Tuning in live from Brasilia

Date: 26/10/1995

Once a spokesman, always a spokesman...Bruno de Thomas, former head of the Spokesman's Service, misses the daily dissemination of information in Brussels so much he is reported to be tuning into the noon briefing for journalists from his Commission office in Brazil, where he is head of mission.

This is thanks to the so-called dial-a-quote service which enables officials to hear the goings-on down the telephone line from anywhere in the world. Just why Bruno should be so keen to cling on to his old life is unclear, especially as listening to the midday briefing means him leaping out of bed in the early hours of the morning. It just shows how dull life must be in the country's capital Brasilia.

A former Le Monde journalist, Bruno had a love-hate relationship with the press. He was fiercely defensive of his then boss Jacques Delors and failed to comprehend the criticisms Delors had to endure. Perhaps he tunes into the briefing now to relish the discomfort of his successor Klaus van der Pas in handling the daily jousting match.