Cash for questions

Date: 18/07/1996

Veteran Commission spokesman Robert Elphick, once porte parole for former Energy Commissioner Guido Brunner and later for the then budget supremo Christopher Tugendhat, was back in Brussels last week, months after retiring from his post in the information section of the Commission's London office.

Far from embarking on a textbook Commission after-life of indolence somewhere in the sunny Mediterranean, Elphick is doing what everyone seems to do these days - acting as a consultant.

“People ask you questions about the Commission. You tell them. You get paid for it,” he explained. Just like the job of a porte parole, in fact, except for the second bit.