Poll: Tony Blair as 'EU President'? Has the world gone mad?!?

[ChromeAlchemist]

I dont understand this not enough information is given, what does the osition entail what power/authority, how would the position be decided vote? representation? how do you keep it neutral and fair? Is it only limited to former leaders? If so I can understand why they would pick blair, would you rather have oh say.... Thatcher representing the country EVER again?

And Blair was not a bad politician he was spinless and did not listen to his people but the worst? Are you kidding? Thatcher and Brown are the two worst things to ever hit this country a nuke would have done less damage collectivley than those two.

People who honestly think Blair was the worst is either too young or too ignorant. The only thing positive I can attribute to Thatcher is that Alan Moore created V for Vendetta to parody her reign, comparing it to the Nazi Party.

And have we ignored Brown, who is only there by default? He actually said to Blair: 'when are going to fuck off and let me have a go??' and now he's here, he's doing a lovely job. >_>

As far as I can imagine, Blair may well only be a figurehead. He'll probably crack under enough pressure, so it's probably as good as having no one being leader.

 

[tk1989]

Eh? what was wrong with Blair?! he was brilliant! he accomplished quite a bit in his time in office. His second term was particularly good. This poll is as biased as they come....

 

[El Poncho]

Blair did alot of good things in my opinion.

 

[Wadders]

Care-o-meter:

Low. |---[]--------------------------| High.

I've always wanted to do that...

In all seriousness though. How much power will he have as an EU President? Is it more of a figurehead role, or will he have a lot of control over important matters?

Once I know this, the care-o-meter reading may change.

 

[spuddyt]

Actually I don't think Blair was that bad of a prime minister...

 

[leaman474]

Never heard of the EU thingy, but i wouldn't mind punching Tony Blair in the fucking mouth.

 

[The Maddest March Hare]

Is he being put forward for head of Commission or head of Council? Either is a bit of a bad idea seeing as it's Tony Blair, but at least there will always be a second president to keep the corrupt bastard in place.

 

[Willwillwritehiswill]

I find that poll extremely biased. Blair was a decent politician. Better the devil you know at any rate.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

Blair is an extremely effective politician. He did do some incredibly good things. And some extremely stupid ones. As long as he keeps the best interests of the UK at heart then i say he uses all his manipulative skills (what he is best at is manipulating)to do whats best for us and most damaging to the rest of the EU then go for it. Go Blair (fuck, i never thought i, a conservative, would ever hear myself say that)

 

[razer17]

why is there no actual good replies. as in, i found tony blair to be a very good leader, and you couldn't do better.
i went with brilliant, sans the sarcasm

 

[weeman3000]

pander to an idiot that wasn't actually elected by the American people

Fixed. Sorry to the Blair lovers out there.

You mean like gordon brown? I'd prefer blair back over brown anyday.

 

[Boneasse]

Rofl, that's even worse than the Danish Prime Minister; Anders Fogh Rasmussen, becoming the Secretary General of NATO.

 

[DazZ.]

I just like the word shite.

Pretty biased poll though, but a UK EU president is bad for the UK how?

 

[Megacherv]

I vote manipulative.

But, what the hell is the EU President?

President of the European Union.

How did nobody else guess this?

 

[Takoto]

I don't really care, I mean, I guess there is better people they could have chosen, but...

 

[Zombie_Fish]

At the start of his time as Prime Minister, he didn't appear to be that bad a person, but following him joining the Iraq war, he really did abuse the power he had, and also took advantage off the media and took advantage of the government. He basically became like a selfish child after that, lieing in Parliament, leaving blanks in the bills to be filled in later and just ignoring parliament to get his stuff through, and it really has taken a toll on Britain as a result.

Also, has anyone else noticed that the opinions on the poll are all basically the same?

 

[dwightsteel]

pander to an idiot that wasn't actually elected by the American people

Fixed. Sorry to the Blair lovers out there.

You mean like gordon brown? I'd prefer blair back over brown anyday.

Let me clarify. I'm an American, and I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to politics within the UK, I'm not exactly an expert. My reaction was merely regarding his behavior towards America when Bush was in office. To the rest of his political platforms and his actual term as Prime Minister, I can't, and won't comment on.

 

[petrolinus]

I think it shouldn't be too hard to find out about the purpose of the EU president in Wikipedia, right?
I wouldn't call the EU irrelevant or unimportant, as it has quite a lot of power over 27 countries and half a billion people (really!).
First of all: there are three major institutions in the EU (plus many others): the Council, the Commission and the Parliament.

The Parliament doesn't really have a lot of power and is elected by "the peoples" in the EU. The more inhabitants a country has, the more delegates it may send to the parliament.

The Council consists of all the heads of state of the EU countries, therefore, Blair had already been member of the Council for quite some time. They meet four times a year. Being the 27 most important people in Europe (sort of), the council has quite a lot of power.

And there's the Commission. It exists independently of the individual states (sort of being a "government of Europe"). With the Parliament constituting the legislative (compare: Senate/House of Representatives), the Commission is the executive (compare: President and ministers).

Each of those three institutions has its own president, but what we're actually talking about here (I think...) is the President of the Council. Don't be fooled by the confusing wikipedia entry, this office doesn't even exist yet. But if it's created (in case they accept the Lisbon treaty, but this is going too far...), it might actually become quite important, depending on how the "first President" is going to act (note: sounds dangerous, having a badly-defined office).

The UK has not been participating very much in the EU so far: they didn't introduce the Euro (like many other states) and they didn't sign many treaties, or only with opt-outs, mainly because they believe that they might lose some of their independence. That's possibly why many of our fellow Britons here believe the EU is useless.

I think you can imagine that most people from the more "active" EU countries therefore wouldn't really like to see a British man as the first EU president. Especially not Blair, who lost his good reputation during the Iraq war.

I did not participate in the poll, because I will not succumb to your biased opinion. I don't like him very much either, but this poll is nonsense.

 

[iain62a]

This is a stupid post. You just posted five of your own views, and didn't even bother to back up your opinion with any evidence.

You said that Tony Blair was corrupt. Can you back this up? In what way was he corrupt?

That being said, I don't particularly like Tony Blair, although he does have some good things to his name, like the devolution of the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish parliaments. I'd prefer if someone from a more reasonable country got the position of European President, and someone less involved in controversy. Maybe the candidate from Luxembourg.

pander to an idiot that wasn't actually elected by the American people

Fixed. Sorry to the Blair lovers out there.

Hang on, what did you mean by the part about George Bush not actually being elected by the American people?

Just out of interest.