This is slightly old news, but it shouldn’t be and it’s worth noting anyway. Just over a week ago, the EU’s ‘parliament’ voted itself a new president (that’s a role roughly analogous – I think – to the speaker of the US House) and, well, I’ll leave it to the bloggers at EurSoc to take up the story:

“For once, the choice was interesting. Would MEPs go for a true statesman of outstanding moral authority, who had worked to lead his country from occupation and repression to liberty – or would they cook up another dodgy deal to install one of their own time-serving hacks in the job?”

The choice was between an obscure Spanish socialist and a founder of Solidarity.

I thinkyou know how this tale is going to end.