A senior civil servant in the UK is said to have remarked that no-one can feign sincerity like Tony Blair.
The dramatic Olympic win for London over Paris (and New York) at the moment when Blair flew back early to chair the G8 is his apotheosis as world leader in front of all the others. It is not just that he is a great escapologist. It is not just that he is an opportunist. It is that his opportunism is systematic and scientific. He and the whole generation of New Labour around him are prepared to analyse the whole sweep of the issues, very much including the subjective impressions, and are also prepared to analyse process control in detail. The BBC coverage ahead of the decision on the Olympic bid, told us, with subtle spin management, that the British team were quietly hopeful and that it was a good thing in these situations to be the second, not the first favourite. But if Britain won, it would be because of the tremendus personal lobbying of Tony Blair that had turned round several significant voters personally in the previous couple of days, even though he had to fly back early to chair the world economic summit. And so it turned out to be. The symobolic defeat of Chirac so soon after the public row over European Finances and Chirac's referendum failure, and Schroeder's imminent defeat, is the moment when everyone can see that the torch has passed from old Europe to New Europe. Tony Blair, far from being a lame duck with just 24 months to run as UK prime minister, is now front runner to become within 5 years president of a refashioned European Federation, which combines a more competitive "anglo-saxon" economic model with the skills of total social management that are the mark of New Labour but *not* of the German SPD. Blair instinctively always plays both ends against the middle. He is also willing to reframe any question, positions himself, advantageously, and loves the battle. As the right wing core Conservative Daily Telegraph says today, it would be churlish not to recognise that Tony Blair has the qualities of being a great statesman. President of Europe Chris Burford
