Strawberries -- safe at last!

Guardian readers must surely rejoice at the news that new legislation will prevent the complete absence of British strawberries (at reasonable prices) during Wimbledon Week. The Government proposes to reintroduce an old scheme to award temporary work visas to seasonal workers:

The initiative is a direct replacement for a previous seasonal agricultural workers scheme (Saws) that was scrapped in 2013 after additional eastern European countries joined the EU providing farmers with ample labour.

Of course, farmers are complaining that the initial issue of such visas is insufficient to replace the whole influx from Eastern Europe, but, surely, an apparently catastrophic and insoluble crisis is over, and church bells will be ringing in the whole of the Home Counties? There is no real reason for metropolitan luvvies to oppose Brexit any more? 

If they ever got to read the Times today, however, they might find even more reason to think again about Brexit. The BBC also carries an item on the story.The story emphasises an old suspicion that the EC is unaccountable and bureaucratic:

The EU is a racket willing to break any rule

Emily O’Reilly’s [European Ombudsman] report focuses on the unstoppable rise of Martin Selmayr, the German right-hand man of Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president. Selmayr is known as the “monster of the Berlaymont” after the EU headquarters in Brussels where his word is law. Earlier this year he was appointed, in shady circumstances, secretary-general of the commission which he now effectively runs. The stitch-up reeked. When MEPs found out, even the European parliament was appalled....

It worked like this:

The outgoing secretary-general had told Juncker, privately, that he would retire this year. Armed with Juncker’s inside knowledge, Selmayr successfully applied to be deputy. Then, at a meeting of commissioners, Juncker revealed that the secretary-general’s post was suddenly vacant and that, as luck would have it, Selmayr was ready to fill it....

Selmayr is now a permanent EC official and might be expected to continue Junckerism or worse. In more detail:

The [European] ombudsman’s conclusions on what the pair did are scathing. Four serious breaches of protocol and maladministration are listed. Selmayr did not take appropriate measures to avoid conflict of interest. The rules of procedure were broken. “A situation of urgency to fill the post of secretary-general was created artificially,” O’Reilly says. “The commissioners [are] responsible for the maladministration in this case. It is extraordinary that no commissioner seemed to question the secretary-general appointment procedure, which in the end raised valid widespread concerns.”

Classically:

Needless to say, Selmayr and Juncker face no sanctions or punishment. Instead, O’Reilly recommends that the commission should develop a new procedure — I’m sure that will help — for appointing the next secretary-general.

Elsewhere in the newspaper, in a more 'objective' shorter  piece:

The commission dismissed her [O'Reilly's] findings except for a description of Mr Selmayr as competent and committed.