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Miliband backs Blair for EU presidency

Foreign Secretary denies he is candidate for key role in new Brussels leadership

By Andy McSmith

Tony Blair has won the key backing of the Foreign Secretary David Miliband

GETTY/PA

Tony Blair has won the key backing of the Foreign Secretary David Miliband

The EU needs a new president like Tony Blair, a big name whose arrival in a foreign capital would "stop the traffic", the Foreign Secretary said yesterday. David Miliband has been tipped in some European capitals to be the EU's first foreign minister, an appointment that would eliminate Mr Blair's chances of occupying the presidency, because it is unthinkable that both posts could be occupied by politicians from any one EU country.

But Mr Miliband made it plain that he would rather see Mr Blair in the top job. Asked about the second of the new jobs, he said: "I am not a candidate for that. I am not available."

The question of whether other EU countries want Mr Blair as their first president is looming larger since the Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, appeared to drop his opposition to the Lisbon Treaty, which could be ratified by the time EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday. The treaty, if Mr Klaus signs, will create the two new jobs, which eurosceptics see as another step towards the creation of a European superstate.

The Conservatives oppose the treaty outright, and have said they will call a referendum on it if they come to power before it is ratified. If it has been ratified, David Cameron will be under pressure from the eurosceptic right of his party to call a referendum anyway.

Opponents had been relying on President Klaus to hold out for them and prevent ratification. He opposed the treaty on the grounds that it might open the way for compensation claims from Germans whose families were deported after the Second World War. This objection was ridiculed yesterday by the former Chancellor, Ken Clarke, a long standing supporter of the EU, who described it as "the most nonsensical argument about the treaty I've ever heard".

Speaking on the BBC's Politics Show, Mr Clarke said: "He's the Boris Johnson of central Europe. Like Boris, he's intelligent and he's a rather huge personality. He also loves making mischief. But I suspect Czech politics and the Czech constitution will determine how far he can carry on delaying the treaty."

As a member of David Cameron's shadow Cabinet, Mr Clarke formally supports party policy in public, though it is well-known that he privately backs the treaty.

The government of other small EU nations which support the treaty oppose the idea of having a major political figure as president. They have a preference for a low-profile candidate who would do little more than chair meetings.

Mr Blair has not yet said whether he wants the job, if offered, but Mr Miliband, an ally and former adviser to the ex-prime minister, said that his decision was likely to depend on the nature of the job. "It is important for Europe that it has a strong figure in that role, that it has someone able persuasively to advocate the case that is decided by the 27 member states of the EU," he said. "It would be good for Britain as well as very good for Europe if Tony Blair was a candidate and was chosen.

"We need somebody who can do more than simply run through the agenda. We need someone who, when he or she lands in Beijing or Washington or Moscow, the traffic needs to stop. Europe has suffered from the lack of that clarity."

His comments drew a scathing reaction from the Conservatives. Mark Francois, the shadow minister for Europe, said: "David Miliband has shown that securing jobs for the boys is more important than respecting the democratic wishes of the British people."

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Comments

So whilst we were diverted...
[info]ancientoneuk wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 01:14 am (UTC)
We spent the week diverted over the rather sad issue of Nick Griffin and how he is a monster yadda yadda and here is a real and proven monster being feted for the EU presidency without a damned vote cast.
herr blair
[info]merle2006 wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 01:40 am (UTC)
milliband might as well be saying "we need someone who can convincingly lie his way into the most undesirable situation." and yes bliar is that convincing actor, but he belongs in the world of theatre or hollywood cinema. his limitless ambition and self importance is too destructive for the real world. we surely can't let his megalomania loose on the world stage. beware of the quivering lip and determined forehead!
A match made in heaven or hell?
[info]menicedennis wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 02:34 am (UTC)
With the Liebour party putting forward Tony Blair, a suspected war criminal, a man known to be influenced by bribery, a man embroiled in the peerages for cash scandal and one of the most despised men in Britain. A man so hated it costs the UK taxpayer £3 million every year in bodyguards just to protect him. A man caught up in the expenses scandal so deep it was deemed necessary to conspire with parliamentary officials to shred his expenses claims. Tony Blair is the ideal choice to lead a parliament that for over fourteen years has been unable to get its finances signed off by the auditors. A parliament so contemptuous of its 500 million citizens it deems it unnecessary for them to vote on issues such as freedom of choice, free speech, border controls and one that wants control of all EU members states military.
Blair made such a good job of Iraq, of course
[info]walterwall wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 05:05 am (UTC)
No more to say
EU FARCE CONTINUES:
[info]bgarvie wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 05:40 am (UTC)
So Milliband is backing the con-man, the 'war criminal' Bliar for the EU Presidency??? What a disgusting joke. The British people want a referendum on Lisbon and do not want to give more independant rights away and see that fool as President.
Personal political gain was the motive for Bliar not allowing a promised referendum to the British people. The whole rotten edifice of the EU project should be rethought.
A referendum on whether the UK should remain members should be put to the British people.
Re: EU FARCE CONTINUES:
[info]repton4 wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 06:33 am (UTC)
I agree labour stole peoples vote with a lie they promised a referendum on the EU they got the peoples vote then changed there minds Blair and Miliband are a joke
Support Blair
[info]jeanshaw wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 06:45 am (UTC)
I fully back the bandwagon for Blair as it will demonstrate how impotent the people are and how irrelevant democracy is in this country . It will open people's eyes to the undemocratic corrupt nature of the EU and hopefuly persuade them the only solution as recommended by UKIP is to leave the EU and govern ourselves again.
The First Couple of Europe?
[info]marchmont wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 06:57 am (UTC)
Continental European Leaders seem to think it would recommend both the EU and the Lisbon Treaty to us if we were given Tony Blair and his consort Cherie Antoinette as the First Couple of Europe. I would have thought the opposite is the truth. We were assured before 2005 General Election that the Constitutional Treaty would be put to a referendum, however, when ZANU Labour won, it immediately reneged on its word. Referendums held on the Treaty in France and the Netherlands had both lost and the British could obviously not now be trusted to vote the 'right' way on the (now cunningly renamed) Lisbon Treaty. The appointment of Blair as an unelected President of Europe would only emphasize the extent to which 'Lisbon' is anti-democratic. William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, told the 26 EU ambassadors in London that an incoming Conservative Government would regard it as a 'hostile act' if the EU were to appoint Blair as the first President of Europe under this discredited treaty. It is clear if we do have the loathsome Tony & Cherie Antoinette foisted on us, the question of Britain leaving the EU will again become a live political issue in this country.
No more comments
[info]over325one wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 07:06 am (UTC)
There are not enough negative things to say about these two. Sod them and all their ilk.
Right Man for the Job.
[info]hodgeey wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 07:48 am (UTC)
Blair is an excellent successor to Hitler as leader of the Fourth Reich.

