such as European regulation of the City of London.

In an additional 26 per cent of meetings, Lady Ashton left proceedings early, although, her aides insist that, in most cases she was there for the "meat" of the agenda. Her attendance record is the worst of the EU's 27 commissioners.

Her record, described by one senior Italian politician as "amazingly" poor, has led to renewed criticism of her suitability for the senior post and her reluctance to move to Brussels full-time combined with an unwillingness to travel or work abroad at weekends.

Mario Mauro, an Italian centre-Right MEP and a close political ally of Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, said it was becoming increasingly clear that the Labour peer, appointed by Gordon Brown, was not suitable for the high-profile job.

"When she was appointed I was not against her - I supported her, with no prejudgment," he said. "I am amazed at this record. It means she does not understand the importance of her role."

There is increasing disquiet among Conservatives over the Labour government's decision to take the EU's foreign affairs post and Lady Ashton's record.

"Our interests would have been far better served had we taken one of the economic portfolios. Important decisions are taken around the commission table and the UK needs someone fighting its corner all the time," said Ashley Fox, the Tory MEP for the South-West.

Her absences have also been blamed on the Lisbon Treaty, which gave her jobs both as the EU's High Representative for foreign affairs and Britain's European commissioner. "She cannot be in two places at once," said her spokesman.

A source close to Lady Ashton said she had asked to be allowed to follow commission meetings by video conferencing, but was refused on the ground that other commissioners might follow her example of poor attendance.

Hugo Brady, senior research fellow at the Centre European Reform, said the commission needed to change its rules to allow Lady Ashton to send a deputy to meetings. "If it doesn't work it will reflect badly on the commission as well," he said.