It is payback time for Tony Blair?
Only a few days ago Tony Blair was the unofficial favourite to take on the as yet undefined post of EU president but this evening he appears to have been the victim of a stitch up and his hopes of grabbing the top spot are fading rapidly. Only this afternoon Gordon Brown confirmed that he had put Tony Blair forward as the UK government's choice for the EU presidency post although this evening France and Germany have failed to support Tony Blair and indeed his original backers are disappearing back into the shadows.
This is a very strange affair because officially the post of EU president has not yet been defined and not yet been clarified yet Tony Blair has been a favourite for many months. However, there would appear to be serious opposition against Tony Blair's historic move to back the American government in the war on Iraq despite the fact that the EU was undecided at the time. It now appears that Tony Blair is paying the price for his "riding roughshod" over his EU partners while he was UK prime minister.
While it would be wrong to suggest that Tony Blair's campaign to be EU president is dead and buried, there is no doubt that he has been severely weakened this evening and is in danger of being overlooked.
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