Who is HHC?

After a delightful week in Manchester, a return to a very full email inbox. My desk, normally a paragon of organisation, has been awash with paper. I’m not even sure what half of it is about. Will we ever return to peaceful routine, tucked anonymously out of sight in our Euro-fortress again? With Lisbon now a reality, I fear that may be a thing of the past... for the next few months at least. Surely the spotlight is now firmly upon us?

However, the day to day Euro-train does rumble on. Helmer is doing excellent work as spokesman for the Employment committee – more people than ever before are now calling it the unemployment committee (indeed, I was chatting to an MEP just the other day who admitted to referring to the committee as such during a meeting, albeit inadvertently). As often noted amongst the delegation, the committee does more to put people out of work than it ever does to promote employment, so why not call a spade a spade? In this capacity, therefore, Helmer has taken very well to promoting greater understanding of the committee’s work. I understand from his assistant that the overarching plan is to encourage the secretariat to take on the new title, thus bringing greater transparency to European proceedings. I wish them luck in their endeavour.

Meanwhile, your humble correspondent has had a bit of a brush with authority – or at least with the rumour mill that trundles alongside authority this week. I hear that the question on everyone’s lips: “who is Hermione H-C?” was uttered during the closed delegation meeting this week. Mind you, I heard this from another assistant, who heard it from another assistant, who was rather savagely accused by yet another assistant of being Hermione (to which she said ‘guess again’). The fact that a Tory Bear resides in my office for all to see appears to have escaped everyone’s attention. But to those who would threaten and cajole others into disclosing any information they have, I would say this: I may not be at the centre of the grapevine – bitchy gossip about my assistant colleagues simply is not of interest to me - but I do hear certain things that you might not like disclosed on a public website. I shall say no more... unless further provoked, of course.

And so we roll around far too soon to another Strasbourg week. When will all this travel come grinding to a close? Not before Christmas, I fear, but at least in December we have the added bonus of Christmas fair. What is life, if not a series of moments anticipated?

She's scary when she's cross!