29/10/2013 00:00
TW
0
By RAY FLEMING M Y pleasure over the approval of the Reform Treaty by all 27 members of the European Union in Lisbon was quickly reduced when I read yesterday that one of the candidates for the new role of President of the EU is Tony Blair and that he is being backed by Nicolas Sarkozy of France among others. It is early days, because the job will not begin until January 2009, but there will inevitably be keen competition in the coming months for this important job. So, I think it should be said now that someone who took Britain into the least justified and most disastrous military adventure in recent memory should not be considered for any prominent international role. With George Bush's help Tony Blair has found employment in assisting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, a bizarre appointment indeed, but that should be the end of his high-profile opportunities.

W E hear so frequently that people responsible for major failures in business and the public services should be held to account. Surely this should apply with even greater force in the area of international relations. Yet Tony Blair, who irresponsibly committed Britain to an unnecessary and ill-prepared war on the basis of a misleading agenda, has not been held to account and is apparently still considered to be eligible for any of the top jobs going. The lucrative lecture circuit in the United States should be the limit of his ambition.