Now that it looks likely that the Lisbon treaty will be ratified by all countries, the focus has now turned to the who will be the first President. Most believe it will be Tony Blair, and under normal circumstances I would find that ok. He would, in my opinion, be preferred to a European socialist such as Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as he does have a feel for the English middle classes and would try to protect the British Financial centre.
The big but, though, is that it was this man who duped the British public over the Lisbon treaty in the first place. He duped us by promising us a referendum, getting re-elected and then reneging on his promise. He knew he would not have to face the electorate after the referendum plan had been revoked.
If you believe in conspiracy theories you could almost imagine, in the weeks leading up to his announcement of the referendum, Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson looking at the options of what Tony might do after he left number 10. How about another big job? EU President. All he needed to do was make sure that he could deliver the British public, which meant he had to win the election (against the public who were hostile to the treaty), retire and then come back when the job was done. The plan has worked out brilliantly for TB.
I don't believe that they could have been so clever to pull everything off, so it just happens that it has worked out this way. But for the simple reason that he pulled the plug on the referendum at the first possible opportunity means he should be stopped from being the EU president but also why he will be the first. The EU leaders must have known it would be extremely difficult to ratify the treaty in Britain. If Michael Howard had won in 2005 it would have failed, if the referendum had happened it would have failed. They have a lot to thank Tony for! Hence, Gordon Brown will be able to greet his old friend and foe as Mr. President not long from now.
Squiffy.
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