For the EU as a whole, the appointment of a politician as ambitious and limelight-hungry as Mr Blair as the first, defining occupant of a role the Lisbon treaty leaves messily unclear would skew the distribution of power between the EU's institutions and the member states. A president whose goal was to stop the traffic in the world's capitals would overshadow Europe's heads of government, create dissension where greater harmony is needed and make co-operation with the high representative and the president of the Commission harder.
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Britain's most pressing European interests, however, lie elsewhere. The UK is the EU's leading proponent of competitive markets and, in an economic crisis, that cause needs championing.
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Much of the thinking behind the financial services package, which affects a vital part of Britain's economy, has been at best wrong-headed, at worst intended to damage the City of London. One of its socialist proponents has claimed the City should be satisfied to have "escaped so lightly".

Britain's national interest and our common European interest in a pro-growth EU would best be advanced if the UK were to put its efforts into securing a major economic portfolio for the British appointee to the European Commission...