Interesting journalism of the day

There is a thought-provoking piece from John Harris about Europe in The Guardian. I don't agree with all of it, but as I try to negotiate the mazy complications of the Euromess, I am gathering all opinions and facts that I can. It's worth reading the comments too, as the more moderate of them present a fascinating collage of arguments for and against. That's why I say: Euromess. Not because I am against the European ideal, but because the state of the Euro, the sovereign debt crisis, the endless debate are all so massively complicated now that it is almost impossible to draw any clear conclusions.

You can read the article here.

Old photograph of the European Convention, photographer unknown.

Most interesting political analysis of the day

Michael White at The Guardian is one of my very favourite political commentators. He is of the liberal left, but not at all tribal, so he can see clearly flaws in his own side, and strengths in the other. He has also been around for a very long time, so he has that wonderful seasoned sense of political history that comes with experience. He has counted them in, and he has counted them out. He also has absolutely no need for point-scoring; he is too measured for that. He observes, wryly and drily, and makes a gentle prediction or two along the way, but he does not run about setting his hair on fire. Whenever I read him, I feel better.

His take today on the Coalition and the Eurocrisis is one of his best and well worth a read. It contains the perfectly wonderful observation on Paddy Ashdown that he can 'believe six impossible things before lunch, three of them pretty smart'.

You can find it here.

Rather wonderful photograph, which I stumbled upon, of people in Philadelphia gathering to observe a new map of Europe in 1918, taken by a gentleman called H. Wallace.

Headline of the day

AUF WIEDERSEHEN, ENGLAND!

From the German newspaper, Der Spiegel, after David Cameron said no to the latest EU deal.

I always like a picture to go with each post. For this one, I thought I'd try and find a nice waving goodbye shot. I stumbled upon this, which is a most poignant illustration of Goodbye, England. It is the crew of the Endurance, in 1916, waving as the lifeboat which is their only hope of salvation sets out on its 800 mile journey to South Georgia: