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The beginning of the end? (For Tony Blair)

 
 
Pamela Rosa
 
  1  
Reply Mon 12 Jan, 2009 02:04 pm
Speech by T. Blair
http://tonyblairoffice.org/2009/01/speech-by-tony-blair-at-the-ne.html
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Mon 12 Jan, 2009 03:44 pm
@nimh,

Clarke? Shome mishtake shurely?
nimh
 
  1  
Reply Mon 12 Jan, 2009 04:01 pm
@McTag,
Is what the Independent piece says:

Quote:
Gordon Brown is battling to give Alastair Campbell a peerage to complete a line-up of New Labour big-hitters in time for an election campaign.

But the former spin doctor to Tony Blair is understood not to be interested in a seat in the House of Lords, despite "intensive courtship" by the Prime Minister since October, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.

The revelation came as Alan Milburn, a one-time sworn enemy of Mr Brown, was welcomed into the premier's big tent with a central role on social mobility and access to the Downing Street nerve centre.

Mr Milburn's shock return to Mr Brown's side after years of bitterness between the two men follows the recall of Peter Mandelson, another Blairite critic of the Prime Minister, three months ago. [..]

While the date is still likely to be 2010, insiders said the Prime Minister was ensuring "all the pieces are falling into place" to have the strongest team possible to fight for a fourth Labour term. Other names tipped for return include David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, who recently declared his support for Mr Brown after years of animosity.
0 Replies
 
Pamela Rosa
 
  1  
Reply Tue 13 Jan, 2009 06:08 am
Quote:
Blair reappears on shortlist to head EU
By Tony Barber in Brussels
Published: January 11 2009 17:48

Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, is re-emerging as a possible choice to be the European Union’s first full-time president after four momentous crises reinforced the argument for having a high-profile international personality in the job.

According to EU officials and diplomats, the impressive performance of Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, during his six-month spell in charge of the EU last year has strengthened the hand of those who say a big name should guide the 27-nation bloc.
In one sense, the discussions are premature. The full-time president will take office next year only if the EU’s Lisbon institutional reform treaty, which creates the position, is ratified by all member-states " notably, Ireland, which is expected to hold a second referendum on the treaty between September and December.
But the sheer scale of the challenges facing the EU " from last August’s Russia-Georgia war and the global financial meltdown to the Gaza conflict and the shutdown of Russian gas deliveries to Europe " is redefining the debate.

Whereas last year Germany and other countries looked favourably on candidates such as Jean-Claude Juncker, the long-serving prime minister of Luxembourg, more policymakers now feel the EU presidency demands an occupant from a much bigger member-state.

“Sarkozy concentrated minds,” said an EU diplomat. “He made a lot of us think, ‘When the going gets rough, you’ve just got to have a big person in this job.’”

At present the EU presidency " held since January 1 by the Czech Republic " rotates every six months.

Mr Blair’s name has often cropped up in connection with the job, but last year several factors worked against him, such as his close partnership with George W. Bush, the outgoing US president, and his perceived talent for publicly supporting the EU without being bold enough to commit the UK to closer involvement, for example, by adopting the euro.

EU diplomats said these reservations still applied but had diminished over time and with the recognition that Mr Blair was one of Europe’s few genuine stars on the world stage.

In what looked like a “rehabilitation” of Mr Blair’s standing in the Franco-German core of the EU, the former premier shared the spotlight last Thursday with Mr Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, at a Paris conference on the future of capitalism.

Mr Blair’s chances of getting the job " should it ever be created " may improve as a result of an impending re-distribution of powerful jobs among European leaders.

Under one scenario, José Manuel Barroso of Portugal would keep his job as European Commission president, and the post of EU foreign policy chief would go to Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of the Netherlands, currently Nato’s secretary-general.

The Nato job would go to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Denmark’s prime minister, and the European parliament presidency would be shared between Martin Schulz of Germany and Jerzy Buzek of Poland.

With France’s Jean-Claude Trichet as European Central Bank president and Dominique Strauss-Kahn as International Monetary Fund managing director, the case for having a Briton as EU president would on paper be strong.

Mr Blair’s spokesman said on Sunday: “The job [as EU president] doesn’t even exist so the question doesn’t arise. He’s fully focused on his work in the Middle East.”


source
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba0753fe-e004-11dd-9ee9-000077b07658.html



0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Tue 13 Jan, 2009 04:46 pm

Oh yes, Charles Clarke. Pillock. (Him, not me.) I was thinking of Kenneth Clarke, who was in the news this week about a recall, but is not New Labour.
Steve 41oo
 
  1  
Reply Thu 29 Jan, 2009 07:07 am
@McTag,
I've just been called a masochistic pillock. With reference to bicycling. Its not true I say. I'm just a common or garden pillock.
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Thu 29 Jan, 2009 11:39 am
@Steve 41oo,

No pain without Wayne.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Fri 30 Jan, 2009 03:54 am
The Times, in an early plug of a piece in their Saturday magazine, have an exclusive interview with Tony Blair, in which the former prime minister comes close to admitting that he suffers doubts over his decision to invade Iraq.

Tony Blair: I suffer doubts over Iraq
Steve 41oo
 
  1  
Reply Fri 30 Jan, 2009 12:56 pm
@Walter Hinteler,
A bit late now. If he had doubts about converting to Roman Catholicism, that would be more interesting Smile
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Fri 30 Jan, 2009 03:25 pm
@Walter Hinteler,

The smarmy little git knows he has no chance of becoming St Tony unless he admits his guilt.

