Poor Tony Blair – sabotaged by his own countryman. Just weeks ago, Mr Blair looked like the frontrunner to be president of the European Union. But now William Hague, Britain's shadow foreign secretary, has let the rest of Europe know that the opposition Conservative party would regard his appointment as a “hostile gesture”. Since the Tories and Mr Hague are likely to be in government by the middle of next year, after a British general election, their views have real weight. Charles Grant, head of the Centre for European Reform, a think-tank, says: “On my travels around Europe . . . I have found that Hague's comments have made a huge impact.” Mr Blair's candidacy has been badly damaged.
可憐的托尼?布萊爾(Tony Blair)遭到自己同胞的攻擊。就在數(shù)周前，布萊爾似乎還是歐盟(EU)主席的熱門人選，但現(xiàn)在英國(guó)影子內(nèi)閣外交大臣威廉?黑格(William Hague)已經(jīng)昭告歐洲其它所有國(guó)家，稱反對(duì)黨保守黨將把對(duì)布萊爾的任命視為“敵意舉動(dòng)”。鑒于保守黨和黑格在明年年中大選后可能上臺(tái)組閣，他們的觀點(diǎn)頗具分量。智庫(kù)機(jī)構(gòu)歐洲改革中心(Centre for European Reform)主任查爾斯?格蘭特(Charles Grant)表示：“我在歐洲各地行走期間……發(fā)現(xiàn)黑格的言論產(chǎn)生了巨大的影響。”布萊爾的候選人形象已經(jīng)遭到嚴(yán)重破壞。