EU job for Blair would be hostile act, says Hague – The Irish Times – Thu, Oct 22, 2009
WILLIAM HAGUE has intensified a Tory campaign against Tony Blair by warning the EU that his appointment as president of the European Council would be seen in Britain as a hostile act.
The shadow foreign secretary, who has said in private that Mr Blair will only be appointed “over my dead body”, told the 26 EU ambassadors in London that they should think carefully before choosing the former prime minister.
I really wish he would get off the fence and just sign the StopBlair Petition
I couldn’t have said it better myself…
EU job for Blair would be hostile act, says Hague – The Irish Times – Thu, Oct 22, 2009
Mr Hague, who last night met US secretary of state Hillary Clinton amid concerns in Washington at the Tories’ Euroscepticism, launched his strongest attack on Mr Blair at a lunch for 26 ambassadors from the EU member states in London last Thursday.
Eyebrows were raised when Mr Hague said:
– British voters, who are about to remove a Labour government, would regard his reappearance on the world stage as a hostile act.
– Relations between a Conservative government and the EU would be worsened if Mr Blair were president.
– Mr Blair had favoured the US over the EU during his decade as prime minister.
– EU countries should remember the Iraq war and what that had done to European unity. Iraq would haunt Mr Blair in his first few months as president because he would have to give evidence in public to the Chilcot Inquiry into the 2003 war.
One source said: “It would be fair to say the ambassadors were taken aback.
“They know there are differences between Labour and the Conservatives but they were surprised that William Hague could not see the advantages for Britain in having such a big European post.”
Tory sources say the party leadership is adopting a hard cop, soft cop approach to the appointment of Mr Blair.
Mr Hague will lead the charge against the former prime minister while David Cameron will keep his powder dry in case he has to deal with a President Blair as prime minister.
One Tory source said: “Do not underestimate the strength of William’s feelings about Tony Blair. William was badly hit by his loss to Blair in the 2001 general election. He also regards Blair as amoral in light of his handling of the Iraq war.”
This is getting personal, but then everything about Tony Blair was always, well, about Tony Blair…
But what do you make of Hague criticising Blair for choosing the US over the EU at the same time as he is meeting Hillary Clinton to reassure her about UK Euroscepticism? Is he trying to imply that the Tories – well, er, actually love the EU so much more than the US – that they are criticising Tony for making the opposite choice?
Is it really the right way to curry favour with the US by criticising Tony as an ally of Hillary bête noire George Bush?
Hague going in over the top on Tony is beginning to sound like US Republican’s rejoicing at Obama’s failure to swing the Olympics for Chicago and decrying his award of the Nobel prize.
If this goes on much longer, the Tories will come to be seen as increasingly vindictive and unpatriotic and perhaps unsuited to leading Britain’s best interests abroad.
By some sort of weird reverse psychology, EU leaders could now be tempted to give Tory Eurosceptics one in the eye by appointing Tony to spite them!
However something tells me that EU leaders have better things to do with their time and energy than become embroiled in petty internecine squabbles in the UK between people who have never shown that they have the best interests of the EU at heart in the first place.
A plague on both their houses might seem the most appropriate political and diplomatic response. Labour is a lame duck Government, and the Tories would only use Tony as another excuse for anti-EU rants.
It’s beginning to look like there is no narrative that would coherently support Tony for the job. Why reward a recalcitrant UK, give needless ammunition to a future Tory Euro-sceptic Government, and offend US Democrats by appointing a Bush poodle all in one go?
It’s a lose, lose, lose for the EU at this stage. The EU can now appoint almost any non-Tony viable candidate as President and claim it was merely doing as the Tories had asked. The Tories will be stuck with whoever the EU now chooses to appoint, so why not appoint someone like Mary Robinson who represents the human rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights, and anti-market environmentalism the Tories so abhor?
Hague has ably mocked the discomfiture of one Gordon Brown should Blair be appointed.
But wouldn’t it be nice to discomfort the Tories with a Mary Robinson appointment?
