25 January 2015

Picture the scene. The stage is set on the Kit Kat Klub in Berlin.  Mario Draghi has a walk-on part singing Money makes the world go around, the world go around...  A small, blonde German woman pushes on a wheelbarrow overflowing with euros whilst singing So what?  In the backstage chorus is the darkly handsome Greek Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras, waiting expectantly for today's limelight. In the audience, cheering loudly, is Hollande thinking Now this will at last increase my appeal. To his Far Right, Le Pen: You ain't seen nothing yet.  Surely this 1931 stage couldn't actually be happening in today's EU, could it?  I mean, back then in Germany anti-semitism was rife and Jewish people were actively leaving the country.  Back then, innocent people were getting shot and the country's printing presses were hard at work printing lots of money. Back then, ordinary people were cheering and saying Now things are going to get better. Certainly on Thursday, as Draghi arrived at the ECB headquarters in Frankfurt he received a rousing reception.  And so it begins.  And Him indoors?  It's all one big Cabaret.