Tony Blair has a book to sell: the paperback edition of his bizarre memoir, A Journey. To help promote it he's given an "exclusive" interview to The Times, which has of course been picked up by the rest of the papers. A lot of it is about the Arab Spring, and I'm sure we'd all agree that the man who collaborated in the invasion of Iraq and tried to bring Colonel Gadhafi in from the cold should be given a respectful hearing on that topic. (No tittering at the back, there!) However, Tony also has a few thoughts on the future of Europe. This is from The Guardian's report:
Blair also calls for an elected European president who would have a mandate for far-reaching reforms including collaborating on taxes.
In an interview in the Times he says such an office would give Europe "strong, collective leadership and direction". But he accepts that the idea has "no chance of being accepted at the present time".
I obviously can't speak for the other 360 million voters in Europe, but I would venture to suggest that if Blair really wants to see a European presidency, the most important contribution he can make is to declare in the strongest possible terms that he will never be a candidate for the job.
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