So now it's Britain v France. Tony Blair's euro-delusions were on rampant display today when he took to the pages of the Times to lay claim to the leadership of the New Europe. His pitch was to champion the accession countries from the old communist bloc which join the EU this weekend and which, unlike the sclerotic Old Europe of France and Germany, are committed to the dynamic economic approach of the US:

'Having just escaped from the dead hand of communism, they share the British view that their future prosperity rests on a liberal, competitive economy. They are also keenly aware of the role that the United States has played in helping them to achieve their freedom and are determined to maintain its partnership with the EU... I am confident that there will be a general shared view and vision between ourselves and the new member countries — and that can only be good for Britain.'

This is a familiar record which, however, is now stuck in a groove. For the Madrid bombing changed the EU landscape. With the election of a Spanish government which signalled its desire to leap into bed with France and Germany, Old Europe was immensely strengthened. And on the very same day that Blair was making his pitch, France's President Chirac issued a threat when he 'referred to proposals aired in Brussels and Berlin that would require member states to ratify the constitution or leave the EU.'

The reality is that France has always effectively run the EU and will do so for the forseeable future. The idea that the small states which are now joining will rally behind a British/American axis as a rival power bloc to France and Germany is risible. The EU constitution which Blair is so desperate for Britain to sign would bind us into a superstate whose existence and rules are being willed into being by France -- and as an explicit rival to America.

Blair's argument, which he appears sincerely to believe, is a monumental delusion of grandeur. A choice lies before us: America or euroland; the nation or a superstate; democracy or subservience. Blair's attempt to triangulate the US and the EU is, like the rest of the New Labour project, a refusal to face up to a necessary hard choice by pretending it doesn't exist.

Posted by melanie at April 30, 2004