People feel that European institutions are remote and bureaucratic, run by shady cosmopolitan elites. Britain is not absolutely exceptional because if you look at the opinion polls, those sentiments are now quite widespread also in continental Europe.

But transitions from the politics of violence to democratic compromise are always messy.

Nuclear proliferation - the proliferation of WMDs altogether - is one of the greatest dangers of our time.

I love this country, but the union jack leaves me cold.

The main problem with American power is not that it is American... No, the main problem with American power is the power itself. It would be dangerous even for an archangel to wield so much power.

To be in Florence is to reflect on Europe's intricate diversity - and its lost creativity.

Yet another thing Canadians and Europeans have in common is an obsession with the United States, and with distinguishing themselves from it, often by crude stereotyping.