Blair in frame to become first EU president, says Glenys Kinnock

[muriel_volestrangler]

Source: The Guardian

Tony Blair is a contender to become the first president of the EU with the full backing of the British government, the new Europe minister said today.

Glenys Kinnock, in Strasbourg for the opening session of the new European parliament, said that although the former prime minister had not formally declared his candidacy, it was "certainly" the government position to support him.

"I am sure they would not do it without asking him," Lady Kinnock said. "The UK government is supporting Tony Blair's candidature for president of the council."

The new post is to be created under the Lisbon Treaty, which will streamline the way the EU is run if it is endorsed in an Irish referendum in early October.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jul/15/tony-blair-eu-presidency

---

A sample of the first few comments on the news story:

"We're doomed

Nightmarish. Awful. Terrible

The idea that anyone who knows who this lying, country-destroying thief is, might still respect him is so far beyond laughable it could only have come from someone as out-of-touch as a labourite hack

Never, NEVER, NEVER, unless we really want to be finished for good. The Hague Tribunal, yes, but for heaven's sake keep him away from us otherwise.

God almighty! Whatever next?
What happened to Peace and Love in the Middle East?

Politicians really are out of touch with the electorate if they believe this to be true. The only thing I would welcome for Blair - is a very long prison sentence for war crimes.

If he's in Brussels it will be handy for the Hague when he's dragged off there in chains.

I mean, really? The most untrustworthy Prime Minister ever may become EU President?

WOW the war criminal Blair has the backing of the unprincipled opportunist Kinnocks?

It will be good to have him back. I miss Tony, Tony, Tony."

Yep, on the nominally pro-Labour Guardian, you have to read 10 comments before 1 thinks it's anything but a bloody awful idea.

[Captain Hilts]

1. As a reward for bad behavior? nt

[marmar]

2. Uggh.

:thumbsdown:

[dipsydoodle]

3. I'll believe anything now

That's all we need - that lying bastard as EU President.

[Downwinder]

4. That should be enough to kill the Irish vote. n/t

[The Stranger]

5. Oh please god no. He'll convert Europe to Fundamentalist Christianity and then

invade the Middle East to bring on the End Times.

Anybody but him.

[LeftishBrit]

12. No, the EU president has no power to do either of those things.

(In any case, he is a Catholic; not an 'End Times' sort of fundie.)

What he COULD do is turn the entire EU against Britain by the time he's finished.

Also, it gives respectability to a most dishonourable man.

[No Elephants]

30. A few things:

1. His conversion to Catholicism is relatively recent--announced at the end of 2007.

2. Catholic "fundies" do exist, and increasingly so (though I hate the incorrect way that word is used here.)

3. http://www.tonyblairfaithfoundation.org/

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Blair

Ih Blair's wiki, check the text under the "Religious Faith" heading.

[LeftishBrit]

31. I don't care for Blair's brand of religious mania...

but I don't think he'll convert anyone in Europe who wasn't converted already.

We are after all the evil secular 'dark continent of Europe' according to American fundies!

ETA: It was generally known in the UK that he was 'converting to Catholicism' for quite a few years; he just waited till leaving office to make it formal, presumably because British voters tend to distrust too much preoccupation with religion in our leaders.

[No Elephants]

32. It's not only about conversion. Dummya did not run around the country holding tent revival meetings

It is a way of behaving as an office holder that is highly objectionable. And not simply because of a belief in a higher power. I would not want to see Blair in charge of the EU anymore than I would want to see Dummya in charge of it.

[LeftishBrit]

34. Oh, I fully agree with you THERE!

My original response was to the suggestion that Blair might convert lots of Europaeans to fundamentalism. I don't think there's a chance of that. BUT - he is a smarmy bastard, known liar and hypocrite, up to his neck in war crimes, and certainly not fit for the post.

Plus, I don't think Europe wants to be governed from somewhere up George Bush's arse!

[dflprincess]

36. In the BBC show "The Trial of Tony Blair"

(worth watching, very funny). They had Blair hot to turn Catholic because he wanted to be able to confess his sins before he was dragged to The Hague as a war criminal.

Maybe he is trying to atone for his sins, but I don't think it will work.

[sinkingfeeling]

6. Pray the Irish vote this down in October.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. Time to bring up the LOLBlair link from 2008, I think:

http://bp2.blogger.com.nyud.net:8080/_jMkkcGSVIIc/R9qwrJyK2bI/AAAAAAAAAl8/89t3Fl7sVc8/s400/lol_blair6.jpg

and many more: http://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/1776

[Nihil]

25. Thanks for that!

Still laugh when I see the photo of him with the "vibrator" in his mouth!

[Gidney N Cloyd]

8. So Tony's gig with the Carlyle Group fell through?

[Vidar]

9. I've given up on the US which always promotes criminals. Europe too?

[Odin2005]

10. Emperor Tony?

:puke:

[LeftishBrit]

11. What a disgusting idea

And I'm disappointed in Glenys Kinnock for supporting it. Thought she had more sense and integrity.

[bluesmail]

13. One step closer to One World Government. (NWO) eom

[LeftishBrit]

17. This whole concept of 'One World Government/NWO' comes from religious fundies and right-libertarians

Not going to happen - the UN is divided and couldn't run a whelk stall, and the EU represents a relatively small part of the world and is not much more united or efficient (it's accomplished one or two good things with regard to civil rights in Europe, but it's hardly all-powerful).

The main danger of 'NWO' and 'One World Government' is as myths that can be used to bolster right-wing xenophobia - when fear of the Terra-ists palls, the Right can rally their members by whipping up fear of the UN and EU. The EU is the biggest bogey to the British and Europaean Right - and this bogey has certainly been used with some effect to gain votes for local neo-fascists such as the BNP. The UN seems to be the bigger bogey for RW Americans.

