Kinnock’s bête noire is on the same side

Date: 15/03/01

It must hurt. Neil Kinnock came to Brussels after the UK public rejected him in his long fight against Margaret Thatcher and her legacy. Now the Union Syndicale, which is leading the strike threat against his staff reforms, attacks the Commissioner for trying to build a “new Jerusalem based on Thatcherite values”.

What must rankle with Kinnock even more is that the union's president, Alan Hick, is also a member of the Labour Party. Interestingly, Hick once nearly stood against UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in his Sedgefield constituency in the north east of England.

Before returning to the Labour fold, Hick was a member of the Social Democrat Party, formed by four Labour defectors who disagreed with the then party leadership's anti-European policies.

Blair, meanwhile, is expected to call a UK general election after next week's Stockholm summit. He has pledged to make Europe a central theme of his campaign.