Meeting David

2nd July, 2009

As a member of the EU Affairs Committee I was invited to a private meeting with the British Foreign Secretary David Milliband. It was a fascinating meeting. David was promoted exceptionally quickly through the ministerial ranks after an early career in Labour Party think tanks.

I raised the issue with him of how the EU would respond to a No vote (he didn’t answer this) and the role of the British media in Ireland. He discussed attitudes to Europe in the UK and stressed that there was both a democratic and delivery issue within the EU. The decision in relation to mobile phone charges was used as an example of this.

He was a very impressive guy. Confident, relaxed and funny. He offered to call the Irish Labour party representatives his brothers and sisters. He also told us that somebody else had taken his coat from his flight over to Ireland. I can only imagine the shock the other person got.