I WAS in a small minority of people last week.

When the BBC News Channel announced that Cathy Ashton was likely to be the new “Foreign Minister” of Europe, I didn’t say “Who?” In fact, I stood up and cheered. It’s a brilliant appointment.

Actually, I cheered twice. My first bout of pleasure was when they said that “Gordon Brown has accepted that Tony Blair has no chance of becoming the new EU President”.

What a disgrace that would have been. But if Brown really thought that Blair would be acceptable to the rest of Europe, he really is living in his own private world.

Anyway, no-one knows what the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq invasion will come up with and whether it will be vindicate or denounce Blair (or what shade of somewhere in between).

But back to Cathy Ashton – Baroness Ashton of Upholland. I first got to know her when she was the minister responsible for one of the sundry Election Bills we’ve been blessed with in the past 10 years. I was one of the opposition peers who (in her words) gave her a “dreadful time”.

For my part, I was impres--sed with her calm and competent approach, always listening, always willing to find the answer to questions, and often willing to go back to her civil servants and ministerial team to look for sensible ways of meeting the problems that we raised.

She went on to greater things in the Lords, becoming a successful Leader of the House, before she took on the job of Trade Commi-ssioner in Europe.

Some of the media reaction to her appointment has been despicable: a combination of looking for anything to denounce Europe and an arrogant, deep-seated envy that someone who looks and sounds like an “ordinary person” could possibly get such a job.

A supporter in Brussels said that “no-one dislikes Cathy” and that is a real advantage. She’s intelligent, and tough, and nice, and hard-working, and she understands the art of negotiation better than most British politicians.

She’ll need all those attributes and more but I think she will be a real success.

“No-one has heard of her?” That will change. She won’t seek the limelight but I’m sure that she’ll make her mark and do Europe proud.