It could have been the title of a horror movie, or at least a Sun headline, were it released at the same time as Blair's media driven fall from favour. But now the storm has calmed it seems somehow, despite everything, he could be back in charge, via the backdoor! Where have we seen this before? Oh that's right, Gordon Brown.
If someone had said after Blair's departure that Britain would effectively become a part of a "United States of Europe" with Tony Blair as President, you could imagine the backlash. But, in the words of former French President Valery Giscard D'Estaing (2007) "Public opinion will be led - without knowing it - to adopt the policies we would never dare present to them directly. All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden or disguised in some way."
In the UK I think the average person doesn't really have a concrete idea as to what extent the EU already controls us. They certainly don't have a concrete idea of what The Lisbon Treaty would mean, as quite deliberately, nobody has ever told them. If they were told, however, that over time the Treaty would allow the bureaucratic creation of a superstate, they may start to protest. That in effect it would eventually render the law making autonomy of each country akin to that of an individual state in America. That "Europe's nations should be guided towards a super state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation."
It seems in recent times, the voice of Euroscepticism in the media has become suspiciously quiet. All the front page potential of the Lisbon Treaty saga has instead been squandered in comment columns. No doubt it is in the current Government's interests to play down any sort of Euroscepticism. As for the EU it's pretty much essential to get this wrapped up before our General Election, after which a Conservative Government could bring back that very British trend of Euroscepticism. Winston Churchill, who coined the term "The United States of Europe" in a famous speech in 1946 at The University of Zurich said of it "We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonality. But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not compromised. We are interested and associated but not absorbed."
I think to this day Brits maintain that island mentality.
So what could be done to encourage us to get on board? Well as suggested above, stripping us of our voice, keeping the public in ignorance and allowing the slow, invisible take-over of the EU are already ploys being employed in Brussels. But they think they have another trick up their sleeves.
There's been a lot of discussion this weekend as to why Blair should be in charge. Well one clear incentive is the hope that as a recognisable figure, parachuting Blair into top dog position would put an end to the British tendency to ask "What's in it for us?" But why would anyone in Britain feel like that when back on 20th April 2004 Blair himself promised us a Referendum, and five year's later he's the one in line to run the show?!
How do we give the British people a chance to choose, when what we are trying to battle is a 21st Century Iron Curtain?
If someone had said after Blair's departure that Britain would effectively become a part of a "United States of Europe" with Tony Blair as President, you could imagine the backlash. But, in the words of former French President Valery Giscard D'Estaing (2007) "Public opinion will be led - without knowing it - to adopt the policies we would never dare present to them directly. All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden or disguised in some way."
In the UK I think the average person doesn't really have a concrete idea as to what extent the EU already controls us. They certainly don't have a concrete idea of what The Lisbon Treaty would mean, as quite deliberately, nobody has ever told them. If they were told, however, that over time the Treaty would allow the bureaucratic creation of a superstate, they may start to protest. That in effect it would eventually render the law making autonomy of each country akin to that of an individual state in America. That "Europe's nations should be guided towards a super state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation."
It seems in recent times, the voice of Euroscepticism in the media has become suspiciously quiet. All the front page potential of the Lisbon Treaty saga has instead been squandered in comment columns. No doubt it is in the current Government's interests to play down any sort of Euroscepticism. As for the EU it's pretty much essential to get this wrapped up before our General Election, after which a Conservative Government could bring back that very British trend of Euroscepticism. Winston Churchill, who coined the term "The United States of Europe" in a famous speech in 1946 at The University of Zurich said of it "We see nothing but good and hope in a richer, freer, more contented European commonality. But we have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not compromised. We are interested and associated but not absorbed."I think to this day Brits maintain that island mentality.
So what could be done to encourage us to get on board? Well as suggested above, stripping us of our voice, keeping the public in ignorance and allowing the slow, invisible take-over of the EU are already ploys being employed in Brussels. But they think they have another trick up their sleeves.
There's been a lot of discussion this weekend as to why Blair should be in charge. Well one clear incentive is the hope that as a recognisable figure, parachuting Blair into top dog position would put an end to the British tendency to ask "What's in it for us?" But why would anyone in Britain feel like that when back on 20th April 2004 Blair himself promised us a Referendum, and five year's later he's the one in line to run the show?!
How do we give the British people a chance to choose, when what we are trying to battle is a 21st Century Iron Curtain?
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