BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – From chair of Hertfordshire Health Authority to the voice of Europe in eight years flat?

There would have been few political career trajectories to match it! But that could turn out to be the story of Baroness (Cathy) Ashton, former Labour Leader in the Lords, if things pan out as some hope tonight.

Gordon Brown appears to have dropped the Blair candidacy for president in return for a Brit in the foreign affairs job. And what a job. read more

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BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – Just waiting for Gordon Brown to turn up for the European Socialist group meeting in Brussels.

I hear that the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, last week asked Gordon Brown if HE would be the new President of Europe (do you think Charles Clarke put him up to it?). Anyway, Mr Brown said no thanks.

It gives you an idea how very fluid this whole thing has been and still is. read more

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Am on the Eurostar heading for the Brussels carve-up of top jobs.

Word last night from the Blair camp was that their man has pretty much given up on getting the presidency of the European Council.

Word from Paris and Berlin that they see the job as an internal affairs post dealing with issues like the EU budget makes it easier to handle – that was never the job TB was interested in. read more

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It’s wet and windy. The Queen’s carriage is passing just in front me – she’s about to alight at parliament.

I wonder if she’s aware that the government has put a loud hailer on the roof and plastered the carriage with election stickers? And I think they may have hooked up one of those road marking machines to the back so she paints battle lines in her wake.

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I am at an event of great pomp, majesty, ancient tradition.

Peter Mandelson is giving us an off-camera briefing at Labour’s HQ near Victoria Station on what the Queen’s speech really means. (Actually, he hasn’t changed into his noble robes but admits he is looking forward to it.)

He says the programme of government to be read out by the Queen at 11.30 proves that it has not run out of ideas. read more

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David Miliband’s speech on Afghanistan marks an important moment in the downgrading of expectations for what kind of Afghanistan NATO will leave behind it.

It acknowledges that Afghanistan works for the most part on “sub-national government” and will do for the foreseeable future. In one intriguing paragraph, which bears the hallmarks of much mandarin crafting, Mr Miliband says:

“Our role should not be to prescribe exactly how those (ancient) traditions (of sub-national governance) evolve, or how the systems which reflect them are implemented … but to provide the resources without which none of this (stability) would be possible, and which will be far less expensive than trying to suppress the insurgency by conventional military means.” read more

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Am at Guildhall where the white-tied and be-gowned have just said grace and sat down for their tuck.

Gordon Brown’s team feel he must get across to ordinary folk a sense that the Afghanistan military mission does not just grind on forever but is governed by a plan and has an ending.

David Miliband will speak more about the political plan tomorrow. Bob Ainsworth will address Nato allies soon. The prime minister wants people to understand the purpose and sense the progress.

So he’ll talk about the blows inflicted on al-Qaida and the prospect of a “timetable for transfer starting in 2010″. That means transfer to Afghan lead in districts – it doesn’t mean withdrawal from districts. There would still be substantial military and civilian presence.

The timetable he hopes can be unveiled in January 2010 would not be a linear progression to a final withdrawal date but would give some indicative dates for the first few districts to transfer, starting mid-2010.

Before that we get the formal announcement of the additional 500 UK forces being deployed. That could come closely timed to President Obama’s extra troops announcement, and that now looks likely between his return from Asia and the Thanksgiving holiday.

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We are three days shy of the special summit to choose a President and Foreign Policy High Rep and yet Tony Blair is still in the contest.

Does that mean he is in with a serious chance? Is there a big player still pushing for him? I hear not.

The Prime Minister had been minded to hold on to the Blair candidacy and take it all the way to the EU special summit in Brussels in the hope that it might just work and even if it didn’t he would look like he tried… but that plan is now being reconsidered. read more

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Spent the morning in the Thurrock constituency – Labour majority 6,000. Some polls suggest this sort of majority is the real current front line in Labour-Conservative marginals.

It’s currently Andrew MacKinlay’s seat. BNP leader Nick Griffin plans to stand here. Before we went, we spoke to Professor Richard Webber (the man who invented Experian’s Mosaic computer programme which all the main parties now use to track down voter types).

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