I think it was in the summer of 2001, after the EU Göteborg summit in June, that I realised something was not quite right with the European political establishment. If I remember correctly, that was the first time there was a major anti-globalisation protest at an EU summit, and the politicians barricaded themselves and dismissed the protesters. I thought to myself "those are your people trying to tell you something, you should be listening, not barricading yourselves". Since 1999 when anti-globalisation protesters were famously able to disrupt the WTO meeting in Seattle, major international summits have been increasingly isolated or held in an unbearably repressive atmosphere. What was the US Air force doing taking over the Czech airspace a few years back (was it for a Bush state visit, or a NATO summit, or what?)

Since that eye-opening experience in 2001 (before 9-11) I've been convinced that "official politics" was going to quickly become irrelevant to the life of ordinary people. That is, I think, the case today, 6 years later. The real power centres are not in our national governments.

"It's the statue, man, The Statue."