Truth be told Guido is a bit disappointed that Sarkozy has poured cold water on the prospect of President Blair.  It would have been such fun:

Guido got to Manchester this afternoon in search of of the inevitable row post the Irish “Yes” vote. First stop the Bruges group fringe meeting.  It looked promising, Guido counted some 600 attendees and it was standing room only, the line-up included Peter Hitchens and Simon Heffer.

Thatcher’s handbag was mentioned in the chairman’s introduction to great acclaim.  Heffer was measured in his nevertheless strong critique, Peter Hitchens had the room laughing telling them Cameron has put Rohypnol in the champagne and date-raped the Conservative Party. Lots of laughs, but only half the room clapped.  They didn’t like it much when Hitchens told them to stay at home on election day.  He said he himself would be in France.

During the Q&A the sense of the audience was Eurosceptic but not Europhobic, there was a lot of antipathy to the Hitchens line.  One audience member told him to stay in France.  Later on elsewhere Guido bumped into Dan Hannan and asked him where the EU-row fringe was, he emphasised he was very happy with the settled party position and thought that there was a real chance the Czechs could hold the line until election day.  He dismissed the idea that there would be any headbanging on Europe – “If Eurosceptics were plotting surely I would know”.

Dave is trying to push a firm line on Europe post Ireland’s likely ‘Yes’ vote. The Tories have just emailed out a message from Dave giving the line:

I want to make one thing clear: there will be no change in our policy on Europe and no new announcements at the Conference. There will be no change in Conservative policy as long as the Lisbon Treaty is still not in force. The Treaty has still not been ratified by the Czechs and the Poles. The Czech Prime Minister has said that the constitutional challenge before the Czech Constitutional Court could take 3-6 months to resolve.

I have said repeatedly that I want us to have a referendum. If the Treaty is not ratified in all Member States and not in force when the election is held, and if we are elected, then we will hold a referendum on it, we will name the date of the referendum in the election campaign, we will lead the campaign for a ‘No’ vote.

If the Treaty is ratified and in force in all Member States, we have repeatedly said we would not let matters rest there. But we have one policy at a time, and we will set out how we would proceed in those circumstances if, and only if, they happen.

Tory policy now depends on the success of Václav Klaus, the libertarian leaning President of the Czech Republic, challenging the constitutionality of the Treaty. Guido has met Václav Klaus, and he is a clear-sighted fighter, not a quitter.  If he can hold off the EU-elite’s constitutional steam-roller until the British general election, all is not lost.

Holding a referendum is popular across party lines, if the general election becomes a referendum on Brown and Europe all the better. Ken Clarke may have a huff, but he is one of the few prominent Europhiles left in the Conservative Party…

Well it is looking like a bad day for Irish sovereignty. Guido feels a bit guilty about not going home to vote. The entire Irish political establishment including the formerly anti-EU Greens backed the Brussels gravy train, the state media and the press likewise. With Declan Ganley neutered the anti-Treaty forces were lacking in leadership. The likely result according to exit polls is a ‘yes’.

That makes it No 1, Yes 1, so surely we need a tie-break referendum?

When Guido posted Edward Macmillan Scott’s attack on Michał Kamiński there was quite a strong backlash from the co-conspirators. Dan Hannan did quite a comprehensive rebuttal of the charges against Kamiński, Charles Crawford the blogging former British ambassador to Poland put it all in context which made it clear he didn’t believe the charges.  Guido was also emailed by a researcher from a Jewish political group and told that although they didn’t want to go on the record they had checked him out and found nothing that concerned them. That made Guido think that perhaps there was a lot of smoke without fire.

In the Telegraph Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle, repudiates the charge of anti-semitism. Polly is very sensitive to any hint of anti-semitism, if he is prepared to stake his reputation to clear Kamiński in the strongest possible langauge (“Anti-Semitic mudslinging of the worst kind“), then Guido takes it as read that Kamiński is innocent.

Which reflects appallingly on people like Dennis MacShane who smeared Kamiński in the most shameful manner in order to make a party political point. It is a terrible habit of those on the left to seek to demonise those on the right as racists. As if everyone who is in favour of low taxes and limited government must be prejudiced. Why not stick to attacking your opponents for what they actually believe in and what they actually do?

Calling someone a racist is much more emotionally charged than an argument over the effectiveness of  a particular fiscal approach. It should not be deployed, as seems too often the case, as a standard debating tactic against opponents. Labour spinners go looking for evidence of racism whenever they want to demonise an opponent. They tried to do this to frame Boris when he ran for Mayor, Damian McBride and Derek Draper did it to Iain Dale over his comments about Carol Thatcher’s unwise choice of words, and to Guido over comments on this blog not even written or seen by Guido. If Labour politicians stopped trying to falsely tar all their opponents as racists and really reserved the term for actual active racists, perhaps they would be more effective in countering the BNP’s rise in their own heartlands.

