Obama and elitism: a view from the UK

As the whole ‘bitter’ flap continues to engulf the US presidential election, I thought it might be interesting to provide some insight into what the controversy looks like from across the Atlantic.

To review, last weekend Barack Obama answered a questioner at a “closed-door private fundraiser in San Francisco” (a detail both Clinton and McCain have managed to describe in the past week as if it were akin to a puppy-killing festival) who asked him why he’s had a hard time winning over white blue collar Democrats. Speaking off the cuff, he said:

“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate, and they have not. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy to people who aren't like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Berlusconi back on top

It’s official, Silvio Berlusconi is back in power in Italy after a significant victory in the country’s election Sunday and Monday.

The return of a former leader who was only ousted two years ago may not seem like a watershed moment, but the voting patterns were significant and could (I emphasize could) bring significant change down the line. In a country known for a vast menagerie of various parties making up its parliament, voters for the most part stuck with just the two big party formations in this election: Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) and Veltroni’s newly-formed Democratic Party (PD). More than eight in 10 voters backed one or the other, and in the end the elections put only five separate parties into the parliament.

Italian election looming

There’s just three days to go until the big Italian election. As someone who is (hopefully) becoming a citizen of that country in a few months, I’ve been taking a keen interest. But it isn't just me. All the capitals of Europe are looking to Rome apprehensively, wondering if Italy is ever going to fix its government problem.

Let’s not mince words, the country’s political system is a mess. Since World War II it has seen a revolving door of governments that continually collapse and reshape. In its first 50 years of democracy Italy had 50 different governments. In fact the controversial conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi, who served as prime minister for five years before the current Prime Minister Romano Prodi unseated him in 2006, was the longest-serving Italian prime minister ever. Now Prodi’s fractious alliance between the center and far left has fallen apart in typical Italian fashion, the government was dissolved when the communists walked out and a new election was called.

Now Berlusconi is polling as much as nine points ahead, and Europe is bracing itself for another period of hard-handed rule by the media tycoon, who many people see as a bombastic demagogue. Disliked as he may be, many Italians now see him as the only solution to Italy’s chaos. But while he might bring stability, it would be hard to argue he will bring progress. His reign was marred by media censorship, economic stagnation and corruption scandals. Under his leadership Italy’s debt grew ever higher than its GDP and the promises of economic improvement he had made failed to materialize. However during the brief Prime Ministership of Romano Prodi, Italy's budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio fell from 4.4 percent in to 2.4 percent.

Finally, the chunnel turns a profit

Here’s an interesting item from Euronews today. It seems that at long last the chunnel has turned a profit! Eurotunnel, the operator of the underwater train tunnel linking Britain to continental Europe, has made a profit for the first time since it opened in 1994.

Back then the cost of building the tunnel ran so over budget that the company has been paying off the massive debt ever since. And of course they were not helped by the fact that at the same time there was an explosion of budget airlines taking people from London to the continent for next to nothing. Ridership didn’t meet expectations, and over the past few years it looked like the company was headed for bankruptcy. It lost €204 million in 2006 and €2.8 billion in 2005.

It was a daunting task to turn it around but somehow they seem to have done it. Chief executive Jacques Gounon has managed to strictly cut operating costs and complete a financial restructuring that has lowered the company’s level of debt and therefore its interest payments.

Skiing in Tyrol

Last week I went on a ski trip to the Austrian Alps. Yes I know, I feel as if I’ve been on a bit of Alps overload over the past year. I’ve now driven through them in four different countries and just the previous weekend I had taken a train through the Goddard Pass to Venice. This was supposed to be the year of Southern Europe!

We started our journey by flying to Munich, another place I’ve been way too many times. It’s a beautiful city though, I must admit, though I still find Bavarians a little off-putting. We spent one night in the city and then drove our rental car down to Sőlden, the resort in the Ötz valley where we skied. On the way we stopped at Neuschwanstein Castle, the fairy tale palace built by mad King Ludwig, the second to last king of Bavaria, in the mid 19th century.

Poll: Merkel most influential European leader

An interesting EU-wide poll came out today that will have big implications for who is chosen as the first so-called “President of Europe.”

The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive among adults in the largest EU countries, found that overwhelmingly most European citizens consider German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be the most influential leader in Europe.

Perhaps the most interesting take-away from the poll is how much better she scored than her closest rival, Nicolas Sarkozy, in his own country. Though Sarkozy has ambitious plans for reforming and strengthening Europe, only 18 percent of French people consider him to be the most influential European leader, while a whopping 38 percent would give that moniker to Merkel. A full 68 percent of the French regard Germany as the leading county of Europe today. With relations between Merkel and Sarkozy notoriously cold, the poll can hardly be encouraging news for the ambitious French leader.