All Flair but no Chair

The Times ; website - Times Online
From the Next Foreign Secretary:

“There could not be a worse way to sell the European Union to the people of Britain,” the Shadow Foreign Secretary says. “The other European governments need to be aware that the easiest way to turn the British people against the European Union and underline the lack of legitimacy and democracy of what would be created by the Lisbon treaty is to make Tony Blair the president.”

Mr Hague is leading the campaign against the former Prime Minister returning to the political stage. “Most people would be extremely annoyed if Tony Blair is appointed president of the EU,” he says. “That would just underline the lack of accountability and democracy that is our objection to the Lisbon treaty. Imagine what this says to the British people if they vote out a Labour Government and then discover that one of the prime authors is still in power over them without anyone having a vote on whether the office should even exist, let alone on who should hold it.

“When we are about to commence an inquiry into the Iraq war in which he will be very important witness, to be appointed to this position is not appropriate,” he says. “Our fear about this presidency of the European Union is that it will be turned into a powerful central executive position."