'Ashton can only be a positive surprise'
Nobody else seems much cheerier about Ashton than I am.
"deep embarrassment...permeates the senior ranks of Gordon Brown's ministerial team this morning....."Shaming and dreadful" is how one prominent colleague privately put it" --- Michael White in the Guardian
"She has little experience and is a bizarre choice. It would be a sign that European diplomacy is downgraded to an economic policy post."
--- French official quoted in the Telegraph
"On the day of her election, the best that could be said of her was that she is a good listener". "expectations are so low that Van Rompuy and Ashton can only be a positive surprise"
---Spiegel
More justified grumbling elsewhere:
- Crooked Timber
- A Fistful of Euros
- European Tribune