The tragedy of 9/11 galvanised the American superpower into action, leaving us in Europe divided in its wake.

If Margaret Thatcher had been Prime Minister at the time, there would have been no Treaty of Maastricht.

Margaret Thatcher, growing up in a bombed and battered Britain, derived a distrust which has grown with the years not just of Germany but of all continental Europe.

But Germany will always suffer, I fear, from the intensely dramatic character of the crimes of the Third Reich.

Margaret Thatcher was fearful of German unification because she believed that this would bring an immediate and formidable increase of economic strength to a Germany which was already the strongest economic partner in Europe.

No military timetable should compel war when a successful outcome, namely a disarmed Iraq may be feasible without war, for example by allowing more time to the UN inspectors.

Diplomacy is unfashionable in the world of knee-jerk reaction and the dogmatic sound bite on television.