Blair's Iraq for the €

I never thought I'd praise Gordon Brown twice in a day, but I've managed it today. This is from the Independent's Steve Richards on Blair's thinking before and during the Iraq war:

In his diaries Chris Mullin reports a conversation with Blair's close ally, Alan Milburn, during the build up to war. Milburn told Mullin that after the conflict Blair would be so strong that he would sack Gordon Brown as Chancellor. In Britain war leaders tend to be popular and there was much talk in the immediate aftermath of a "Baghdad Bounce" for Blair.

Blair led the domestic coalition of support that he felt most comfortable with, partly because he thought he would challenge it once: when he took up what he regarded as his historic mission to join the euro. It was in this context that he was uncharacteristically relaxed about media attacks that portrayed him as "Bush's poodle". He told allies: "At least they wont be able to accuse me of being anti-American when we have the referendum on the euro".

Shortly after the war, in the summer of 2003, Blair turned his mind to the euro and was livid when Brown as Chancellor placed impossible obstacles in front of him. He wanted to prove then that he was as much a pro-European as he was pro-Bush.