Farage provokes poor, deluded Barroso into admitting that he actually thinks he's been elected...

We're all, no doubt, concentrating on news of what we can no longer afford as a nation with announcements which are reverberating across the land from the Pantomime Parliament at Westminster.

Which is all very interesting. There were two budget announcements today. The one huge set - of British cuts - you know about.

The other?

Let's hear it from Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan. He says: "At the very moment that the Chancellor was on his feet in the House of Commons, MEPs were voting for a substantial increase in EU spending. An increase, that is, over and above the rise already built into the 2011 budget."

Want to see the figures that come with that? Here's Dan's blog post on the matter.

Meanwhile, nice to see UKIP's Nigel Farage socking the "taxation without representation" line to the assembled Brusselitariat.

His speech provoked one of the most bizarre utterances one could imagine. Stay with the following clip until the end. Almost as it finishes, you will see Jose Manuel Barroso get to his feet and claim to have been elected!

Elected by whom, sir? Your European Empire colleagues? In a secret ballot?

You have not been elected by the PEOPLE of Europe, have you, you deluded and arrogant twerp?

And therein we have a master demonstration of everything that is wrong with the European Empire.

They actually think that the very fact that they go around appointing each other into jobs in this undemocratic institution legitimises their existence.

Deluded, arrogant and repulsive.

UPDATE: Delighted to see Alex Jones has just picked up on this story, almost exactly as we told it. No hat-tip for us, but never mind. And Nigel Farage goes global again...