Back to the old skool: Euroscepticism lives

Gordon Brown, Mansion House speech:

"Our task now and in the years to come is to move Europe from the old trading bloc to the new global Europe it can become and we should do so under the banner of a pro-European realism, where Europe itself becomes more competitive, more flexible and more enterprising.

"This is a long-term programme of economic reform that we will now promote in our presidency of the EU."

Welcomed, noisily, by Tory Eurosceptic (and arch-Thatcherite) John Redwood. Combined with Blair's attempted handbagging of European leaders last week, New Labour's considered (if predictable) response to the rejection of the proposed EU constitution is to demand yet more of precisely the elements vociferously rejected. "...more competitive, more flexible and more enterprising": the language of neoliberalism. Why, incidentally, are we asked to imagine Gordon Brown as more "left-wing" than Blair?

In other news, Lenin kicks a poor befuddled drunk when he's down. The cad. Relatedly, here's a potted guide to Leo Strauss, from a Straussian.