Patriots for Blair!

Shadow Europe Minister Mark Francois was on Newsnight earlier this week debating the possibility of Tony Blair becoming European President with his Labour opposite number. During the interchange we were informed by the Labour chap that supporting Tony Blair was a patriotic duty, and this theme has been echoed by Labour blogger Luke Akehurst:

I'd go so far as to suggest it is unpatriotic to try to block a Brit from becoming President.

Right...so any Briton is preferable to any foreigner for the job entirely on the basis that he or she is British? Is that the argument? So, we would support, for example, Nick Griffin ahead of any citizen of another EU nation would we? What nonsense. Anyway, it looks as if three things are conspiring to keep Tony Blair out of this particular job:

• Firstly, his past is catching up with him. The Iraq war was a foreign policy disaster, largely due to the ineptitude of the Blair and Bush administrations, and the Continental Europeans have not forgotten. As a result there is a echoing void where support for a Blair presidency among other countries should be.
• Secondly, the British Conservatives have let it be known that they would engage in years of trench warfare with the EU if Blair became president. Given the possibility of a Conservative government then this is a serious threat.
• Thirdly, and most importantly, Tony Blair has Gordon Brown's full support. So, we can expect off-the-record briefings from third-tier political players and clumsy attempts to influence behind the scenes while the Prime Minister himself says nothing. If you are going to get support it is generally better to get it from people with a bit more ability that the current crowd at no.10.

I think that we are safe.