Kirkhope's blessing in disguise?

UK Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope has been put out of his state of near-permanent misery. He has been leader of the Conservative group since December 2004, which guaranteed him trouble, caught between Roger Helmer, Chris Heaton-Harris and Daniel Hannan, who formed the Eurosceptic H-Block, and the old guard of Eurofriendly Tories. Kirkhope famously suspended the whip from Helmer – expelling him from the Conservative group. Helmer had publicly accused Kirkhope of “inappropriately” demanding that he remove his name from a motion of censure of the then leader of the centre-right EPP-ED group Hans-Gert Pöttering. Then David Cameron, the national party leader, made a rash campaign promise (still not realised) to remove the Conservative MEPs from the EPP-ED group, which Kirkhope had to explain to the other national delegations. But last week (28 November) Kirkhope lost a contest for re-election as delegation leader, missing out by one vote to Giles Chichester. So Kirkhope's suffering is over: it might yet be that a smile returns to his face.