Not Tony Blair.

[Francesca R]

Sorry don't have a proper link since it was just tweeted to me :)European Union leaders have agreed to appoint Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the first President of.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news

ETA--Here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8367589.stm

Oh and a UK baroness got the foreign policy job.Labour peer Baroness Ashton has been selected as the EU's high representative of foreign affairs and security,.. http://bit.ly/40GbCr

[icerat]

Finally! Our own George Washington! Herman ummm whatsisname!!!

I'm sooo excited!!! ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz :slp:

ps you coulda picked a slightly more interesting thread title! ;)

[Darat]

They've just gone for the one with the funniest name!

[plumjam]

Never mind, Tony. Pantomime season is just round the corner.

[Darat]

I don't think Blair will be too disappointed - the salary is apparently about £320,000 a year - and what's that for Blair? Two or three after dinner speeches in China?

[Darth Rotor]

I don't think Blair will be too disappointed - the salary is apparently about £320,000 a year - and what's that for Blair? Two or three after dinner speeches in China?
FWIW, I think Blair would have done a decent job.

Might be why he wasn't chosen.

[GreyICE]

FWIW, I think Blair would have done a decent job.

Might be why he wasn't chosen.
A decent job at WHAT exactly? Uniting all of Europe? That's not much an achievement when what they're united in is hating your guts.

By the way, I call editorial bias. There's no way that that Baroness looks like she is about to be hit by a bus after just coming down from a 3-week bender in every photo of her.

[Darth Rotor]

A decent job at WHAT exactly? Uniting all of Europe? That's not much an achievement when what they're united in is hating your guts.

By the way, I call editorial bias. There's no way that that Baroness looks like she is about to be hit by a bus after just coming down from a 3-week bender in every photo of her.
Hating whose guts? Tony's? ????

As to the Baroness call, I'll vote yes with you on that one.

DR

[GreyICE]

Hating whose guts? Tony's? ???? Yeah. It's not every person who manages to get their own party to nail them into a resignation corner, and nearly bring down their own party through their own personal unpopularity.

He left office with something like 25% approval rating, which is a few points off Bush's.

Lets face it, his entire tenure would be haunted by his tenure in the UK. A lower profile, less disliked person would be a lot more effective.

[Guybrush Threepwood]

By the way, I call editorial bias. There's no way that that Baroness looks like she is about to be hit by a bus after just coming down from a 3-week bender in every photo of her.


As to the Baroness call, I'll vote yes with you on that one.

DR

Shame there isn't a classy post award, you two could have shared it.

[GreyICE]

Shame there isn't a classy post award, you two could have shared it.

What? One of the subtlest ways to stick editorial bias into any article is photo selection. It's very easy, very subtle, and very deniable.

Or do you mean to tell me that of all the possible photos they have of her, that's the best one? I don't buy it. At all. I stand by my description of that photo, that's one of those 'one in a hundred' terrible photos (and yes, my last drivers license had a similar one... thanks for leaving me in a DMV with broken AC for an hour...).

[Guybrush Threepwood]

What? One of the subtlest ways to stick editorial bias into any article is photo selection. It's very easy, very subtle, and very deniable.

Or do you mean to tell me that of all the possible photos they have of her, that's the best one? I don't buy it. At all. I stand by my description of that photo, that's one of those 'one in a hundred' terrible photos (and yes, my last drivers license had a similar one... thanks for leaving me in a DMV with broken AC for an hour...).

Hmmm... I think I may owe you an apology there, having the benefit of European news sources, including video footage, I was aware that Baroness Ashton had missed her visit from the hotness fairy, and since it is equally clear that Mr van Rompuy was not going to stand in for George Clooney any time soon, I thought it was an unnecessarily sexist remark. It's Friday night, I've been celebrating the end of the week so my judgement may be off a bit.

[GreyICE]

Hmmm... I think I may owe you an apology there, having the benefit of European news sources, including video footage, I was aware that Baroness Ashton had missed her visit from the hotness fairy, and since it is equally clear that Mr van Rompuy was not going to stand in for George Clooney any time soon, I thought it was an unnecessarily sexist remark. It's Friday night, I've been celebrating the end of the week so my judgement may be off a bit.

Oh, sorry, no. It's not an appearance remark. It was actually based on facial expression and hairstyle, which does not combine to a flattering portrait (I googled her, and sure enough, while there's nothing that makes her 'Angelina Jolie', there's shots of her with conventional hair styling and a smile (she has a nice smile), focused expression, or other 'serious photo' look). From the lines on her throat, I'd say she was in the middle of saying something in that photo (if you take stills of a speech, there's inevitably a moment you look rather stupid, as forming words with your mouth leads to some odd transitory expressions that last for all of a quarter of a second).

No, someone on the BBC staff does not like Baroness Ashton, you can count on that.

[Darth Rotor]

Hmmm... I think I may owe you an apology there, having the benefit of European news sources, including video footage, I was aware that Baroness Ashton had missed her visit from the hotness fairy, and since it is equally clear that Mr van Rompuy was not going to stand in for George Clooney any time soon, I thought it was an unnecessarily sexist remark. It's Friday night, I've been celebrating the end of the week so my judgement may be off a bit.
It's cool, my friend, I was agreeing with GI that it seemed that the editors were deliberately using poor pix (US tabloids do that a lot) of a famous, or nearly famous, person. They do it to sell papers, or sometimes to reflect an editorial bias.


DR

[Darth Rotor]

Yeah. It's not every person who manages to get their own party to nail them into a resignation corner, and nearly bring down their own party through their own personal unpopularity.

He left office with something like 25% approval rating, which is a few points off Bush's.

Lets face it, his entire tenure would be haunted by his tenure in the UK. A lower profile, less disliked person would be a lot more effective.

I get why a lot of Brits are about tired of Tony, but maybe not so much the rest of Europe, other than ... him being too close to Bush. Close?

DR