The issue of national identity is taken seriously by Balkan people – including the least serious among them.
Blair’s British Nightmare
London | 28 October 2009 | By Marcus Tanner
No man is a prophet in his own country. As a keen churchgoer and Catholic convert, Tony Blair must be familiar with those words from the Bible – a proverb that applies closely to his own situation this week.
Only days ago Britain’s former prime minister seemed a shoe-in for the job of Europe’s first “president” – once the ink was finally dry on the much fought-over Lisbon Treaty.
Italy under Berlusconi was strongly supportive, France’s Sarkozy only a little less so, while Germany’s Merkel could be counted on to be more or less neutral. But as the prospect of President Blair has honed right into view, grumbles from the one country he might have hoped to rely on – Britain – have mutated into fury.
True, the British government under Gordon Brown remains committed to a Blair candidacy. But with Labour facing an election debacle in a poll that must take place by next spring, power and authority are already draining from Brown’s administration.
It’s the rising sun of David Cameron’s opposition Conservatives that people increasingly watch – and Cameron’s opposition to “President” Blair seems implacable.
In fact, opposition to Blair’s EU role comes from two fronts in the United Kingdom – from both left and right. Hatred of the former prime minister for his role in the Iraq war is intense on the British left and shows no sign of going away.
To get a flavour, read this week’s centre-page articles in the left’s in-house journal, the Guardian. According to regular star columnist George Monbiot on Monday, Blair is one of the “greatest living mass murderers on earth” and ought to be facing charges of war crimes. Turn over and award-winning cartoonist Steve Bell shows Blair morphing into the unmistakable features of Radovan Karadzic under the mocking title “Europe’s next president”. Ouch!
If the deep loathing of the British left were the only things he had to worry about, Blaire probably wouldn’t be losing sleep right now. But they’re the least of his concerns. A much bigger problem is that the Conservatives are also training their anti-aircraft batteries on the Blair spitfire.
Having let it known that they would view his appointment to any kind of presidential role in Europe as a “hostile act”, the Conservatives have fired a very clear warning shot cross the bows of every country that may have been planning to support his candidacy.
The Conservative leaders don’t appear to be bluffing. Strongly opposed to the Lisbon Treaty in the first place, they’re even more opposed to the idea of an unelected EU “president” who they think will lend the EU more of the attributes of a “state”.
If there is to be such a leadership figure, they reason, far better that the position goes to a more obscure politician from a small EU state like Luxembourg or Belgium than to a headline-grabber like Blair.
It’s also clear that Conservative warnings that they would see Blair’s promotion to a key post in the EU as “hostile acts” are having an impact.
Blair has notably refused to declare himself a candidate – possibly because he now fears that if he went for the job and didn’t get it, in Britain his defeat would be met by a chorus of savage jeers.
One can only imagine the glee and jubilation with which the tabloid media would greet Blair’s “humiliation”. Cartoonists would have a field day. I can see it now: Blair as an extinct dinosaur; a beached whale; a torpedoed liner; a plane going down in flames.
Meanwhile, Blair’s foreign backers seem to be losing their former conviction. Suddenly they’re murmuring about the need for all 27 EU nations to reach a consensus on the issue. Funny that no one mentioned that hurdle only a little while ago.
What now? As the Czechs are still dithering over whether to sign Lisbon, the treaty’s not even a done deal. But assuming they do sign it before the next British general election – and that the treaty therefore comes into effect before a new Conservative government in London can block it – let’s assume Berlusconi and co get their way and Blair gets his Brussels job.
Conventional wisdom is that the Conservatives will be furious. After all, they said they would see this as a “hostile act”.
I wonder. Given the depths of their own euro-phobia – and given the depth of Blair’s unpopularity in Britain – might it not suit them rather well to have in Brussels a sort of hate figure like “President” Blair? A discredited man in charge of what they will call a discredited institution. Watch this space.
2009-10-28 19:06:30