Airstrip One

Should I be nice to Europe?

The EU has come out against this Iraq bombing. So should I perhaps be a bit nicer to them now?

Well, no. I'm not a actually against the Iraqi invasion, just against British participation in it. It simply isn't in our interest to do anything about it one way or the other. There is no way that Iraq is going to be able to be any more threatening to us than the IRA is, the oil price is not as much a concern to us as it is to any other major industrailised power and the national aspirations of the Kurds or Israelis are simply a matter for the Kurds and Israelis. So opposition to the worlds biggest power is stupid as long as neutrality is an option. Tyning ourselves to the weak and declining European Union is stupidity on stilts.

However what will be interesting will be to see the way in which Mr Blair is torn. Which foreign power should he suck up to today? What will be certain is that he won't think about the national interests of the country he governs.