editorial cartoons

Blair gives an unrepentant speech to the truculent EU Parliament to "set out his stall" for the upcoming EU Presidency, due to fall to him for 6 months from the 1st July. His message is pretty much as stated last week at the EU summit, although he takes great pains to accentuate his European credentials. The contentious point is that there's no quarter given on the issues of modernisation and economic reform; i.e. more free market economics, a labour force free of the constraints of the Social Chapter and the slashing of the Common Agricultural Policy budget. The EU under a British President would strive to persuade Europe that more of its money needs to be transferred into New Labour things like R&D, skills and the opportunities offered by globalisation. He stresses that this doesn't mean the loss of a "social Europe", but it won't look that way from a French perspective; the French way of life - for the farmer and the bon viveur - would be under threat. Gordon Brown had given an even more hard-hitting speech at his annual Mansion House address to the City fat cats. he is seen as the "hoodie boy" [above] to Tony Blair's more oleaginous market trader, giving the French farmer the two fingers.

The Times; Friday 24/6/05

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