THE HANDSTAND

JUNE2009

RE.LISBON TREATY

The Independent's Mathew Norman on "President" Blair..........

There is a very fair chance that before this year is out we will all know the name of President of Europe, as the post will be restyled... and that it will be Mr Tony Blair.

There are several obstacles in what Mr T, with his Middle East peacemaker's hat on, would call the road map. For one thing, the creation of this post, with its 30-month term, depends on the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty that creates it. This in turn relies on the Irish reversing their decision and voting for the Treaty in October.

The other minor problem is that the 27 EU governments would have to elect him, by qualified majority, in December. Clearly some (the sane ones, perhaps) won't be keen, or will be keener on others. Should Angela Merkel lose the German election later this year, for example, Europe's outstanding leader should walk it.

And yet, and yet... the first and only reliable rule of contemporary geopolitical life is that what Mr Blair wants, Mr Blair gets. And that even when he gets what he didn't want, such as being turfed out of No 10 ahead of schedule, it turns out to be exactly what he should have wanted all along.

So it was that the great peacock charlatan of global politics was forced to flee just before the economic and political fires he helped set caught ablaze. Had he served that promised full term, he'd have been ruined by the economic and expenses calamities that have rendered the man who removed him from office a prisoner of ... well, effectively of Mr Blair.

For months and months, the mystery of why he keeps sparing Gordon Brown has driven me mad. It's perfect role reversal, of course, because for years it was Brown who had Blair at his mercy and didn't strike. But that was because he's yellow through and through. Mr Blair, whatever else he may be, is no coward. And even if he was, what did he have to lose? All he had to do last July, from the safe remove of the plutocrat's yacht or villa he was poncing off at the time, was encourage his loyalists in Cabinet to quit, and Gordon would have been dialing Pickford's.

Instead he told them to stick around, and colluded in (quite possibly brokered) the sensational recall of Peter Mandelson that avoided terminal civil war. Once again a fortnight ago, the merest whisper in David Miliband's ear would have provoked the fatal resignation. Once again Mr Blair gazed down on a prostrate and bleeding Gordon, and defied the bloodthirsty crowd by raising the imperial thumb rather than lowering it.

All right, it would have looked a bit eye-for-an-eye had he done unto Gordon what Gordon eventually did unto him. But then there's always been more of Moses than Jesus about this remarkable man of God; and besides, he'd merrily have convinced himself that he was only protecting the party he professes to love by removing a grotesque electoral liability. It would even, for once, have been the truth.

Since Mr Blair acts solely out of pure self-interest, a conspiracy theory for this inaction presents itself. The only direct advantage I can see for him in Gordon's survival is that his hopes of becoming President of Europe depend on it. It's not just that Gordon's downfall would have necessitated a general election, when the arrival of a new British PM as opportunistically Europhobic as David Cameron (however relaxed he is reported to be about a President Blair) would be lethal to the prospects of an old one. It's that those prospects also depend on Lord Mandelson remaining the de facto prime minister (deputy, schmeputy; he's the guv'nor now) in December, and in a position of maximum strength from which to use his political gifts and reassuring status as a pro-Euro ex-Commissioner to schmooze dubious EU leaders into the Mr Tony camp.

Mandy, meanwhile, will require a glamorous new job himself this time next year, and what could be more enticing than returning to Brussels as the President's Chief of Staff? Or better still, given that ancient ambition to become Foreign Secretary, as the President's Special Emissary to the Whole Wide World?

The job is so perfectly tailored for Mr Blair, it makes you wince. Its duties and powers are so ill-defined that it will be as large or as small as the first incumbent can make it. Knowing Mr Blair, we may expect him to parlay it into something huge, or at least with the appearance of hugeness. Even if denied the influence over European policy on trade and defence for which he's already lobbied, there'd be a lot of swanking to be swanked.

Cherie won't like the bar on a private jet, but even crumby old 777s can get you to Washington in relative comfort. That lucrative American market would rejoice to see him addressing Congress again, with brilliantly delivered vacuous drivel about the need to create a strong Euro-American alliance in the causes of free trade and world peace. Imagine them back at Camp David (can he still squeeze into those ball-crushing denims?) schmoozing the Obamas on equal honorific terms as Europe's First Couple.

