| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
05 Jun 2005 10:35:58 PM |
| Object: |
Blair gives up on his EU dream |
Blair gives up on his EU dream
By Melissa Kite, Toby Harnden and Tony Paterson
(Filed: 05/06/2005)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=0COXJNZA4GEQ5QFIQMGCM5WAVCBQUJVC?xml=/news/2005/06/05/neu05.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/06/05/ixportaltop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=22123
Tony Blair has given up on Europe as an issue worth fighting for,
senior allies of the Prime Minister have told The Sunday Telegraph.
A leading Blairite cabinet minister made the admission last night as
the European Union descended into deeper turmoil, with doubts
surfacing over the future of the single currency.
Tony Blair: ‘Africa is worth fighting for. Europe... is not’
Mr Blair, who will seek to shift the focus of his administration on to
poverty in the Third World this week during talks with President Bush,
has told his closest allies: "Africa is worth fighting for. Europe, in
its present form, is not."
The signal is an astonishing U-turn for a leader who said three years
ago that the euro was "our destiny" and who announced a British
referendum by proclaiming: "Let the battle be joined." But one of his
closest allies said that Mr Blair no longer believed that putting
Britain at the heart of Europe could be his legacy: "Europe is back to
the drawing board. Africa will become more important."
Mr Blair flies to Washington tomorrow to try to secure support for
proposals to tackle poverty ahead of next month's G8 summit in
Gleneagles. But the Prime Minister is unlikely to be able to divert
attention completely from the chaos over Europe's future.
President Chirac of France and Germany's Chancellor Schröder held a
summit in Berlin last night after the No votes in France and Holland
on the constitution.
Yet the crisis widened beyond the document alone, with a media
offensive being mounted to bolster the euro after German officials and
an Italian minister openly discussed its possible demise. In the first
rumblings of a call for the franc to be reinstated, Nicolas
Dupont-Aignant, a member of Mr Chirac's ruling UMP party, said:
"France, Italy and Germany would be in a better state without the
euro. However, I don't believe we should ditch it now.
"But either it is reformed, and the central European Bank kick-starts
growth by lowering interest rates and pursuing a more American-style
monetary policy, or the euro will explode in mid-air."
The governor of France's central bank, however, rushed to the euro's
defence. Christian Noyer said that the currency was "in no way under
threat" following its fall in value since the No votes of the past
seven days. He dismissed as "absurd" the idea of a temporary
withdrawal from the euro by individual states.
"The euro is a solid currency which brings us a lasting guarantee of
stable prices and thus the maintenance of purchasing power for our
wages and savings," he told Le Parisien newspaper.
The markets have been slowly adjusting to the possibility of the
break-up of the euro, with the spread between government bonds in
different countries widening.
Last night, John Redwood, the leading eurosceptic Tory MP, said: "You
can't have a single currency without a single government. They are in
a mess because they have only done half of it and they are now
discovering in a painful way what that means."
The No campaign in Britain will launch a campaign tomorrow demanding a
referendum on any aspects of the constitution that leaders might
attempt to salvage. It will also unveil 46 new business backers,
including Stuart Rose, chief executive of Marks & Spencer.
An ICM poll for the No group found that 81 per cent of voters say that
it would be unacceptable to bring in any of the proposals without a
referendum in Britain first.
--
"Looking at every bump and wiggle of the record is a waste of time -
it's like trying to figure out the probability of a pair of dice
by looking at the individual rolls. You've got to look at averages.
So, I don't set very much store in looking at the direct evidence."
-- Stephen Schneider
"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." -- John Updike
"Why would I listen to losers?" -- Arnold Schwarzenegger
"Long term commitment in relationships is only necessary because it takes
so damn long to raise children. Marriage may well be some kind of trick
to keep the males around beyond sexual satiation." -- Captain Compassion
"Progress is the increasing control of the environment by life.
--Will Durant
Joseph R. Darancette
res0mp8t@NOSPAMverizon.net
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