bliar

Behind the scenes Labour is at war. With itself. Electoral disaster is facing them, in the European elections - expect the Tories to have enough members to pull out of the EPP group with ease - and the council elections. The last elections were very bad for Labour and if they do even wose than last time, Brown's card will be truly marked.

So what are Labour thinking? Well it seems that Brown is dead in the water, unlikely lead the party in the next election, his economic record is in the bin and the McBride ripped apart his dour morality and the budget went down badly. Especially as Cameron was devastating in response to it, looking a little reminiscent of Mr Blair, some thought.

As things stand, I pedict Brown will stand down around the Party conference, possibly being offered something at the IMF or World Bank as a face-saver.

Who's up for the job? Take a look at who does the media rounds each time there's a new blow, such as this story, about Blair opposing the 50% tax band.

Tony's clearly approved people to speak on his behalf, a signal to his followers. Notice Charles Clarke, once more, putting his oar in. Mandelson laying down the law, and the unnamed sources, I wouldn't be suprised if they included Johnson and Straw.

Thr Brownies raise the spectre of Harman. Let's be frank, when your defence of your boss is trying to scare people with the prospect of Harman PM, you're running out of cards to play.

But to win the election, it will take a different leader. I'd put money on Milliband or Johnson. And a side bet on Blair as European President after an Irish yes to Lisbon in October.

Absolutely nothing.

It is running beneath people's radar but there is a real chance that Tony will be the first President of Europe, once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified. So far he's got the support of the UK, France, Italy and Germany.

Do we want a European President who still believes in the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive engagement?

Is Labour becoming the party that ate itself? It's going beyond parody when we get hilarious headlines like this:

Gordon Brown warned by Blairites over No 10 smears

Now remind me, who was it who briefed that Gordon Brown was 'psychologically flawed'...

There's been mutterings around Brussels for some time and some of the most informed people are putting their money on this happening.

Blair steps up fight to be crowned first 'President of EU'

Bless. Our Tony's just trousered a million dollars from Tel Aviv University's Dan David Prize. What for? For 'Present Leadership".

Present what? His citation covers his career. Oh hang on a sec, there's a tiny gap in his achievements on that list. Iraq.

Anyway, let's not be churlish, why specifically did they bung him 'an ecclestone'?

Upon stepping down as Prime Minister, Blair was appointed as the Middle East Quartet Representative. As envoy for the united Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States, his goal is to bring stability and peace to the Middle East.

Oooooh, he's got a goal. Well I've got a goal of peace in the Middle East and just as good a chance as Blair, so could you bung something my way. Oh. Wait, there's more;

Throughout his career, Tony Blair has acted on the basis of what he believes to be right, a hallmark of leadership.

With all due respect, that's not a hallmark of leadership, it's often the sign of arrogance that leads to hubris. Still it'll go well with his East West Institute's Statesman of the Decade award, presented to him in a ceremony of synchronised fawning (I've seen the DVD of it).

At least they mentioned Iraq: Your commitment to ending tyranny in Iraq and helping the Iraqi people on the path to a peaceful and democratic future.

Caution: Reading the last link can cause feelings of nausea, revulsion and anger.

As Bush packs his bag and heads to the barren wastes of rural Texas, he hasn't forgotten Tony, with a cry of "Here Boy! Fetch" he tosses a the equivalent of a good boy biscuit to his faithful companion.

Tony still hasn't got the balls to collect his Congressional Gold Medal of Honour for services to the President's rectal hygene yet. To the bafflement of many, he hasn't had the time to collect it. The latest excuse is that he hasn't actually designed the medal yet.

So what image should Tony put on his hard earned gong? David Kelly? Abu Ghraib? Gitmo?

How about a confused looking searcher for WMD.

The row over the arrest of shadow immigration minister Damian Green is not going away. Nor should it, all it takes is some evidence to emerge that either the Home Secretary or the Prime Minister did have prior knowledge of the arrest and they're toast. What is interesting is Ms Smith's latest outburst on the Andrew Marr programme where she said it would be wrong for ministers to intervene in a police investigation.

I'm wondering now if we could have a statement from Ms Smith condemning the ministerial interference in the Police investigation into the corruption at BAE as 'Stalinism'. After all it's something Ms Smith is also involved with.

Liar crook and cheat

• Tony was tough on crime
• Tony was best friends with the Republican Party
• The Republican Party were very keen on crime
• http://www.republicanoffenders.com/
• Tony is a damn hypocrite
• Share and Enjoy

He's off again. Tony declares his ambition "I want to awaken world's conscience". Some might argue that he did indeed achieve that by ignighting anti-war protests all over the world. But the - no sniggering please - Tony Blair Faith Foundation is all systems go. The  hubris of this man is beyond belief and his timing is shameful.

Today is the 40th anniversary of the killing of Dr Martin Luther King jr, one of the finest men to walk the face of the Earth and one who used his deeply held religious belief and inspiration to reach out to the poor, the disposessed, the excluded and those discriminated against.

His words had a real moral weight behind them, a power that came from beyond himself and he left a legacy and remains a source of deep inspiration having achieved much by his death at the early age of 39.