[mogster]

14. Don't we have more politicians than these?

It seems idiotic to recycle something as useless as Tony Blair. It's incredible.

[proReality]

15. Ugh n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. The problem with the EU concept is that people are totally removed from having a say.

Britains can't vote on this.
Nor Europe proper.
and even if they could, when did elected offcials listen?
All decisions are being made by fewer and fewer people.
And Blair is being rewarded for handing over Britain.

[dipsydoodle]

18. William Hague says no way Jose.

Buried in here :

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said the new role could be "enormously damaging".

"Any holder is likely to try to centralise power for themselves in Brussels and dominate national foreign policies.

"In the hands of an operator as ambitious as Tony Blair, that is a near certainty. He should be let nowhere near the job."

Campaign group Open Europe said the EU should stick with the rotating presidency which allows the current national leaders - who have a democratic mandate - to set the EU's agenda on a six-monthly basis.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8152099.stm

[librechik]

19. excellent choice

for U.S. to poop on!

[IndianaGreen]

20. Blair, the war criminal and assassin of Dr. David Kelly

Our doubts about Dr Kelly's suicide

The Guardian, Tuesday 27 January 2004 03.02 GMT

As specialist medical professionals, we do not consider the evidence given at the Hutton inquiry has demonstrated that Dr David Kelly committed suicide.
Dr Nicholas Hunt, the forensic pathologist at the Hutton inquiry, concluded that Dr Kelly bled to death from a self-inflicted wound to his left wrist. We view this as highly improbable. Arteries in the wrist are of matchstick thickness and severing them does not lead to life-threatening blood loss. Dr Hunt stated that the only artery that had been cut - the ulnar artery - had been completely transected. Complete transection causes the artery to quickly retract and close down, and this promotes clotting of the blood.

The ambulance team reported that the quantity of blood at the scene was minimal and surprisingly small. It is extremely difficult to lose significant amounts of blood at a pressure below 50-60 systolic in a subject who is compensating by vasoconstricting. To have died from haemorrhage, Dr Kelly would have had to lose about five pints of blood - it is unlikely that he would have lost more than a pint.

Alexander Allan, the forensic toxicologist at the inquiry, considered the amount ingested of Co-Proxamol insufficient to have caused death. Allan could not show that Dr Kelly had ingested the 29 tablets said to be missing from the packets found. Only a fifth of one tablet was found in his stomach. Although levels of Co-Proxamol in the blood were higher than therapeutic levels, Allan conceded that the blood level of each of the drug's two components was less than a third of what would normally be found in a fatal overdose.

We dispute that Dr Kelly could have died from haemorrhage or from Co-Proxamol ingestion or from both. The coroner, Nicholas Gardiner, has spoken recently of resuming the inquest into his death. If it re-opens, as in our opinion it should, a clear need exists to scrutinise more closely Dr Hunt's conclusions as to the cause of death.

David Halpin
Specialist in trauma and orthopaedic surgery

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2004/jan/27/guardianletters4

[Canuckistanian]

23. Yup, the Dr. Kelly murder will haunt his candidacy

The investigation into Dr. Kelly's death has already been dubbed a "whitewash".

[No Elephants]

33. Not to mention Iraq, the Downing Street memos and the nickname "Bush's poodle."

[RFKHumphreyObama]

21. Yuck

:puke: :puke: :puke:

I want that vile man nowhere near a position of power again.

Let's hope Glenys Kinnock has as much success pushing this idea as her husband did winning elections

[Canuckistanian]

22. I thought they had a seat warmed up for him on the board of Carlyle Group

Did he ever say anything non-capitalisitc to get him shunned from the trough?

[New Dawn]

24. War criminal Blair belongs in jail, not in office.

[Dutch]

26. Good news for euro-sceptics everywhere...

[T_i_B]

27. For those of you on Facebook

A group just created on this very subject I would recomend you all join.

Facebookers against Blair as EU president

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=105161592117

And on a more positive note OK, Brits: We want John Cleese as EU president ;-) is another group you can join.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=99514698466&ref=mf

[T_i_B]

28. Europeans will never vote for Blair

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/15/tony-blair-european-president-labour

It is true that when Blair was elected prime minister in 1997 he was regarded in the European Union as worthy of great hope and expectation. Much of this had to do with the sheer relief of seeing the back of an obsessively narrow-minded, anti-European Tory government. He also talked a good talk when it came to proclaiming his pro-European credentials.

However, at first slowly and then very rapidly Blair's standing throughout the EU went into decline as it emerged that under his government Britain remained as negative, carping and footdragging as his Tory predecessors. Even right-of-centre EU governments viewed his government's attempts to block progressive legislation on workers' rights and other innovative social policies with disbelief.

What finally shattered the European love affair with Blair was, of course, the Iraq war. Even mainstream EU political leaders, not given to public criticism of United States policy were appalled at the subservience of Blair and his government to the George Bush strategy on combating the "axis of evil". It is no exaggeration to say that in most of the European chancelleries there are deep-seated convictions that Blair gave his commitment to back Bush in launching war in Iraq long before troops were dispatched and after it emerged there were no weapons of mass destruction.

Blair's record since then has failed to win him more European admirers – perhaps the sole remaining example being his friend and Iraq war ally, the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. In addition, Blair's prestigious-sounding role in seeking to broker a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians seems to have produced little in the way of concrete results.

[Javaman]

29. failing up. nt

[fedsron2us]

35. Lets just hope that the traditional EU squabbling scuppers this lousy idea

and the job gets given to some politician from one of the smaller European states as usually happens.