Not too worried

Two useful tonics to Euro-gloom today: Martin Woollacott in The Guardian and The Economist’s lead editorial.

Woollacott: “The difficulties of the moment are always special, but difficulties of national purpose are recurrent. The record shows them, together with solutions, inspired or otherwise, recoveries and new starts. It also shows one or two moments, when they did indeed presage terrible things. But there is nothing to suggest that the stumbling and fumbling evident now means that a political catastrophe for Europe is on the horizon.”

The Economist: “Europe has, indeed, had a shameful few weeks. It has problems galore. The frustration expressed against complacent and arrogant elites by the French who voted for Mr Le Pen or by the Dutch who may yet vote for Mr Fortuyn’s party is salutary. But Europe is far from irredeemable.”