Europe
In one of those peculiar alleys at the end of which European democracy works over dinner, one is to be held tomorrow at which a Name is expected to emerge. The path will then be open for the Name to be ratified as the first EU President. For the motorcade factor the choice would be Blair, but this is thought to be very unlikely. Iraq of course. For the quiet wisdom and stewardship from someone of whom nobody has ever heard, there are several candidates sharing world anonymity.
John Bolton, at whose trigger happy views over the middle east I have railed at length, said a wise thing on the radio yesterday which has earned him a cup of tea from me if he should ever find himself passing my cottage whilst thirsty. He said that it was not yet determined whether Europe was a State or a collection of Nation States and although there was no denying there was a project in hand, it was not yet clear what the outcome would be.
It therefore made no difference who was the so called President of the Council, because that office was to lead an organistation which was a good deal smaller than the sum of its parts. Good stuff JB.
Of course some of the parts want to see a new State. Other parts do not. The odd thing is, this same difficulty was fudged in the U.S Constitution at its inception. The schism proved too wide to heal by peaceful means and cost six hundred thousand American lives to resolve in the Civil War. In Europe we had the wars first. Millions died. Now we want to go forward on a more enlightend path. Looked at that way, the European Union is one of the most noble political movements in all of civilised history. Even more noble than the United States. We really should be interested in that Name after all.