The man pictured above is the new EU President. His name is Herman van Rompuy, but for all I care it could be Herman Munster. The most important thing is that his name is not Tony Blair. In the words of Kool and The Gang ‘Celebrate’.
Neo-cons sneered at the campaign to block Blair from becoming EU President. They sneered at our petitions and they sneered at those of us who wrote articles opposing Blair’s candidacy.
The Wall Street Journal, which attacked me here in one of its editorials- called those of us who didn’t want Blair to be EU President to be part of an ’angry, fading movement'.
But the movement that is fading, as we saw from last nights announcement, is the one which tried to get an unindicted war-criminal appointed as EU’s President. As far as arrogant, elitist movements go, the campaign to get Blair - a man loathed across the continent- the top job in the EU, really took the biscuit. Blair’s appointment would have been the culmination of the neo-con dream. But happily it failed.
p.s.
Uber neo-con commentator Daniel Finkelstein does not find the appointment of Baroness Ashton, a former Treasurer of CND, as the EU’s first Foreign Minister, to be ‘reassuring’.
I don’t know about you, dear reader, but I find the fact that a hardcore neocon like Finkelstein doesn’t find Ashton’s appointment ‘reassuring’ to be most reassuring.
Take it away, Kool.
video: Abrutis50.
13 comments:
I don't see why it would have been a neocon dream to have an effective spokesman for the council of ministers. I'm sure neocons objected to the obsessives in the UK who tried to block Blair because of Iraq, but I don't think a strong Europe is in their interests. And the neocons aren't in power anyway - Blair would have worked well with someone like Obama.
The comfort I take from this is that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with him not getting the job. The Europeans simply didn't want a strong leader that might outside them, and others thought it inappropriate for a counrty not in the Euro to be the figure head. Brits forget that Iraq faded as an issue for Europeans in 2003 - they had no troops there - and Blair worked well with them for years after the war. It's a complete non-issue.
One suspects they might come crawling back to Blair in two years time when this quiet federalist doesn't work out.
Hi James,
I sincerely hope that in two years time Blair will to be too busy defending himself at a war crimes trial to be thinking about becoming EU President.
Always interesting stuff on your blog. But come on I know the evil of the Neocons. No mention of the EU coup d'etat?????
Why do you want Blair to stand for war crimes? It seems the problem with the Iraq war was when Al Qaeda started massacring people. You can hardly blame that on Blair. Indeed, he tried to stop it.
I'm fascinated why some people believe Blair is a war criminal. You're just joking, aren't you?
James misses the point entirely. Neocons (who will probably be in power in the UK in less than six months) indeed do not want a strong Europe - but that's precisely why they wanted Blair!
Blair as EU president would have ensured that the EU was weak and powerless on its own terms - it would not have been able to provide a counterbalance in terms of global power. James obviously wants a unipolar world. I pity him.
Unfortunately, the whole issue has shown up the covert alliance between lapsed cultural Marxists (with their objections to "dead white European males") and simple tabloid xenophobes - c.f. the Guardian and Mail having the same headline. My views are here: http://in-the-cage.blogspot.com/2009/11/just-sent-to-guardian.html
Van Rompuy and Ashton are both uber Eurocrats and, Van Rompuy a long time EU insider and Ashton a New Labour favourite of Mandelsson, I hardly think its anything to be celebrate except for the knocking Blairs ego got.
Blair as president elected by the €U politburo, would have been prefarable. Why? because a better and more honest face of this fascist-union is hard to find...
Me too, Ceeeelebrate yaaahoooo!
And it is wonderful to see a journalist of calibre using other media to enhance their writing .. love the song, very appropriate ... way to go Neil ... who said journalism has to be boring?! ... way to go for the future! :-)
Neil what trial and court you have in mind?
This one maybe:
http://www.nolanchart.com/article7058.html
What about Mrs Blair??
I bet she will say
WWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
I WOOONT BE EU FFFFFIIIIIRRRRSSSTTTT LADYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY .....
WAAAAAAAHHHHH
She has to continue with her husband making millions from tour speeches in the US.... how boring....
A silly question but I often want to upload youtube videos on my blog but I don't know how to do it. Can somebody point me in the right direction ?
As for James he seems to think Europe consists of France & Germany. After the invasion there were numerous European nations backing the neoconservaive project-almost all the states of Central and eastern europe....
thanks to all who have commented.
Karl: in answer to your question, the simplest way is to copy the 'embed code', found on the right side of the You Tube video, to the place on the blog post you want it.
all best, Neil
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