The leaders of various groupings within the European Parliament have been unable to reach consensus on approving the nomination of Dr Tonio Borg as a Commissioner.
This is despite, and not because of, his handling of the "grilling" to which he was subjected, a grilling that, by all accounts was one of the heaviest ever meted out.
By the same number of accounts, Borg, or I could call him Tonio, having known him for almost forty years, came through the experience "excellent rare", if I could be allowed to bastardise a culinary term.
"Excellent" because - not two ways about it - he was quite simply that and "rare" because few have put up his level of performance.This, however, did not lead to an agreement, simply because a certain frame of mind is incapable of eschewing prejudice in favour of objectivity.
Your common or garden "liberal", at least such of that genus that infests the EP, is liberal and accommodating of different ways of looking at things only insofar as this way of looking at things sits comfortably with her own preconceived notions.
It is immaterial, clearly, that Borg is entirely capable of separating his personal views from positions mandated on him by the law, as...
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