I guess it's no surprise that few of you agreed with my previous post. But virtually all of your objections, and virtually all other objections in the press and amongst the political classes, are beside the point.
Some of you say that Blair should not be "rewarded" for reneging on his promise of a referendum on the constitution by becoming President. But important political jobs aren't rewards for being a good chap. We were outmanoeuvred on the constitution, as on pretty much everything else during Blair's administration. We lost. He won. Get over it. The solution to that isn't to complain if he becomes President. It's to renegotiate.
Hague warns that we will have an extended period of conflict with the European Union if Blair becomes President. What? Are we not intending to have an extended period of conflict anyway? I thought our policy was "not to let matters rest there". The last thing we want is to see things temporarily neutered or quietened down, such that it becomes more difficult for Cameron's administration to do what it must. If we don't want the UK to fall under the influence of Tony Blair the solution isn't to complain. It's to renegotiate.
Others complain that if the EU President is a significant person, then the position will seem important, political focus will switch to Brussels, and further sovereignty will be lost. I could not disagree more. The route to losing sovereignty here would be to permit the EU to ease us in to the idea of an EU President by having a few characters we'd barely notice, gradually ratcheting up the role, so that by the time someone really significant did take over the role, everything would be so established that it would be impossible to do anything about it. No. If we're to do this, let's do it straight. The EU is to be a state with a foreign minister, a supreme court, a currency, a civil service, a defence policy, a common legal space, and a President. If we're to have a President, we want a strong President. There's nothing in it for Eurosceptics to attempt to delay or attempt to pretend it's something else. That's the concept. That's what the Member States of the European Union have signed up to. The solution is not to try to cover that up, as if somehow by making the person in charge dull or weak enough then the fact of the European State will go away. The solution is to renegotiate.
