Europe
Eternal Land of the Golden Fleecing
Greeks have been fiddling the books ever since Agamemnon. Where else do you find such private generosity and public irresponsibility?
Racing Certainty
The euro’s life began in doubt and has ended in crisis; thank god we never threw our pound into the pot
How Brussels Stifles Democracy in Europe
The euro would never have got off the ground if it had been put to national referendums, nor would the bailouts or austerity plans
Max Hastings, the Repentant Europhile
The military historian and former editor has belatedly renounced his European faith. Can we expect further recantations?
Intelligence Spared
‘Europe’s intellectuals should get on with the job of helping to lift the continent out of its apparently endless crisis’
The End of Europe’s Fantasy is Now in Sight
The EU has lost all legitimacy and its former supporters are deserting in droves. But blind to reality, its apparatchiks cling on
Euro Soap Opera
Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Trichet recently attended a premiere of Tannhauser in Bayreuth but their own lives are more like an operatic melodrama
American Money Worries
‘Germany’s reaction to America’s credit-rating downgrade was predictable: a pre-emptive schadenfreude that has become the gold standard when reacting to US affairs’
American Dreaming
‘I only discovered both how much I was missing New York and what was irritating me about Berlin when I visited Manhattan in the week after
bin Laden’s killing’
Not All Roads Lead to Rome
Book review of The Pursuit of Italy: A History of a Land, its Regions and their Peoples by David Gilmour
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal