AND SO THE LAST REASON TO VOTE TORY BITES THE DUST:

Blair ditches the euro: Tony Blair went as close as he could to ruling out membership of the euro while he is Prime Minister (Philip Webster and Peter Ridd, 4/28/05, Times of London)

The disclosure by Channel 4 of Lord Goldsmith’s advice to Mr Blair electrified the campaign on a day when the Prime Minister also moved towards ruling out British membership of the euro in the next Parliament. [...]

An earlier Populus poll showed a continuing high level of opposition to joining the euro. Some 59 per cent would oppose joining, with just 35 per cent being in favour. Only among Labour supporters is their a narrow majority, 50 to 46 per cent, in favour.

Moreover, only a third of voters think Mr Blair has learnt his lessons from the Iraq war, from the criticisms of his informal style of government, and from people saying that he has not done enough to improve public services. Only just over a quarter say he has learnt the lessons of the criticisms that his Government is too concerned with spin. In last night’s interview on Sky News Mr Blair made plain that if elected he would not be launching another push for entry.

“At the moment it doesn’t look very likely, does it, because the economics aren’t in the right place,” he said.

His comments came after a speech this week by Gordon Brown — who has always been cooler on the euro and is expected to succeed Mr Blair — which emphasised that the five tests would be applied rigidly through the next Parliament and if necessary beyond.

Nothing was ever more certain in this election than that a politician as adept as Tony Blair would get to the Right of the brain-dead Tories on the question of Europe.

Posted by Orrin Judd at April 27, 2005 11:05 PM