In celebration of Gordo

I know most of you are very glad to see the back of him, but as we watch the EU crumble before our eyes, we all have reason to be grateful to Gordon Brown. Joining the Euro was Tony Blair’s supposed “big project” of his second term but he was thwarted at every step of the way by his chancellor. Not least by Brown’s invention of those “five economic tests” which set the conditions for joining the single currency and which were, as we knew at the time, a lengthy synonym for “when hells freezes over”. It may well be that the main motivation for keeping Britain out was pure and untrammelled spite on Gordon’s part, but hell, whatever it takes. Tony had to be content with illegally invading a sovereign country as his “big project” instead.

Meanwhile, are you happy about the £7bn “loan” we’ll be bunging to the Irish, as part of the bail out, or do you take John Redwood’s view that we should limit our contribution to maybe a few tons of potatoes? If you feel unmoved either way then read Kevin Myers’ piece in this week’s magazine (subscribers here). It is a fairly robust criticism of the Irish government…….