Brown still talking up Blair for EU president

There’s another candidate for the EU presidency, just announced.

The former Irish prime minister John Bruton, currently Irish ambassador to Washington, has just written a letter to the EU ambassadors in Washington asking them to tell their governments that he’s the man for the job.

Not promising when you have to write your own letters maybe. Much better as a launch to get another PM calling for you to get the top job.

Gordon Brown, side by side with David Miliband, did just that this afternoon, a joint launch of the Blair candidacy at a press conference in Brussels.

Gordon Brown said he talks to the man he repeatedly tried to get out of No.10 “most weeks”. It was a relationship that few close to the two men could ever fathom and today marked another fascinating chapter.

It may be a brief chapter. There were plenty of sceptical voices heard around Brussels today.

But Gordon Brown is giving it some welly. He told socialist prime ministers at a meeting: “Get real – this is a unique opportunity to get a strong progressive politician to be president.”

Wonder how that went down?