The view in the liberal media here in the UK is that with Blair/Brown/Cameron fixated on their transatlantic love-in & Chirac fixated on..well whatever it is, there are no otehr leaders in Europe who can take a lead in dealing with pan-european issues. Especially when there is such a confusion in EU foreign policy.

Mainly these are, in themselves, only  minor disconnects. But being all over the place they together represent a bigger snafu than they in reality are. whether Merkel will be able to separate the the trees from the forest, let alone do anything about them will be interesting.

keep to the Fen Causeway