No wonder he craves this job, and no wonder she hasn't vetoed it, whatever the cost in investment banking and public speaking income postponed. His work for the Quartet in settling those trifling local difficulties in the Middle East is almost done, as the serenity in Tehran underlines. It's time to move on and up. It's time for that Barbra Streisand, positively final comeback tour. It's time for this West Wing fanatic to achieve the fondest of fantasies, and be addressed as Mr President by all.

AND LET US ADD THIS:http://www.redress.cc/stooges/redress20090611

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has appointed an Israeli agent of influence and proponent of genocide in Gaza to a key position at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Britain’s foreign ministry.On 9 June, Ivan Lewis was given a major promotion in Mr Brown’s government when he was appointed Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with responsibility for Middle East policy, Iraq, Iran, counterterrorism and Anglo-American relations. According to one source, he is now “just one step away from the cabinet”.Speaking after his promotion, Mr Lewis said: “My responsibility for the Middle East peace process is particularly poignant. I have never hidden my pride at being Jewish or my support for the State of Israel”.According to the Independent newspaper, Mr Lewis’s appointment has “raised eyebrows in the Foreign Office”. It said:Lewis has a long history of interest in the region as vice-chair of the Labour Friends of Israel. Earlier this year, he became – not without controversy – one of the most outspoken political supporters of Israel's military assault on Gaza. Critics can't help but wonder how objective Lewis is likely to be in his new post. Mr Lewis is also a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust, a body founded in 1988 by British pro-Israel lobbyists Greville Janner and Merlyn Rees with the aim of maintaining a culture of gentile guilt and Jewish victimhood in British schools.Ivan Lewis’s support for the racist state of Israel and for the genocide in Gaza is not the only example of his questionable morality.

MEPs seek control over EU commission president nomination

HONOR MAHONY

08.05.2009 @ 09:18 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Parliament is seeking to have a stronger influence over the choosing of the next European Commission president and is asking member states to consult it before nominating a candidate.

A report passed a large majority of MEPs on Thursday (7 May) suggests that the rules of the Lisbon Treaty - still in the process of ratification in some member states - on nominating the commission president already be taken into consideration.

This would mean that national governments propose a candidate that reflects the outcome of the European elections and only after discussions with political leaders in the parliament.

Prepared by Belgian centre-right MEP Jean-Luc Dehaene, the report proposes a new timetable for appointing nominating the commission president, with EU leaders previously having agreed to name someone at their mid-June summit,.

Instead, MEPs suggest that parliament will take two weeks to compose itself after the 4-7 June elections and that in the third week, consultations begin between the Czech EU presidency and the parliament president, and then with all the leaders of the political groups in the parliament.

Under the current rules, member states are not obliged to consult the European Parliament or to take into account the results of the elections when choosing a commission president - a process that traditionally takes place behind closed doors and involves much political horse-trading.

If the centre-right EPP maintains its dominance in the parliament as has been predicted by some analysts, it has said it will support Jose Manuel Barroso, currently heading the commission, for a second term.

The Socialists, unable to nominate a candidate themselves due to internal divisions, have said they will back Mr Barroso only if he commits to a programme that contains more social policies.

Predicted to continue being the second biggest faction in the parliament, the Socialists have been very critical of Mr Barroso's presidency, saying he is too supportive of business and free-market policies.

More powerful parliament

Whereas member states had a tendency to dismiss parliament in the past, recent years have seen the EU assembly grow in stature.

It flexed its muscles in this area in 2004 when it forced Italy to withdraw its commissioner candidate because it considered him too socially conservative for the justice and home affairs post. Many MEPs at the time spoke of a watershed moment for the parliament.

Mr Barroso himself was burnt by the experience, failing to recognise the strength of feeling among deputies, a misjudgement that saw the parliament almost reach the point where it was ready to not approve the commission in its entirety.

Member states are not obliged to follow the Dehaene report, with the Lisbon Treaty set to come into force next year at the earliest, and only if Ireland says "Yes" in its second referendum and only if it survives a legal challenge in Germany.

This report and two others concerning the Lisbon Treaty caused some controversy in the parliament, with the assembly's authorities only at the last moment agreeing to put them on the agenda because of sensitivities concerning the on-going ratification of the treaty.

Opponents of the move say the reports prejudge the outcome of the Irish referendum, due this autumn.