He has murdered millions and turned his country into a police state already.
The cost of Europe
[info]bo11ocks wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 08:42 am (UTC)
In 30 years of membership there has not been a single year in which:

1. British contributions did not exceed British receipts from the EU
2. British exports to the EU exceeded British imports from the EU
3. The cost of living was not greater as a result of Britain being in the EU

In other words, we are paying other EU countries to export their products to us.

During that period:

1. British coal mines were closed so that Polish mines could export coal to the UK
2. 90% of the British fishing fleet has been laid up so that french, Spanish and Portugese trawlers can fish in our waters. As a result of this we have lost thousands of jobs, and our fish stocks have been severely depleted.
3. France now owns more British power stations than Britain. When the power runs out the first cuts will be in Britain.
4. Corruption in Brussels is so entrenched that their own accountants have refused to sign their own accounts for the past ten years.
5. Illegal immegrants, terrorists and foreign nationals who commit serious crimes including, murder, rape, high value fraud and theft, cannot be deported because EU Human Rights law enables them to drag outtheir cases for years.
6. Brussels is a gravy train for failed British politicians. Kinnock, Mandleson, Lamont and Patten, were all thrown out by the British electorate but all wound up working for the EU.
7. And now, the EU is telling us what light bulbs we are to use in our own homes.
Blair for European President
[info]richardlander wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 09:11 am (UTC)
Mr Miliband would like Tony Blair to be European President.
One would have thought that after all the disconnect between British politicians and the British public in recent months, Mr Miliband would think a little more closely about the views of those who put him and other politicians into power, before committing his support to a war criminal.
All the opinion polls which have been published on this subject have suggested that the British people don't want Blair in this post - for whatever reason. At what point will the political class give us the right to express our view? I'm not holding my breath.
Blair the suspected war criminal
[info]hrjohn wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 09:24 am (UTC)
The only time the taffic needs to stop for Tony Blair is when he is taken before the International Criminal Court to answer charges concerning war crimes against the Iraq people and perjury for misleading the British people into a futile expensive war.
Re: Blair the suspected war criminal
[info]goatbucket wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 04:02 pm (UTC)
You beat me to it. I imagine that watching his convoy heading to the Hague will attract quite a number onto the streets.
Tony Blair... for what? President? Never!
[info]hrjohn wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 09:31 am (UTC)
The only time the traffic should stop for Mr Tony Blair is when he is brought before the International Criminal Court to answer charges of war crimes against the Iraq people, and perjury commiting the British people into an unnecessary war that has been expense in UK human life and money.
51st state
[info]angusdina wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 11:17 am (UTC)
If the EU elects Blair as President and as I suspect Mmilliband follows in as senior role, then they are complete fools, or more likelyt co-conspirators. Blair was Bush's puppy and clearly had an agenda to milk the USA post Iraq for his own personal gain. Will he lead Europe to war as puppet of the US - because he certainly will not stand up to them. Milliband's career, if not his perosnal freedom, is hanging on the thread of protection from the CIA and other powerful authorities in the states.

I simply do not understand what is going on at the moment but have to believe there is a plot to so discredit our own Parliament that Europe will be seen as the best of two bad deals. Things that are being disclosed and then ignored, such as the abuses in the Lords are designed to drive us to distraction while the real deals go unnoticed. While we lambast Nick Griffin and or the BBC jolly Jack Straw shows once more his determination to take the Coroner's process out of the Public domain - something far more damaging to democracy (because it will happen) than anything Nick Griffin can achieve. Imagine if the inquiry into the death of David Kelly was held by a minister behind closed doors? Where is the press coverage of this? On page 21 in two paragraphs. The ultimte aim of this government and by that I mean the select few with any power is to take away any power the electorate may have and for a small group of confederates to run the show as they see is right. Where are all the good investigative journalists or are the owners of the papers in on the plot?
[info]amansaman4athat wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 12:21 pm (UTC)
It is fairly immaterial who ends up as European President, they will wield no individual power.

They are all subject to the global corporatocracy.
Do we need a Bush puppet to run Europe?
[info]cardrew wrote:
Monday, 26 October 2009 at 03:08 pm (UTC)
Unfortunately in Europe we do not have anyone who is worthy of the title President of Europe.

B-Liar would discredit both Great Britain and Europe, as nobody across the World trusts him.
He has shown low self-esteem in kowtowing to Bush, and manufacturing lies to perpetrate the Iraq War.

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