Blair's EU Fixation & A Dirty Deal in the Works

This today from the Times (UK) on Tony Blair's backdoor machinations to bind Britain ever tighter into the EU:

Tony Blair was accused yesterday of preparing to introduce a scaled-down European constitution by the "back door" before he quits as Prime Minister this summer.

The Conservatives and the UK Independence Party reacted angrily after Downing Street confirmed Mr Blair did not believe a referendum would be needed on a new European treaty expected to be agreed during his final days in office.

After the European constitution was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands, EU leaders are looking at ways of introducing many key changes by amending existing treaties.

Mr Blair told journalists on Thursday that a treaty amending the existing legal base would not have the characteristics of the constitution which aimed to re-establish the Union with the trappings of statehood, such as a flag and anthem.

A Brussels summit on June 21 will be Mr Blair's last appearance on the European stage and will tie the hands of his successor on key EU constitution issues.

Read the entire article here. This is madness. Outside of being a moderately successful economic bloc, and outside of keeping European countries from killing each other in open warfare over the past half century, it is very difficult to think of any single thing that the EU has done successfully. EU immigration policy and open borders policies are disasters. The EU Charter on Human Rights has caused significant problems in dealing with Muslim radicals and, if I recall correctly, some elements of it were adopted by Labour in in lieu of the UK actually holding a referendum to establish a formal Bill of Rights on the basis of its anglo-saxon mores (who needs the Magna Carta, anyway?)

The EU certainly has not created out of Europe a group of allies willing to help one another in a pinch. This was more then amply demonstrated by the EU's deplorable and cowardly refusal to help Britain during the recent Iranian UK-hostage taking incident. One would think, for the UK at least, that last one would have put the nail in the coffin of greater EU integration.

And it was not that long ago that France's Chirac sought hegemony over Europe using the EU as its vehicle. And given that Chirac also declared anglo saxon mores and its capitalist system as antithetical to France and all of Europe, it would certainly seem that Britain, and indeed every European country, should be very skeptical about ceding any sovereign power to the EU. Thus I am in absolute amazement over the latest machinations of Tony Blair, now seeking to do precisely that, and without submitting the question to the people of Britain for a vote

If you wish to follow all of this - and its like watching an accident on the highway, you almost have to look - the site EU Referendum consistently has excellent posts on it as well as all things UK.