Blair is an expert at the kind of behind-the-scenes battling that got London the Olympics, for example. It's the one who fights hardest and nastiest in the final stages who wins. The media barrage may only be in Britain (though it will probably start to get through to other countries' media), but it's there to do the softening-up. It always was, and still is, about creating an aura of inevitability around the "only candidate".

See Jake S's Blair Scorecard for the voting weights within the European Council.