They seek her here...

One of the things the EUphiles hate is the fact that the UK gets a budget rebate from the EU, it currently stands at £3 billion, it used to be a lot more but successive prime ministers since Thatcher have allowed it to be whittled away usually under the influence of our treacherous foreign office mandarins who seem to want this country to be totally subsumed by the EU and turned into faceless regions rather than a homogeneous whole.
So it's not entirely too surprising that the EU foreign affairs supremo baroness Ashton managed to contrive not to be at the meetings where the budget rebate was discussed, being at a luxury hotel in Mauritius at an anti-piracy meeting.

Express.

SENIOR Eurocrat Baroness Ashton came under fresh attack last night after failing to attend crucial talks about the future of Britain’s £3billion EU rebate.

The EU foreign affairs supremo was at a summit on the luxurious island resort of Mauritius when other European Commission chiefs were discussing axing the annual repayment.

Her absence has enraged critics at Westminster, who argue the £231,000-a-year bureaucrat is not standing up for Britain in Brussels. It meant there was no British representative present to argue against ending the rebate and imposing more EU taxes on the UK.

Tory MP Bill Cash, chairman of the Commons European scrutiny committee, said her non-attendance would be raised in Parliament next week.

“She can’t be everywhere at once but unless there is a profound reason it is regrettable that she has not attended,” he said. Lady Ashton has been criticised since becoming the surprise choice of EU leaders last year for the foreign affairs post, created under the Lisbon Treaty.

The Labour peer, effectively number two to EU President Herman van Rompuy, is seen by some as the world’s most influential female politician. But critics say she is not up to the job.

EU leaders are pressing for the scrapping of Britain’s rebate, won by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984. Rather than attend a discussion on the issue on Thursday, Lady Ashton was at an anti-piracy meeting at the Grand Baie, Mauritius.

She also missed another meeting earlier this month. On both occasions, her Commission seat was filled by James Morrison, her British chief of staff, but he was not allowed to speak.

A spokesman for Lady Ashton said: “She has absolutely promised to be present when the budget review proposals are finalised on October 19.”

I honestly don't know why Cameron didn't sack the useless old bag the minute he became Prime Minister, well not unless of course he is sympathetic with the EU cause, something I and many other bloggers on the right and left suspect. At the minute though Cameron has the excuse that domestic troubles with the recession are taking up his time, but losing a £3 billion chunk of the budget will blow that out of the water. The EU is the fault line in the Tory Party between it and the Lib Dems, if UKIP hammer the Tories in the next EU elections or even solidify their votes into a solid second place it could force a referendum on the place of the UK in the EU, the in or out vote that no politician or civil service mandarin wants as it's highly likely that we'll vote to leave.
In one sense Baroness Ashton is helping this along, her idiocy strengthens the EUskeptic cause, but the damage she does to the UK outweighs this as her weakness allows the other members to railroad through legislation that needs far more scrutiny than this remarkably dim woman can give.

Can we just leave? Now!