Let us ignore the cheap words of the snake oil salesman who held high office and turn to a simple pastor, speaking about his opposition to the Vietnam War, and see if we can learn something.

Vietnam - A Time to Break Silence

A grateful world is blessed by the news that Tony Blair, not content with his directorships, saving the Middle East, teaching Religion and politics at Yale, has decided to take on an extra burden on our behalf; He's going to stop Global Warming. 

With his track record of success, who can fail to say that the world is now in a safe hands. 

PS. Incoming!

It's always nice when a blatant piece of Blair puffery appears in the pages of the Guardian - even people like us, veteran watchers of a proven liar who surrounds himself with professional con artists, often struggle to understand what's going on in what passes for Tony's mind.  'Some Blair allies' planting stories bigging him up as EU President 'if it comes with real powers to intervene in defence and trade affairs' allows us to see the truth - naked lust for unaccountable power and weapons.  Which is, of course, what we'd concluded anyway, but it's nice to have another data point on the graph.

Really though, this should be a non-starter.  Germany will be opposed*, while Sarkozeon Bonaparte in France will be well up for it, which on its own should put the British public right off.  We don't like Europe, we don't like the French and we certainly don't like Tony Blair.  Combine the three and John Bull should get the raspberry out.  The Sun, of course, will suddenly discover a love of all things European at this point, doubtless pushing Tony as Our Man, telling those soft foreigners a few home truths, but the Sun ain't what it was, recently dropping below the 3m copies mark for the first time since 1974.  Ironically, the otherwise ghastly Daily Mail, which is faring rather better, will oppose 'President Blair' on every possible level, since they hate Blair and Europe and foreigners.

[More at Chick Yog]

* It is, however, a trifle worrying that the Germans are apparently pushing an Austrian to be President of Europe.  Will they ever learn?

Tony Blair, eh?  Tony Bloody Blair.  In the middle of a banking crisis prompted by greed and chicanery, the master of greed and chicanery picks up not one but two jobs with big financial organisations.  Amazing.  Anyone would think they'd picked him for who he knows rather than what he knows - after all, banks need all the friends they can get just now (right, Darling?).

On the other hand, the Telegraph reports that JP Morgan don't actually expect him to turn up.  I don't know about you, but paying £2m a year to keep Tony out of the office sounds like a good investment for almost anybody.  Think of it as protection money - if only Saddam had paid up, presumably, Tony would have invaded someone else.  Watch out for him in your neighbourhood if you haven't got the requisite finance.

Talking of Iraq, TYR has a typically incisive analysis of why and how the 'surge' failed, based on sound military principles of deployment of reserves.  George and the neocons, true to their principles, basically gambled the US Army away for a short-term boost in domestic ratings, while blathering on about the desirability of a strong USA capable of imposing its will on the world.  The key thing is to ask your local tiresome neocon apologist is why, if the surge is such a wise all-conquering strategy, they've got themselves into a position where it's the only weapon they can't use any more, any where but the fire is still burning.  That's before we even get round to mentioning Afghanistan.

Well, it was fun while it lasted.  Louise 'I'm the Respect Czar and I'll get totally pissed if I want to' Casey and her Blairite crew have been disbanded after it someone realised it was all tabloid-headline-grabbing bullshit:

Ms Casey, who was regarded highly by Mr Blair as a “can do” official, has been commissioned to carry out a cross-departmental review on how best to engage communities in the fight against crime.

That's a pretty tough punishment for being regarded highly by Blair.

Via the Magistrate's Blog

It's time to take stock of how Mr. Blair's fantastic legacy is being nurtured by his successor and I'm sorry to say it doesn't look good for our Tony:

Merging prisons and probation

Respect Agenda

Faith Schools

NHS Independent Sector Treatment Centres

Staying in Iraq Until The Job Is Done

Sucking up to George Bush and the neocons

Sucking up to the Sun at any opportunity

Locking people up without trial

NHS IT

Modernising Medical Careers

Now, are ID cards going down the same well-trodden yet unloved path, as Gordon tries to keep the ship afloat by throwing things overboard?  At the weekend, as TYR beautifully reported, he was in full nonsensical biometric sciency waffle mode, but today faced with a unanimous opposition with a damn good talking point and a public thoroughly roused to the dangers of letting the buggers have any more data, he sort of sort of not retreated a bit or didn't.  It's so hard to tell with Gordon.

Personally I think it's dead, but we should keep reloading the shotgun until it stops twitching.

In other news, the link between ID card IT and the myriad problems at the DCA (now Ministry of Justice) has been followed on Blairwatch for a while and there's an interesting snippet from SpyBlog from back in 2006 here that seems to suggest, interestingly, that C-NOMIS should be looked at in the light of ID cards (basically by using the NIR as the unique identifier across Home Office/MiniJustice systems).  If ID cards are going, does this explain why C-NOMIS was canned?  If Reid was forcing it to depend on ID cards, and this is taken out, surely that collapses it?  What other systems proposed during the Blair era were similarly forced to build in dependency on the NIR?