Ever feel like you’ve been led a merry dance?

I’m referring, of course, to the imminent nomination of Tony Blair to become President of the EU.
The BBC talk here about Number 10 lobbying his case. (Interesting that they recently reported that Number 10 said quite the opposite)
They also tell us that “Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg are reportedly among those that believe the president should come from a country that uses the euro and is part of the border-free Schengen Agreement.”
This all comes about as a result of the (yet to be ratified) Lisbon treaty. The Lisbon treaty which was originally vetoed by Ireland (they kept asking them until they got a “yes”) and the treaty which we in the UK were promised a referendum on, and then denied a referendum on – on the grounds that this treaty is not a constitution. But if it creates a president, and therefore a “United States of Europe” then what else is it but a constitution?
I can’t say, now that there’s all this talk about “President Blair” (cringe) that I’m surprised that we didn’t get to vote on it.
It all begins to fall in to place – all the international meetings, the interest in the peace processes in Ireland and the middle east, the very pro-European stance that he’s had from the beginning. Blair has been planning this for a very long time I think. Perhaps not exactly this, but something akin to it.
I think that the thing which most irritates me is that we could be represented by someone who we didn’t elect (EU President is not going to be elected like the US one is – though that could be fun!) and not only that, but by someone who has been accused of lying to the country about the case for war in Iraq.

Perhaps had he been seen to be more trustworthy then I would not think that this is of his making. But sadly I suspect that his hands have been itching at the thought of an EU president, that he sees the power he could wield.

So we’re all relying on the Czech Republic. If they declare the Lisbon Treaty to be illegal under their law, then it can’t be ratified by all 27 member states and it goes back to the drawing board. That process would take longer than to next May, by which time we will hopefully have a different government.

We can but hope.

Handspun Mittens

Okay, so I don't always post when I finish knitting something, but this one is special.

Way back in 2008 I was part of Secret Pal - this was one of my parcels I received some fleecy stuff to have a go at spinning.

I eventually turned it into this handspun yarn, in gloriously red-crimson-orange.

And then I did nothing with it for a long time.
Kicked into action by being asked if I had ever knit anything I had spun, I picked it up, wound it into a ball and looked for a pattern.


I couldn't find a pattern for a small enough amount of yarn (I hadn't spun much, and it was quite fine on average) so I wrote my own pattern.

You can download it by clicking here, or by going to the Ravelry Page for it.
Let me know what you think anyway!