PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED

A GREAT MANY PEOPLE ARE AVIDLY READING A Journey, the autobiography apparently written by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, now President of the Middle East, and pictured above in one of his characteristic “pointing-the-finger-of-authority” poses. Almost all of these people are looking for juicy scandal involving his relationship with Gordon “madman” Brown, or Alastair “I know where you live, matey” Campbell, the well-known spin-doctor.

OF MUCH MORE INTEREST, HOWEVER, is Blair’s description of George W. Bush. I am a rare fellow among my acquaintances in not considering Mr Bush to be an idiot but rather a sensible politician who remained a human being throughout his ordeals and did not put up with fools simply to follow diplomatic rules.

MR BUSH, WRITES MR BLAIR, had no idea who Guy Verhofstadt was when he met him at a G8 summit in Genoa in 2001. I must say that I myself have never heard of Mr Verhofstadt and I suppose I never will hear of him in the future even if and/or when he is given a “top job” in the European Union bureaucracy. (If he hasn’t been given one already.)

BLAIR WRITES OF THE MEETING: “He didn’t know or recognise Guy, whose advice he listened to with considerable astonishment,” Mr Blair writes. “He then turned to me and whispered, ‘Who is this guy?’ ‘He is the prime minister of Belgium,’ I said. “Belgium? George said, clearly aghast at the possible full extent of his stupidity. ‘Belgium is not part of the G8’.” Blair explained to Bush that Mr Verhofstadt was the “president of Europe” as Belgium held the presidency of the EU council at the time.

BUSH'S REPLY SHOWS BOTH HIS INTELLIGENCE and our own foolishness in insisting on the system we use in the European Union: “You got the Belgians running Europe?” before shaking his head, “now aghast at our stupidity”.

FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER TELLS US IN HIS PRETTILY-TITLED The Maid of Orleans, “Even the Gods themselves struggle in vain against stupidity”, but I imagine that some of even the most patient and loving gods have given up in their struggle against Brussels and its paper-clip-pushing grey men with the intellectual capacity of a cornflake.