Austria and Belgium not completely irrelevant ... ?

Of course none of the 27 members of the European Union is 'irrelevant', just as all 370 million or so of we citizens of these EU countries has, or should have, some significance, even Austria and Belgium. However, the political reality is that there are at most six countries within the EU which have real importance because of the size of their populations and their economic importance; amongst those I'd nominate Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Netherlands - the fifth because of its relatively large population and the sixth because of its relative economic importance; the first four because of a combination of both their economic importance and their significant populations.

However, whilst I as a loyal citizen of the United Kingdom can see the importance to us of having one of 'our own' as President of the European Union, I'd be less than honest if I didn't ackmowledge that having [Saint] Tony Blair amongst those considered as potential occupants of that role fills me with something akin to horror, bordering on revulsion, not to mention incredulity. Possibly Mr Blair is an absolutely wonderful human being, but I have to say that I saw little evidence of that during his time as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom or in the time since he stepped down from this position, when he took up the role of something called 'Middle East Envoy', a sort of non-job seemingly created specially to keep him occupied - I hesitate to say 'gainfully employed', except that I have no doubt he may personally have gained from that role, although I doubt that anyone else on the planet, other than his immediate family, has profited from his more recent, or earlier, efforts.

Long-time readers of this blog will know that I am not one of Tony Blair's fervent fans, but I would like to hear from anyone who can explain to me just what he has been doing, or has achieved, in the 2+ years since he ceased to be our Prime Minister. Indeed I'd like to have someone explain to me what he achieved during his time as Prime Minister of the UK, other than to delay the accession to that role of its current [unillustrious] occupant, Mr Gordon Brown. I mean it. Really (^TM - Margaret and Helen).