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You may not like him but does possess the stature. (So did Hitler.)

That you consider advocacy?

it IS a fact that many Europeans admire the British political system

What do you mean? I don't get your point. We spoke about Bliar. I showed a poll showing that Europeans admiring Bliar are at most a fourth of them. I brought up the British politican system as something people do not understand/know, not to speak of admiring: many people have no clue that Britain has a proportional election system, one that to boot is currently skewed towards Labour in its precint distribution.

No one will get there who does not want it

That wasn't in dispute. But from your diary, it appeared to me that this whole Bliar for President thing is new for you, and you think it's Sarko's idea. In fact, his intentions are known at least since his failed push for an EU Directorium made up of the biggest EU member states.

what about Bertie Ahern?

Same as with Barroso: getting into the EU just after failing at home. (Barroso's legacy as PM of Portugal was a reform programme that failed to repair the budget, and fudged reports of budget deficit towards the EU. I leave Ahern's list of bad moves to Colman and Frank.)

I have no doubt that whoever becomes permanent president will be forced by the Member States to push the will of the Member States

Doing some things reluctantly against one's own will is quite different from actively pursuing the right policies. (What's more, even from an EU Council President, I'd expect the pursuit of pan-European interests, rather than the vbarious governments' interests.)

It is exactly those qualities that allowed someone WHO IS A RIGHT WING at heart to lead the UK left wing party for 10 years.

You give too much credit to a single man -- and underestimate the power putential of stupid people. But that's not really the issue. My point was that Bliar built/inherited a power base within the Labour leadership (and the British government bureaucracy) that he could use to crush weak opposition, in the form of the parliamentary whip, the top-down selection of MP candidates, media campaigns. But meanwhile, he just didn't dare to take on some more difficult opponents, and almost all his dealings with significant independent power bases ended in dismal failure -- be it his attempts to get Dubya do something on climate change, Africa or the I/P conflict, or his attempts at EU structural reform. Thus he does not have the strategic, tactical and political brilliance to correctly deal with acting heads of states in the EU Council.

*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.

by DoDo on Thu Jan 24th, 2008 at 12:32:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
DoDo, Stretching things a bit too far there... I don't believe there's a mention of stature as advocacy. Citing Hitler's stature on the same footing is a recognition that Blair's stature simply is just that -- stature, if you like name recognition, name recall, etc., If you remember, I delved in Blair's qualifications and stature is one of them just as I delved in his 'non-qualifications'. You may be twisting and stretching my arguments according to your feelings, i.e., hatred for Blair but I must repeat, I am not advocating for Blair becoming president of EU. Read post again. Re: "But from your diary, it appeared to me that this whole Bliar for President thing is new for you, and you think it's Sarko's idea." Looks like you're confused by the overall tenor of the following line in my post intro: "After all the idea of a Blair EU presidency had been vaguely dangled to him even before he moved out 10 Downing Street." Goes to show that while I haven't actually been tracking every step of Blair, I knew that Blair for president had been in the works. Re: "(What's more, even from an EU Council President, I'd expect the pursuit of pan-European interests, rather than the vbarious governments' interests.)" Agree! That would be pretty much in my concluding message. Re: "You give too much credit to a single man -- and underestimate the power putential of stupid people." "Giving credit" to a single man who led Labour and was UK PM for 10 years? But where's the problem? It IS a fact. Everything you said about Blair smacks of truth -- not disputing those, but you gotta admit the fact is to "give" Blair "credit" for, if you like, having conned the UK for 10 years can't be off the mark at all. At the end of the day, who should deserve that "credit"? Sure there's the entire Labour machinery but we are talking of Blair here and it's a question of who was head of Labour and PM for 10 years? Blair! Couldn't be Cherrie now, could it? DoDo, if you believe I have not been very adversarial vis a vis Blair in my post, not much I can do there -- but you are doing a good job of it so why complain? I'll let you in on a secret: During Blair's PMship, I was rabidly anti-Blair (and still am) and wanted him out of the way as my numerous posts in the weblogs of Charles Bremner's, Michael Smith's in The Times will show (as well as in my own blog)... that doesn't mean I've lost sight of him, proof is right here! I wrote a post on the risk that Blair is getting a second life right here in ET and advocating for a no vote. Got you going too and that's a victory! (Heh!) The bottom line here is that I'm in agreement with most of what you say and that my no vote is here to stay. I'm not in the mood for splitting hairs and so would rather leave things, however if you really want to rant on, be my guest but I suggest you focus on Blair.
by The3rdColumn on Thu Jan 24th, 2008 at 01:40:04 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Don't believe it -- there's my post going cacophonious again... I'll re-post it:

DoDo, Stretching things a bit too far there... I don't believe there's a mention of stature as advocacy. Citing Hitler's stature on the same footing is a recognition that Blair's stature simply is just that -- stature, if you like name recognition, name recall, etc.,

If you remember, I delved in Blair's qualifications and stature is one of them just as I delved in his 'non-qualifications'. You may be twisting and stretching my arguments according to your feelings, i.e., hatred for Blair but I must repeat, I am not advocating for Blair becoming president of EU. Read post again.

Re: "But from your diary, it appeared to me that this whole Bliar for President thing is new for you, and you think it's Sarko's idea."

Looks like you're confused by the overall tenor of the following line in my post intro: "After all the idea of a Blair EU presidency had been vaguely dangled to him even before he moved out 10 Downing Street."

Goes to show that while I haven't actually been tracking every step of Blair, I knew that Blair for president had been in the works.

Re: "(What's more, even from an EU Council President, I'd expect the pursuit of pan-European interests, rather than the vbarious governments' interests.)" Agree! That would be pretty much in my concluding message.

Re: "You give too much credit to a single man -- and underestimate the power putential of stupid people."

"Giving credit" to a single man who led Labour and was UK PM for 10 years? But where's the problem? It IS a fact. Everything you said about Blair smacks of truth -- not disputing those, but you gotta admit the fact is to "give" Blair "credit" for, if you like, having conned the UK for 10 years can't be off the mark at all.

At the end of the day, who should deserve that "credit"? Sure there's the entire Labour machinery but we are talking of Blair here and it's a question of who was head of Labour and PM for 10 years? Blair! Couldn't be Cherrie now, could it?

DoDo, if you believe I have not been very adversarial vis a vis Blair in my post, not much I can do there -- but you are doing a good job of it so why complain?

I'll let you in on a secret: During Blair's PMship, I was rabidly anti-Blair (and still am) and wanted him out of the way as my numerous posts in the weblogs of Charles Bremner's, Michael Smith's in The Times will show (as well as in my own blog)... that doesn't mean I've completely lost sight of him, proof is right here! I wrote a post on the risk that Blair is getting a second life right here in ET and advocating for a NO vote.

Got you going too and that's a victory! (Heh!)

The bottom line here is that I'm in agreement with most of what you say and that my no vote is here to stay.

I'm not in the mood for splitting hairs and so would rather leave things, however if you really want to rant on, be my guest but I suggest you focus on Blair.

by The3rdColumn on Thu Jan 24th, 2008 at 01:44:29 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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