May Day, May Day
There was a sense of urgency, even emergency, in many countries on May 1 this year. The goings-on in the UK were muted in comparison: France Presidential incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy staged a rally in...
View ArticleBondholders are sheep — and they’re flocking out of the euro pen
Sweden’s Anders Borg (Fraser’s favourite finance minister) is wrong, says Citigroup. Bondholders and deposit holders are not like wolves, as Borg has made them out to be. They’re more like sheep — and...
View ArticleOf technocrats and democrats
A former European leader was a guest at a private dinner in London recently. It was a polite and reverential occasion, but conversation grew lighter as Sauternes gave way to port. What, he was asked,...
View ArticleEurope’s illusory deal
After Merkel’s decision to allow Eurozone funds to be used to bail out Spanish and Italian banks, the press tomorrow may declare – yet again – that some kind of breakthrough has been reached and that...
View ArticleRaphael’s paintbrush
One of the puns that circulated the cultured elite of Italy during the Renaissance compared the potency of an artist’s paintbrush, his pennello, with his penis, il pene. Raphael, who by all accounts...
View ArticleI need your help
I am in southern Italy and there has been thunder and lightning pretty much continuously since Tuesday. I am quite scared of lightning. I need to buy some comestibles; especially wine and cigarettes....
View ArticleMario Monti resigns
Following the passing of his budget, Mario Monti has quit as Italian Prime Minister. At the moment, it remains unclear whether he’ll continue to lead the government until elections next year. Many in...
View ArticleItalian elections: anti-politics on amphetamines
Rome Italians go to the polls today, and Beppe Grillo still seems to be the name on everybody’s lips. Grillo is expected to get up to 22 per cent of the vote — staggering for a...
View ArticleWeary Italian voters can teach UK politicians lessons
Italian voters are clearly cheesed off: with the Establishment, and with the country’s austerity programme. The explosion onto the scene of Beppe Grillo – which Freddy examined in his post from Rome on...
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Italian elections: ‘The worst possible outcome’
Forget Moody’s. If you want to see market panic, just look at Italy. As Isabel reported this morning, the unexpectedly strong performance of Beppe Grillo’s anti-establishment party, the Five Star...
View ArticleWhy I love Beppe Grillo
‘Crazy Italians!’ you might think. Offered the choice between Bunga Bunga Berlusconi, an ex-Communist and a Brussels stooge, one in four of them went and voted for a stand up comedian. Ever since...
View ArticlePapal Conclave: would a result today mean Angelo Scola is Pope?
White smoke from the Vatican this afternoon may signal that the new Pope is Cardinal Angelo Scola. But the longer the papal conclave goes on, the more likely it becomes that St Peter’s next successor...
View ArticleThe Lampedusa hypocrisy: Italy prefers its migrants dead on arrival
Italy has held a day of national mourning in memory of those who died in the 3 October disaster off Lampedusa. The victims – mostly from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria – were given Italian citizenship...
View ArticleThe EU is corrupt because southern Europe is corrupt
What with Britain’s dreadful performance in the PISA educational rankings, there has been comparatively little attention given to another international league table– Transparency International’s...
View ArticleVenetian secessionists deserve to be punished!
How should the western powers react when part of a friendly nation holds an illegal referendum and votes to secede from the country in which hitherto it was located? Sanctions? Military reprisals? We’d...
View ArticleThe minimum wage is broken – here’s how to fix it
While welcoming George Osborne’s emphasis this week on raising employment, I have some caveats about his target – to have the highest employment rate in the G7. This isn’t hugely challenging. Those in...
View ArticleWorld Cup diary: Italy were poor but England were worse
Another fairly unpleasant evening spent watching England playing football. Ah well. It used to be that England were renowned for two things: we could score from set pieces, and we knew how to defend...
View ArticleThink Britain’s tabloid journalists are bad? Try Italy’s tabloid judges
There is a small light at the end of the tunnel but it comes too late, I fear, to save Italy from the abyss: Silvio Berlusconi was yesterday acquitted on appeal of committing Bunga Bunga with Ruby the...
View ArticleThe Spectator at war: The consequences of neutrality
From The Spectator, 10 October 1914: IT would be a base act to try to bribe or to threaten a neutral Power like Italy into joining the Allies. The notion of taking up the attitude that she may find...
View ArticleShould we revive the Colosseum?
It occurs to me that Italy isn’t the best place to live if you’re an architect. Take a walk at random through Rome or Florence or Venice, and it is quite possible that you won’t pass a single building...
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