Tony Blair

Two decades later Tony Blair was was singing a different tune. The man who stood for Parliament promising to pull Britain out of Europe told the EU Parliament:

Since being Prime Minister,' he boasted at a European summit in 2005, 'I signed the Social Chapter, helped along with France, to create the modern European Defence Policy, and have played my part in the Amsterdam, the Nice, then the Rome Treaties.

This is a union of values, of solidarity between nations and people, of not just a common market in which we trade but a common political space in which we live as citizens.

It always will be. I believe in Europe as a political project. I believe in Europe with a strong and caring social dimension. I would never accept a Europe that was simply an economic market.'

If Blair had not faced stiff opposition from his own Chancellor, and the prospect of a humiliating defeat at the hands of the voters in a referendum, the Prime Minister would have scrapped the pound and taken Britain in to the single currency.

Despite this failure, Blair has driven Britain deeper and deeper into Europe. He was a fervent promoter of the new EU Constitution, until, of course, the people of France and Holland rejected it.

Ever the consummate politician, Blair seized this moment to kick the issue into the long grass, thus avoiding the prospect of an embarrassing referendum defeat. But, in so doing, he put behind him any dream of becoming the first president of a country called Europe.

Blair's dream is our nightmare. End it now.