I was on ITV News yesterday being interviewed about Blair's speech to Members of the European Parliament. Welcoming Blair's speech, I explained that Tony Blair is not the Thatcher of Europe - but he is the Blair of Europe. Whereas Margaret Thatcher wanted to roll back the frontiers of the state in Britain, Blair's European vision is more Blairite. He's not against increasing Britain's contribution to the EU per se. He just wants it to be spent on what one might call, in New Labour-speak, the People's Priorities.

Old Labour economics did not work in Britain. That's why Old Labour never received a second term in office. New Labour economics - or Blairism, as I call it - concluded that if you want to intervene in the economy, you can't intervene everywhere. You have to pick the issues you think will best improve the country's prosperity and wellbeing. So New Labour chose not to rescue failing industries like MG Rover or to fiddle with the exchange rate to help manufacturing. Instead, it increased spending on the People's Priorities of education and health. Free-marketeers might despair at some of New Labour's interventionism, but compared with Old Labour, New Labour's policies are vast improvement.

Blair's speech yesterday was a great way to see in the coming of the British presidency of the EU. Yes, Blair is pushing for an "social" EU, but I can't help thinking that he's using an Anglo-American definition of social and not a French one. In other words, Europe is going our way. At the very least, we on the way to getting rid of the travesty of Europe's agricultural protection.