Last Friday the Breugel think tank invited Lord Mandelson to speak on the subject of Europe’s future. He blasted the EU institutions as being in need of radical reform and said that EC President Barrosso needed to be very radical in his second term. His biggest complaint was that the EU showed a lack of leadership. In a clear plug for Tony Blair he castigated the EU for picking ’safe, uncontroversial choices’ saying that ‘going for second or even third best candidates would make us all lose out’.
Blair does seem to have dropped out of the running, despite spending the weekend phoning round leaders to gain support, the simple fact is that the S&D Group angrily rejected him, as has all the others. When William Hague said that he wouldn’t want Blair, Labour rounded on him for being unpatriotic and acting against Britain’s best interests.
The whispers in the corridors is that Blair is out but David Miliband is in as high Representative, the post that many would argue is the more powerful of the two top jobs. Labour insiders think that Miliband may not take the position as he is coming under considerable pressure to refuse. Why? Because Brown doesn’t want a by-election.
How is that in Britain’s best interest, Mr Brown? To decline a top job in Europe because you’re scared of losing a by-election shows how desperate a position Labour is in and shows a complete lack of strategic vision.
