That you consider advocacy?

it IS a fact that many Europeans admire the British political system

What do you mean? I don't get your point. We spoke about Bliar. I showed a poll showing that Europeans admiring Bliar are at most a fourth of them. I brought up the British politican system as something people do not understand/know, not to speak of admiring: many people have no clue that Britain has a proportional election system, one that to boot is currently skewed towards Labour in its precint distribution.

No one will get there who does not want it

That wasn't in dispute. But from your diary, it appeared to me that this whole Bliar for President thing is new for you, and you think it's Sarko's idea. In fact, his intentions are known at least since his failed push for an EU Directorium made up of the biggest EU member states.

what about Bertie Ahern?

Same as with Barroso: getting into the EU just after failing at home. (Barroso's legacy as PM of Portugal was a reform programme that failed to repair the budget, and fudged reports of budget deficit towards the EU. I leave Ahern's list of bad moves to Colman and Frank.)

I have no doubt that whoever becomes permanent president will be forced by the Member States to push the will of the Member States

Doing some things reluctantly against one's own will is quite different from actively pursuing the right policies. (What's more, even from an EU Council President, I'd expect the pursuit of pan-European interests, rather than the vbarious governments' interests.)

It is exactly those qualities that allowed someone WHO IS A RIGHT WING at heart to lead the UK left wing party for 10 years.

You give too much credit to a single man -- and underestimate the power putential of stupid people. But that's not really the issue. My point was that Bliar built/inherited a power base within the Labour leadership (and the British government bureaucracy) that he could use to crush weak opposition, in the form of the parliamentary whip, the top-down selection of MP candidates, media campaigns. But meanwhile, he just didn't dare to take on some more difficult opponents, and almost all his dealings with significant independent power bases ended in dismal failure -- be it his attempts to get Dubya do something on climate change, Africa or the I/P conflict, or his attempts at EU structural reform. Thus he does not have the strategic, tactical and political brilliance to correctly deal with acting heads of states in the EU Council.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}