They think it's all over

Wily Trout

They can put on an electioneering photo-call, with Blair and Brown eating ice creams and Miliband holding a banana. That should get the voters out.

Stepney

Like the farcical legal requirement to half the deficit in 4 years this has been a tale of Gordon's scorched earth.

His magnificent world saving brain works out the answer the question "Who would Cameron least like to be Il presidente?"

Answer: The Sedgefield war criminal.

His sponsorship of Blair has had nothing to do with the UK, nor the Eu and definitely not a leg-up for an old chum.

Brown hates Blair.

But not as much as he hates Cameron.

patently

>>> a fortune commensurate with the national debt...

Oooh - there's an idea. "Ex-Prime-Ministers Windfall Tax", anyone?

Vulture

The worst fate of all beckons: sitting on a pile of his ill-gotten gold with that insatiable gold-digging cow beside him, and the ghost of David Kelly turning up to spoil the feast.I can see it as a play : let's call it MacBliar

frizby

"I know... we'll get Tony out campaigning.. they'll love that... juz like old times.."

If slippery knocks on my door in the run up to the election I'll whack a saucepan round his chops!

peter

Wily Trout
November 19th, 2009 1:20pm Report this comment

They can put on an electioneering photo-call, with Blair and Brown eating ice creams and Miliband holding a banana. That should get the voters out....

to vote for Cameron! Hasn't Blair resalised that, lauded though he may be elsewhere, here he is regarded as anything on the scale between dislike to utter loathing?

Paul Williams

It looks like Blair has, like his predecessors, found out the hard way that the EU is for the benefit of France and Germany and that he's had his fingers burnt. He (and Brown) helps the EU regarding the constitution and then they stick two fingers up at him.

Being in Europe means being ruled by it, and in the UK’s case not having influence at all. At least Thatcher had the good grace to admit she had been effectively duped with the Single European Act.

The EU wants our money; the French our CAP contributions, the Spanish our fishing waters. So when is one of the three main parties’ actually going to put Britain first?

I won’t hold my breath!

Sir Graphus

President Blair would have been electorally disastrous for Labour: people resent there being an unelected EU president. It was Labour who gave it to us. People know this. There is a direct line running from Blair to Labour to the ballot box. People would have protested with that stubby pencil.

mac

Vulture,

Play? Pantomime, surely, with one recurring musical motif 'Things can only get better'. Anthropomorphic corkscrew (costumed in all white glitter) and a Royal Mail letterbox as the grand dame Liverpool lawyer. Guest appearance by those artistic elephant droppings - take your pick as to which wondrous New Labour hero/heroine they represent.

denis cooper

Firstly, perhaps I can be forgiven for simply re-posting what I said a couple of days ago about the role of the President of the European Council, as rather loosely defined in the revamped EU Constitution, and drawing particular attention to the last line.

"From Article 15 TEU as it would be amended by Lisbon:

"The President of the European Council:

(a) shall chair it and drive forward its work ... ",

and as

"The European Council shall provide the Union with the necessary impetus for its development and shall define the general political directions and priorities thereof"

he'll be in the driving seat for the entire project.

But there'll also be 29 backseat drivers: the other members of the European Council - the 27 Heads of State or Government of the Member States, and the President of the European Commission - plus "the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy shall take part in its work".

"The President of the European Council shall, at his level and in that capacity, ensure the external representation of the Union on issues concerning its common foreign and security policy, without prejudice to the powers of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy."

"The President of the European Council shall not hold a national office", so obviously he can't be one of the Heads of State or Government doubling up as the President; he'll be apart from them, and on paper he'll be superior to them by virtue of his office.

However they do retain the power to remove him before the end of his term, if they can get themselves organised to mount a coup against him.

So the power of the President of the European Council could be very limited, but only if its other members were willing and able to keep him on a tight leash.

A strong and clever man could make himself into a virtual dictator during his five years, while a weak man could end up being little more than a puppet or figurehead, easily manipulated by the stronger members of the Council (for which read at present, Merkel and Sarkozy)."

michael

Pour vous mon cherie? 7000 euros le coiffure?

Er......non.

denis cooper

Secondly, I don't understand why it should be thought that Brown would prefer to install Blair as EU President to cause problems for Cameron as Prime Minister.

Brown may hate Blair, but Cameron doesn't - he's his heir, isn't he? - and I should think the two could find enough points of broad agreement to be able to get on well enough.

I don't have a vote on who is appointed to this post, AND NOR DO I WANT ONE - I don't want the post to exist at all, and I wouldn't want to participate in the charade of a transnational, and therefore inherently undemocratic, election where I was asked to choose between foreigner A, foreigner B and British quisling C.

However to maximise the scope for much-needed humour in these dark times, I'd certainly prefer President Rumpty-Pumpty, described by his own sister as a "clown", to an obnoxious, oleaginous, President Blair.

Number7

I had to think long and hard about this, And then the perfct description revealed itself:-

"What's lower than snake sh*t?"

Tankus

hurrah !

Augustus

The favourite is of course Herman van Rompuy
the Belgian Prime minister. and at least he is strongly against admitting Turkey into the EU. The role of the EU President is going to be as a global player, someone who can win the 'hearts and minds' of global leaders regarding global issues. He must also know foreign leaders well, and be able to deal as effectively with Washington as with Beijing. Although Blair probably won't win, he would at least have fulfilled those criteria better than the other more
'provincial' candidates.

Moraymint

" ... informing perplexed audiences about the evils of materialism ...".

Obviously a Marxist, all the way down to the soles of his John Lobbs.

Nicholas

I just cannot understand why people think having two governments is a good idea. It's bad enough having one government that behaves like a fat and idle relative overstaying their welcome, eating you out of house and home and spending all their time poking through your things - but two fat and idle relatives?

And the "job description" posted by denis says it all. Woolly worded tripe which means the fat and idle incumbents will spend most of their time (at our expense) positioning and posturing.

Governments - what use are they? They can't even get the things they are supposed to do right half the time and the rest of the time they are dreaming up even more ways of separating us from our cash and making our lives difficult and miserable.

Boudicca

If Blair wants to start redeeming himself with the UK electorate, perhaps he'd like to sell the various houses he has bought, presumably with the help of MP's expenses (thanks for shredding the evidence Tony). He could also put together all the money he has earned since leaving office and trading on his time as PM, and donate the lot, towards paying back the budgetary defecit he and Brown are responsible for landing us with. Afterall, it is easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven. And I'm sure the saintly Tony wants to stand a chance of getting there.

JohnAnt

My own theory is that Tone realised it wouldn't give him What He Wanted, so back-pedalled. Good thing too, as SarkoMerkel wouldn't have played ball.
It's a bit like going in for that job you don't want. but it has a higher pay grade, so you have to, to put down a marker for all the others.
So it's still everything to play for with the World Bank, Sec Gen of the UN, Head of NATO, etc...