MEP Edward McMillan-Scott, the Tory who had the whip taken away for disobeying Cameron over letting Michal Kaminski represent the new Tory grouping as Vice-President of the European Parliament, has hit back and hit back hard. Writing in the Yorkshire Post he claims

On July 14, in Strasbourg, I stood and won against a Polish MEP, Michal Kaminski, for the post of Vice-President of the European Parliament, because he symbolised the rise of disguised extremism in Europe.Although Kaminski was nominated by the new Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) created by David Cameron, I decided to take the issue head on, even at the discomfiture of my own party. I did this at great personal and political risk – I could have lost everything and have now lost the whip – but I did it on principle.

It was not my principle – it was a higher one. To oppose a menacing political movement at a key moment in Europe’s politics…

He goes on to accuse Kaminski of pandering to anti-semitism and tacitly supporting it. Read the whole article: Why we must stop rise of a new face of fascism.

This plays into Labour’s whole Tories “have left the mainstream in Europe” meme. Hague will not be happy…

We are briefed that Blair is the official unofficial candidate of the FCO for permanent President of the Council of Europe.  Of course as an opponent of a European supra-state, Guido is an opponent of a permanent European President. But, well, wouldn’t it be fun to wind-up Gordon? William Hague is incredibly strident in his opposition to a permanent European President, yet even he recognises the fun value:

At least President Blair, unlike Prime Minister Brown, wouldn’t be a national embarrassment…

Meanwhile over in Brussels Finnish centrist Hannu Takkula has decided to stay in the liberal ALDE because presumably he remembered he isn’t a conservative after all and Lithuania’s Waldemar Tomaszewski has joined the Euro Conservatives / Reformists Group. So they are still an 8 nation group above the all important 7 nation threshold…

UPDATE : Group members include

Belgium: Lijst Dedecker (LDD), with 1 MEP in the New Group
Czech Republic: Civic Democratic Party (ODS), with 9 MEPs
Finland: The Centre Party (Keskusta) sits in the Liberal (ALDE) group but one of its MEPs is now joining the New Group.
Hungary: Hungarian Democratic Forum (MDF) with 1 MEP
Latvia: Latvian National Independence Movement (TB/LNNK) with 1 MEP
The Netherlands: ChristianUnion (ChristenUnie) with 1 MEP
Poland: Law & Justice (PiS) with 15 MEPs
United Kingdom: The Conservative Party, with 26 MEPs in the New Group.

They have issued a group declaration:

THE PRAGUE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES OF THE EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVES AND REFORMISTS GROUP IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

CONSCIOUS OF THE URGENT NEED TO REFORM THE EU ON THE BASIS OF EUROREALISM, OPENNESS, ACCOUNTABILITY AND DEMOCRACY, IN A WAY THAT RESPECTS THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR NATIONS AND CONCENTRATES ON ECONOMIC RECOVERY, GROWTH AND COMPETITIVENESS, THE EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVES AND REFORMISTS GROUP SHARES THE
FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:

1. Free enterprise, free and fair trade and competition, minimal regulation, lower taxation, and small government as the ultimate catalysts for individual freedom and personal and national prosperity.
2. Freedom of the individual, more personal responsibility and greater democratic accountability.
3. Sustainable, clean energy supply with an emphasis on energy security.
4. The importance of the family as the bedrock of society.
5. The sovereign integrity of the nation state, opposition to EU federalism and a renewed respect for true subsidiarity.
6. The overriding value of the transatlantic security relationship in a revitalised NATO, and support for young democracies across Europe.
7. Effectively controlled immigration and an end to abuse of asylum procedures
8. Efficient and modern public services and sensitivity to the needs of both rural and urban communities.
9. An end to waste and excessive bureaucracy and a commitment to greater transparency and probity in the EU institutions and use of EU funds.
10. Respect and equitable treatment for all EU countries, new and old, large and small.

Everyman and his blog is doing an election results service based on, well, mostly watching TV, so Guido won’t bother with that. Very disappointed that Guido’s Libertas vote looks like it went to waste. At the New Ross polling station in Wexford on Friday a neighbour said “it is our job to choose between the liars”. Wise words.

Hoping UKIP beat Labour, very worried that Dan Hannan may have won his bet that Labour will come fifth in his region. Due to Pimms-related intoxication Guido offered him 10/1 odds. Ouch, think it is bedtime for Guido…

UPDATE : Nick Griffin will be thanking Gordon Brown tonight.  He could not have done it without him. Brown has achieved one policy goal, he got a British job for one British worker, the British National Party candidate who is going to Brussels.  Labour MPs should reflect on that, do they fear losing their jobs in an election more than they loathe the BNP.  As long as they keep a Scot who can’t connect with English working class voters as leader, the stronger the BNP becomes.