I think Michael Barrymore has a higher standing with the British public than he does.

You can fool some of the people some of the time, Tony.
0 Replies
 
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Wed 15 Jul, 2009 11:06 am
From agencies:

Quote:
The British government will give their full support to Tony Blair if he puts himself forward for the new EU presidency, Glenys Kinnock said today.

The new Europe minister was speaking in Strasbourg at the opening session for the new European parliament.


Or as the Dutch say: "Engeland wil Blair als EU-president"


While the above is from the Dutch 'Telegraaf', the English 'Telegraph' headlines (in its blog): "Hail Tony Blair, President of Europe by the grace of Gordon"
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Wed 15 Jul, 2009 12:50 pm
@Walter Hinteler,

Good article.

"Considering the last time we had anything equivalent to a President of Europe it was Adolf Hitler, there is a definite congruence to this proposed appointment. Tony does not brook contradiction. When it comes to lavish salaries and perks, tortured rhetoric and weasel vocabulary to bamboozle the plebs, sensible economy with that expensive commodity, the truth; and an invincible conviction about what is best for other people " Tony does all that to perfection.

But it goes beyond those mere technical qualifications. It is a question of one man’s ability to personify in himself all the attributes and aspirations of the European Union; and Blair might have been put on earth to do just that. Ask yourself, in all honesty, can you think of any other individual who more completely embodies all the characteristics to be discerned in the dark, maggot-swarming heart of the European Union? Especially an ineradicable contempt for Britain, its people and traditions. This is destiny at work. This embrace of the Great Charlatan by the Brussels hydra is a marriage made in heaven; or, perhaps more accurately, in hell. All hail, President Blair!"
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Wed 15 Jul, 2009 01:01 pm
@McTag,
McTag wrote:


Good article.



I don't think so.

The author either has no idea of European history between 1933 and 1945 or the position of the President of the EU.
nimh
 
  1  
Reply Wed 15 Jul, 2009 04:46 pm
@Walter Hinteler,
Quote:
The British government will give their full support to Tony Blair if he puts himself forward for the new EU presidency, Glenys Kinnock said today.

Europeans will never vote for Blair
Labour is championing Tony Blair as head of the EU. But with so many people against him, who are they kidding?

Headline is stupid (what vote?), but otherwise - yeah, pretty much. Thank god.
0 Replies
 
nimh
 
  1  
Reply Wed 15 Jul, 2009 04:59 pm
@McTag,
McTag wrote:

"Considering the last time we had anything equivalent to a President of Europe it was Adolf Hitler [..]

[..] can you think of any other individual who more completely embodies all the characteristics to be discerned in the dark, maggot-swarming heart of the European Union? Especially an ineradicable contempt for Britain, its people and traditions. [..]"

Holy moses, does this seriously pass as sane commentary in Britain? I mean, I know it's the Telegraph, but even so?

Comparing the prospective President of the EU Council with Hitler? Seriously? Shouldn't Godwin's law have kicked in right there?

The "dark, maggot-swarming heart of the European Union"? What is this, a BNP commercial? The rantings of a UKIP dilettant? Who even talks like that, outside the Balkans?

What a weird mix of unrestrained hysteria and fearmongering.

Oh - hysteria, fearmongering and megalomania. I mean, seriously: the heart of the EU features "an ineradicable contempt for Britain, its people and traditions"? Sorry to break this to the Brits, but there's no sentiment towards Britain one way or the other at the heart of the EU project. You're just not that important.

About Germany I could at least have seen the point of such an argument - as in, part of what drove EU integration was a desire to check Germany's power and forever tie it down into a broader whole. But "Britain, its people and its traditions"? If anything, Britain has made itself relatively irrelevant to the heart of EU power, having scorned it and isolated itself for so long.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Wed 15 Jul, 2009 05:23 pm
@nimh,
Well nimh--we do have Trident and we are making sacrifices in Afghanistan. And we have a seat on the Security Council.

Then there's cricket and football.

I think you are talking rubbish.
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Wed 15 Jul, 2009 10:28 pm
@Walter Hinteler,

Both you and nimh read this article differently from me. I read it as an imaginative and comprehensive repudiation of Tony Blair. You read it as a serious critique of the EC.
Walter Hinteler
 
  1  
Reply Thu 16 Jul, 2009 12:01 am
@McTag,
My main point is the comparing of the prospective President of the EU Council with Hitler:

That, as said, either proves, the author has no idea what Hitler did (and where and how he ruled) and/or no idea at all what a president of EU Council does and how she/he is elected (sic!).

McTag
 
  1  
Reply Thu 16 Jul, 2009 12:13 am
@Walter Hinteler,

I don't think anyone would dream of disagreeing with that.

It is a distasteful as well as an innacurate simile. The author evidently is an opponent of the EC as much as of Mr Blair, but I was pleased only to read his criticisms of our Tony.
(who is a disgusting, self-serving, hypocritical, untrustworthy and narcissistic little **** imho)
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Thu 16 Jul, 2009 05:40 am
@McTag,
The problem with that Mac is that it is impossible to rise to the top in politics without being a disgusting, self-serving, hypocritical, untrustworthy and narcissistic little ****. At least monarchy provides a chance of something else.
0 Replies
 
 

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