Brussels: Tony Blair's admirers billed yesterday's speech to the European Parliament, less than a week after the acrimonious collapse of the Brussels summit, as a descent into the bear pit. In fact, it was more like a poodle pit as MEPs gazed in adoration at their star performer - just stopping short, in some cases, of rolling over on their backs for a good tickle.
This was the same group of distinguished tribunes who had, less than 24 hours before, given a standing ovation to Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, when he accused Mr Blair of single-handedly plunging Europe into crisis at last week's summit.
The President of the European Parliament, Josep Borrell, had a delicious explanation for the parliament's reaction to the two speeches.
"Everybody applauded both because the parliament sees this as the start of a great debate. The parliament didn't applaud the individuals but the debate," he said.
Nobody expected much by way of response to Mr Blair from the leaders of the two biggest political groups, the centre-right European People's Party's Hans-Gert Poettering and the Socialists' Martin Schulz. But the Green leader, former 1968 firebrand Daniel Cohn-Bendit, made an uncharacteristically coquettish intervention that avoided any direct criticism of Mr Blair's vision of a Europe more attuned to the demands of global business.
Mr Blair said it was nice to see Mr Cohn-Bendit again. "A very long time ago, I used to listen to your speeches. Now you're listening to mine. I don't know if that's progress or not," he said.
As everybody laughed, few stopped to consider that Mr Blair was just 15 in 1968, a schoolboy at Fettes, who must have taken a precocious interest in continental politics.
Mr Blair received praise from almost every corner of the House, including the United Kingdom Independence Party's Nigel Farage, who welcomed the prime minister's conversion to the Eurosceptic cause. "You are a Europhile who has been mugged by reality," Mr Farage said.
Much of Mr Blair's speech to MEPs was, however, designed to reinforce his credentials as a "good European" who wanted to save the EU rather than destroy it. But at the press conference afterwards it became clear that this was no ordinary leader when questions from the floor alternated between British journalists and other Europeans. This happens at EU-Russia summits and at EU-US meetings but this is the first time such a distinction has been made within the EU.
As Mr Blair luxuriated in the MEPs' applause, old-style federalists looked isolated and a little bit sad. One observed that he felt like a member of the court of Louis XVI after the French Revolution.
"It is as if I went to bed on Friday in 1789 and woke up today in 1791," he said.