Sarkozy sets sights on Brown

FINALLY the Tories seem to be noticing what is going on in Europe. The new French President has made clear that the old rules and methods no longer apply and the Shadow Foreign Secretary seems to have at last twigged that it might be a huge error to send a spent force such as Blair to confront this building hurricane. The following welcome quotes come from a Telegraph report in the paper today, linked here:

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, has attacked the shuttle diplomacy of recent weeks.

"We are in the bizarre position that Merkel and Sarkozy seem to know more about the British Government's policy on Europe than the British public," he said.

"Tony Blair meets Merkel this weekend in a position of completely unnecessary weakness. No Prime Minister can properly represent his country in important negotiations when he has less than a month to go in office."

The paper elsewhere reports that the real target of Sarkozy has already become Gordon Brown, read here "Gordon Brown has advanced and modernised the British economy over 10 years," Mr Sarkozy said.

"I hope that in moving from number 11 to 10 Downing Street he understands that Europe is not outmoded."

The remarks reflect long-standing irritation about Mr Brown's euro-scepticism. In Paris and Berlin there are fears that he will take a less integrationist position than Mr Blair in talks on the future of the EU, including those on a mini-treaty to replace the defunct European constitution.

If only that were true, for if it were, would not Brown insist on leading negotiations in Brussels on 21/22 June as would be constitutionally correct given that it is only he who can guide any necessary resulting legislation through Parliament........ or is my repeated suspicion the more likely case? Namely that the vetoes will be effectively lost in the revised decision-making procedures of the European Council, which changes will not become fully clear until long after Blair and Beckett have departed from office??????

Do not be fooled by the constant use of the term mini-Treaty, it means minimum legislation and verbiage incorporating the maximum possible content of the old EU Constitutional Treaty entirely to circumvent the democratic rejection of the same by the people of France, Holland and naturally of the UK were they not already living in a tyrannical if not totalitarian state.