Comments on: Patten and Blair: two more strong non-starters

By: Trooper Thompson

Trooper Thompson — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:38:01 +0000

Tony Blair? Why not Radovan Karadzic? He’s just down the road in The Hague, and hasn’t killed half as many people as Blair.

By: french derek

french derek — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:52:55 +0000

Jon, whilst I like the idea of a Gordon Brown conspiracy, I can’t see it holding up. Let’s face it, the post of EU President as set out in the Lisbon Treaty is not a very big job. Brown probably would find that quite amusing to support a Blair candidacy? Also, he would have to do an about-face if he were to support Patten. NB I’m a confirmed anti-Blairite; and to have him alongside Barroso would be my horror scenario (as well as the death-knell of any hopes for a truly democratic EU sometime soon).

I have a high regard for Patten, despite what you note re the NYT interview. He holds to strong principles: and these are usually grounded in good sense. His record of service shows his resilience: just what an EU Foreign Rep needs?

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:29:18 +0000

@Ralf – I’m trying to work that out… but as, almost by definition, they will be rather anonymous politicians then it’s hard. I’ll try to post on that sometime soon.

By: Ralf Grahn

Ralf Grahn — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:42:17 +0000

Who are the starters and finishers, my dear Watson?

By: Julien Frisch

Julien Frisch — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 09:41:15 +0000

Hey Jon, this is a good article, especially because there were no real bells ringing in my head when I read the name Patten.

Regarding the speculations, I just wrote a short post: http://julienfrisch.blogspot.com/2009/08/regarding-top-eu-posts-under-lisbon.html