Merkel’s appeasement of Putin is cast into savage relief by the atrocities in Ukraine

Liberal commentators can no longer use the former Chancellor as a stick with which to beat British Prime Ministers.

Johnson’s Brexit journalism and Brexit politics are of a piece: in both he thrives by infuriating the Establishment

Whether writing, speaking or negotiating, he puts on a performance which the spectators enjoy all the more because it horrifies the guardians of convention.

Why the Germans don’t always do it better

Using modern Germany as a stick with which to beat old-fashioned Britain is a grave mistake.

Lagarde, von der Leyen and Merkel have all failed to take charge of Europe’s response to the virus

Nation states can act decisively when they wish to do so: the EU seems paralysed.

Daniel Hannan: Why are MPs and commentators fainting like Victorian matrons over the use of the word “humbug”?

The constant mistake of the pro-Brussels Establishment has been to assume that voters – especially Leave voters – are thick.

John Redwood: Why populists reject the establishment – and no longer believe what it tells them

Here in Britain, the two main parties are being punished by voters for tearing up their Brexit commitments.

Three cheers for the Commons for the way it is conducting the necessary argument on Europe

Progressive commentators and saloon-bar orators are wrong to condemn MPs for finding the national issue hard to settle.

Interview. David Owen’s Brexit plan. Move from transition through the EEA into Canada Plus Plus Plus – before the next election.

The former Foreign Secretary says May’s team are inexperienced in EU negotiations and are “pushing out disinformation”.

John Stevens: There is no point in stopping Brexit unless we also join the Euro

Making London a truly global financial centre again, with all that would imply for Britain’s place in the world, could quickly become more attractive than the apathy of decline, however proudly sovereign.

Garvan Walshe: The Italian President is teaching irresponsible populists that “I want never gets”

British commentators who jumped to condemn his decision as a travesty of democracy failed to understand the country’s constitutional traditions.

Mattarella has a point

If Italy really is to make a radical, momentous break with the Euro, sooner or later, voters should explicitly endorse the move.

That Gove-Davidson dream ticket

Readers will see that it is all plain sailing for the plan reportedly being cooked up by “Tory grandees”.

Will Italy’s new government blow the bloody doors off? Don’t get your hopes up. (Or your fears either.)

One day the country’s voters may dig in against the long squeeze imposed on them from northern Europe. But don’t be too sure it will happen yet.

Henry Newman: May is right – the EU cherry-picks whenever it is politically convenient. Brexit should be such a time.

From its range of tailor-made trade deals to its habit of allowing Member States to break the rules, Brussels is more flexible than Barnier’s rhetoric might suggest.

Four questions from the Italian election

Storming results for the Five Star Movement and the League pose big challenges to the established structure of Italian politics, to the EU, and to the left more generally.