The Spectator’s Notes | 19 February 2005

Tony Blair (who has introduced the most divisive law in modern times) thinks that George Bush ‘owes him one’ for his support over the Iraq war. But what form could the payment of the debt take? Bush’s backing, after all, might make Blair even more unpopular among those thinking of voting Labour. I think I know the answer and, not surprisingly, one detects the hand of Peter Mandelson in it. Bush is coming to Europe next week and will visit the institutions of the European Union in Brussels, the first American President to do so. I gather that early drafts of his speech for this occasion get him to endorse the European constitution. If he does this, of course, he will flatly and disastrously contradict his wider strategy of developing a world order different from the blocs of the Cold War era; but never underestimate the love of policy elites for doing deals with other policy elites.