Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine had a excruciatingly-long profile of Robert Kilroy-Silk. It also includes an unusually pan-European introduction to Euroskepticism and its relationship to the transatlantic relationship.

On a related note, The Times notes trade commissioner and former Blairite spin-doctor Peter Mandelson has been appointed to the Commission’s communications committee.

…The committee, which will meet every six to eight weeks, is chaired by the Swedish commissioner and senior vice- president of the Commission, Margot Wallström. The committee’s mandate is to coordinate the announcement of all European Union policies to ensure “effective communication”, and to develop and monitor “the new communication strategy of the European Commission”.

The communications committee was set up by Senhor [Jose Manuel] Barroso after he made “reconnecting” the EU with the public one of his main priorities, in order to overcome the dilemma of legitimacy that the union is facing with many voters.

A spokesman for Ms Wallström said: “The main reason Mr Mandelson is on the committee is that he has vast experience of political communication.”