Blair to Advise Zurich! Brown to Advise Blair?
- Brown to advise Blair?
- Gordon’s Song- “We’re All Blairites Now”
- Added 9th February - Video on The Blair Switch Project
Comment at end
28th January, 2008
BLAIR to Advise ZURICH
[Picture: Tony Blair at Davos, World Economic Forum]
I’m ‘fessing up! Sorry. I was wrong. Thought the noon news said FSA! (Have now edited this page.)
It appears it is Zurich, or ZFS, the Swiss Insurance group, Mr Blair has signed up with. Phew! Just as well it wasn’t the FSA! That’s a relief for a lot of us.
It seems he will be advising on climate issues in particular.
Oh yes, that’s another of Mr Blair’s interests, isn’t it?
He really does leave you breathless though, doesn’t he? Just how many hours are in HIS day?
And for how long can he manage on three hours sleep a night? It’s almost as though he knows there is a time limit into which he has to pack a lifetime’s achievements.
Read more here about possible future ambitions of the man the French called the “high speed motorboat” at a Paris conference just a few weeks ago.
According to The Telegraph, the present prime minister will try to thwart the ambitions of the former PM concerning any EU presidency ambitions Blair might harbour. Well, maybe. He’s had plenty of practice in the thwarting Blair business. And as William Hague referred to it so pithily last week in the Europe Treaty debate -
“We can all picture the scene at a European Council sometime next year.
“Picture the face of our poor Prime Minister as the name ‘Blair’ is nominated by one president and prime minister after another - the look of gloom on his face at the nauseating, glutinous praise oozing from every head of government. And then the awful moment when the motorcade of the President of Europe sweeps into Downing Street.
“The gritted teeth and bitten nails: the Prime Minister emerges from his door with a smile of intolerable anguish; the choking sensation as the words, ‘Mr President’, are forced from his mouth. And then, once in the Cabinet room, the melodrama of, ‘When will you hand over to me?’ all over again.”
Amusing indeed. Though something tells me that Mr Blair is too good for the (British premiership) room. But there is no doubt that Mr Blair as EU President might signal a few changes in the British government’s approach to Europe. And although we automatically assume any perceived conflict would be destructive, it might actually be the opposite.
WHY?
For decades now the British have been semi-detached members of the European Union. Despite the occasional pro-Europe prime minister, most notably, the Conservative Edward Heath, nothing has moved the British voter to love being European.
The main reason for that is that the press is largely anti Europe and revels in regurgitating the “bad things”, without mentioning the “good things”.
The second reason is that the Tory party is split down the middle on Europe. It always has been and copes with this position internally by calling a truce and hardly mentioning it. Except, of course, when the Labour party starts to sound more pro Europe than normal. (It is also split, but not, these days, as seriously.)
And then the Conservatives wrap themselves in the Union Jack and scream “treachery” at any leader who tries to move the country nearer the rest of Europe. And the press join in, in full-throated abandonment of any common sense.
The end result of this is that it is horrendously difficult for ANY British premier to move our country emotionally to the heart of Europe. We are semi-detached; a bit like our geographical position.
But Blair’s EU presidency could change all this.
BROWN/BLAIR MODEL FOR 27 COUNTRIES
Would Brown be satisfied to see HIS model of economic/social balance spread across Europe? You bet. In the very near future his ambitions too, if not for a post-PM political existence like Blair, but for a place in history, will naturally come to the fore of his mind.
Were Blair first EU president for two and a half years, the resulting higher profile that EU matters would receive in Britain would mean that at last the British press would be forced to sit up and take notice. At last we might get more balance in press reporting. And at last the sitting Prime Minister might be able to embrace the euro, bringing us and our economic, business deregulation and social models, much respected in the rest of the EU - (and the work of both Blair and Brown) - into the centre of the EU.
The European Union will need to grasp many issues already part of our domestic domain in the medium term, in order to wield real international power in trade, climate, energy, fighting crime, defence and many other areas in a fast changing world. And they have some catching up to do.
Yes, Blair might go down in history as the man who raised Europe’s power and profile in the world, but Brown could equally well be the one whose name will be recalled as taking his country into the single currency and so giving the green light to a prosperous future for all Europeans based on the British economic model.
“New Europe” - headed by Blair & Brown? It’d make “New Labour” look like a dry run.
SAME POLITICAL PATH
Much has been said and written about the relationship of these two men, and the wife of one of them might even have more to say before the Labour conference this September. But their political paths have been taken together and their future political influence might yet be wrought together.
CALL OFF THE BALLSY DOGS!
All Mr Brown needs to do now is to call off the dogs. He must permit no more mistakes as in the missing election debacle, which was largely due to the underlings mouthing off. Ed Balls and co, Lilliputians all, should not be allowed to scupper the country’s or Europe’s future because of their personal thwarted ambitions or misguided and wrong-headed opinions.
