Tony Blair knew the game was up a week ago. He admitted it in telephone calls to Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel. It was clear that the job described as "President of Europe" was going to be nothing of the sort. After eight years of navel-gazing, the European Union had finally decided to appoint ... well, someone to chair meetings of its 27 leaders. Big deal.

Mr Blair would have loved to become a powerful figurehead for Europe on the world stage. But he had too many enemies, not least among EU leaders who did not want to be eclipsed by a star.

His inevitable defeat created yet another headache for Gordon Brown. He had campaigned publicly for his predecessor to land the President's job created by the Treaty of Lisbon. With Thursday night's EU summit looming, Mr Brown could see the headlines coming: "Brown defeated as Blair snubbed." He was desperate to avoid them.

The Prime Minister and his advisers pondered how to pull something out of the fire. He alighted on a diversionary tactic: the second new post to be filled at the Brussels summit - the "EU foreign minister". If that could be won by a "Brit" he might even get some good headlines.