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UK nominee's big day

• Mark Mardell
• 20 Oct 08, 01:10 PM

I am looking forward to hearing Cathy Ashton's (we don't call her baroness, in Brussels, evidently) grilling tonight. UKIP's Nigel Farage is one of the MEPs who will question her on her fitness to become the European commissioner for trade.

He is always pugnacious and crisp, which explains why he gets broadcast more than some other European politicians would like. But I'm told he won't be going for the cheap gag tonight but a key, serious question: Is she big enough for a big job ?

Britain and the other 26 EU countries don't, strictly speaking, have a trade policy. They have decided to have a single EU policy, which makes this trading bloc far and away the biggest in the world. One billion euros trade with the US alone: every single day. And of course we are in challenging times, with the financial crisis and the collapse of world trade talks in the summer. Gordon Brown and the G8 say it's more important than ever to get the trade talks going. He has entrusted his former leader of the Lords with that job.

Had he made her say foreign secretary or home secretary, eyebrows would have been raised. But the commission is often seen by cynical British eyes as a dead-end sinecure for failed politicians. She is of course unelected: but so are Condoleezza Rice and Hank Paulson, not to mention many in the French cabinet. It is not that unusual. But does she have the punch, the weight, the experience to do this job?

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