More from The Telegraph:
Senior allies of Gordon Brown are plotting to wreck Tony Blair’s ambition to become the first permanent President of Europe amid fears that his appointment would reignite old divisions in the Labour Party.
‘The first permanent President of the European Council will be chosen by the leaders of the EU member states. Britain will have no power of veto.
Mr Brown has signalled privately that he will try to halt a powerful Franco-German axis forming behind Mr Blair, who still commands huge influence on the European stage.
One friend of Mr Brown said: “Tony is a big candidate for any big job but we think he has important work to do in the Middle East.”
BLAIR WILL SOON CALL A LIMIT ON TIME FOR MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATIONS
I give it three months, and then I predict that Mr Blair will be expecting to see some serious progress on the Middle East, and will inform the parties so. That should be the case whether he is keen to get home to his garden and family, like Paddy Ashdown over his recent shunning by Karzai for the Afghanistan envoy post, or ready to take on something else. The parties in the region need to move on this before another major event or outbreak of further or new hostilities puts them into reverse gear.
If they DO make real progress, the fox of the above mentioned “friend of Mr Brown” is truly shot. And Mr Blair will be known to have played a major part in peace-making.
GETTING THE BACKING OF A COOL 14
So, THIS time, are Mr Brown’s hands tied? If he alone tried to talk down Mr Blair amongst the big powers in Europe, it would be seen, rightly, as part of an ongoing power struggle between the two. And in such a struggle, we can be sure which of them holds the stronger hand. Brown has no veto, so presumably Mr Blair only needs the backing of 14 countries to secure the post. A little bit of getting around still to do, then.
Time for compromise, Mr Brown.
There are many unknowns before we get to decision time on the presidency. Or as both of these acutely politically aware men will be aware, “there’s mony a slip twixt cup and lip”.
Seeing how fast ‘the motorboat’ is moving these days, you have to conclude that Mr Blair has a plan, of some sort.
So what is it?
And does it … could it include Gordon?
Others may soon spill the beans on Brown and cohorts and their treatment of Mr Blair while he was PM. We know much of it already, and it should make no difference to strategic planning. At least two books are due for release BEFORE the Labour Party conference in September. So many of the rancour will already be out in the open before the end of this year. And by next Christmas, the furore will be over.
Next sharp political move then?
BROWN - THE NEXT BLAIR?
The Financial Times says we should sit up and take notice. Why? Because there are now two party leaders gone native … I mean Blairite. And their manifestos are being written as we watch, or don’t watch, whichever is your wont.
Yes, David Cameron has always made it clear that he looked up to Mr Blair. He admired his style, so copied it. He also admired his policies, so he copied them too. Temperamentally he seems to be in the Blair mould anyway.
But Mr ‘Not Blair’ Brown was muttering something else under this breath. He’d been persuaded by the press, and perhaps by himself, that style automatically cancels substance. WRONG. In this all-pervasive media age it is my opinion that they are BOTH equally necessary. Yes, equally necessary. In politics you can’t have one without the other if you want to make an impact.
But the ‘ferals’ and anti-Blairites thought otherwise. Dull s*ds all. Brown believed them. Until now.
He realised that since Blairism/Brownism/New Labourism has already saturated the body politic and the country, that there was little point in insisting that HE had something else or better to offer.
He’d flogged the “change” and “moral compass” stuff to death and with the continuing chain of events (”dear boy”) it was getting him nowhere.
The vacuity of his claim to be all change to all men was becoming evident.
Though, sorry to be a know-all, but it’s always been clear to me that ‘change’ was all an empty claim anyway.
If Mr Blair had retired hurt to the country, or had gone ga-ga as a result of the last few years fighting off the various attacks from within, I’d be REALLY upset about this. But, since they haven’t really managed to bury him politically, I’ll do a bit of composing instead. Or decomposing even …
Gordon’s Song
(Note: Make up your own tune; I can’t be bothered. What?! Do you think somebody’s paying me for this!?)
(with Balls backing in parentheses … if you’ll excuse the expression)
VERSE 1
Yes, we’re all Blairites now
Though he got it so wrong (yes he did, yes he did)
But in my fair hands
We can make it stand
And we’re all Blairites now.
***
VERSE 2
Yes, we’re all Blairites now
It’ll turn out just fine (oh it will, yes it will)
When the votes decide
If it’s Dave’s or mine
Number 10 Blairite House.
***
VERSE 3
We were not Blairites then
So we changed when he went (yes we did, yes we did)
Well, I changed my socks
And replaced my r*cks
And they’re all Blairites now.
***
VERSE 4
So we meant Blair no ill
Didn’t mean him to kill (no we didn’t, no we didn’t)
But he’s risen again
And it scares my men
So we’re all Blairites now.
**********
Amen to that.
Tags: advice, advisor, Blairism, Brown the next Blair, director, ed balls, EU, Gordon Brown, Gordon's Song, prime minister, Switzerland, Tony Blair, uk, Zurich
