HEADLINES from GB

London was plunged into darkness last night - to highlight the potential for reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation.

Many world-famous landmarks around the great city - which has a metropolitan population of 12-14 million - had their lights switched off - including Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament and the London Eye. The bright neon lights of Piccadilly Circus were switched off for the first time since the Second World War.....

The lights go out all over London

22nd June 2007
Daily Mail

The Capital was plunged into darkness for an hour last night - all in a good cause.

From the Houses of Parliament to Canary Wharf, London was plunged into darkness in one coordinated, hour-long switch-off to highlight the potential for massively reducing carbon emissions from electricity generation.

Tower Bridge: plunged into darkness last night for one hour

Even Piccadilly Circus's neon adverts were switched off for the first time since the Second World War.

The Lights Out London campaign encouraged all businesses and homeowners to turn off all lights and non-essential appliances between 9pm and 10pm last night.

Other famous landmarks such as the London Wheel went dark

Standard photographers captured the moments when famous landmarks went dark. Others taking part included Buckingham Palace, the BT Tower, City Hall and Harrods.

The neon ads in Piccadilly Circus go out for the first time since the Second World War

The Mayor's office said the switch-off would have saved about 750 megawatt-hours of electricity - enough to run 3,000 televisions for a year.

Capital 95.8, which sponsored the event, broadcast live acoustic performances from Mutya Buena and Ross Copperman.

Blackout: Floodlights go off at the Houses of Parliament

According to the switch-off's organisers, UK households use £1.2billion of electricity a year on lighting, and keeping an average office lit overnight wastes enough energy to make 1,000 cups of tea.

Big Ben joins in the big switch-off

Friends of the Earth welcomed the switch-off. A spokesman said: "The majority of the capital's carbon dioxide emissions come from buildings, so switching off lights and appliances that aren't needed can play a significant role in tackling climate change."

dailymail.co.uk

england's high courts agree to the separation under threat of the onslaught of hurled 'pasties' and game hens

Two-year-old 'Matilda' becomes youngest ever girl in Mensa

By DUNCAN ROBERTSON
21st June 2007
Daily Mail

Her parents knew Georgia Brown was bright. After all, she could count to ten, recognised her colours and was even starting to dabble with French.

But it was only when their bubbly little two-year old, from Aldershot, Hampshire, took an IQ test that her towering intellect was confirmed.

Georgia has become the youngest female member of Mensa after scoring a genius-rated IQ of 152.

Georgia Brown has an official genius-rated IQ - Intelligence Quotient - of 152

This puts her in the same intellectual league, proportionate to her age, as British physicist Stephen Hawking.

According to an expert in gifted children, Georgia is the brightest two-year-old she has ever met.

Parents Martin and Lucy Brown have always regarded their youngest child as a remarkably quick learner.

She was crawling at five months and walking at nine months.

By 14 months, she was getting herself dressed.

"She spoke really early - by 18 months she was having proper conversations," Mrs Brown said.

"She would say, 'Hello I'm Georgia, I'm one'. She was also putting her shoes on and putting them on the right feet."

Georgia was so perceptive that after one outing to the theatre to see Beauty and the Beast she solemnly informed her parents: "I didn't like Gaston (the villain). He was mean and arrogant."

Struck by the similarities between her daughter and Matilda, the title character in the Roald Dahl story about a gifted child, Mrs Brown began to worry about Georgia's future education.

She contacted Professor Joan Freeman, a specialist educational psychologist, for advice.

Professor Freeman applied the standard Stamford-Binet Intelligence Scale test to Georgia and was amazed to find this was too limited to map her creative abilities.

Georgia with her mother Lucy, she is the youngest of five children

She said: "Even at two she was very thoughtful.

"What Georgia did on some questions was of a higher quality than that which was necessary to gain a mark.

"She swept right through it like a hot knife through butter.

"I would ask her things like 'give me two blocks or give me ten blocks' and she would manage it as easily as you would expect a five-year-old.

"In one test I asked her to draw a circle and she did it so perfectly.

"Most adults would struggle to do that. Her circle was near to being perfect.

"It shows she can physically hold a pen well but also that she understands the concept of a circle."

Georgia, who is at nursery school, was also able to tell the difference between pink and purple - a skill which most children learn at primary school age.

Professor Freeman said: "I said to her, 'What a pretty pink skirt, and you have tights and shoes to match'.

"She said, 'They're not pink, they're purple'. Most children go to school aged five and start to learn colours, let alone knowing the difference between pink and purple.

"I have to keep reminding myself that she is only two."

To the amazement of the family, who live in Aldershot, Hampshire, Georgia scored 152 points on the IQ test, putting her in the top 0.2 per cent of the population. Those with an average IQ would score around 100 points in the same test.

Georgia was then invited to join Mensa, the High IQ society whose members have IQs in the top 2 per cent of the population. Georgia is one of only 30 Mensa members under the age of ten.

Mrs Brown, chief executive of a charity, believes Georgia has benefited by growing up as the youngest of five children.

She has been absorbing information from her older brothers and sisters and father, a self-employed carpenter, while not receiving any special treatment.

"There is always someone around to offer her something," her mother said.

"But she still has temper tantrums, like you wouldn't believe, throwing herself on the floor.

"She doesn't think she's better and cleverer than everyone else. She is a very kind and loving child."

Georgia, who has a "wicked sense of humour" is as busy as any toddler, enjoying a schedule of ballet classes, listening to stories, dancing, singing, sport and even watching the TV.

ABOUT MENSA

Mensa is the largest, oldest, and best-known high-IQ society in the world. The organization restricts its membership to people with high testable IQs. Specifically, potential members must score within the top 2% (above the 98th percentile) of any approved standardized intelligence test. Mensa is, formally, made up of national groups plus the umbrella organization Mensa International.

Roland Berrill, an Australian barrister, and Dr. Lancelot Ware, a British scientist and lawyer, founded Mensa in the United Kingdom in 1946. They had the idea of forming a society for bright people, the only qualification for membership being a high IQ.

The original aims were, as they are today, to create a non-political society free from all social distinctions (racial, religious, etc.) The society welcomes all people, regardless of background, whose IQs meet the criteria, with the objective of members enjoying each other's company and participating in a wide range of social and cultural activities.

Mensa accepts individuals who score in the 98th percentile on certain standardised IQ tests, such as the Stanford-Binet. Because different tests are scaled differently, it is not meaningful to compare raw scores between tests, only percentiles. For example, the minimum accepted score on the Stanford-Binet is 132, while for the Cattell it is 148.

In addition to encouraging social interaction among its members, the organization is also involved with programs for gifted children, literacy, and scholarships. The name comes from mensa, the Latin word for "table," and indicates that it is a round-table society of equals (although the logo can be seen as depicting a square table).

The two largest Mensas are American Mensa, with about 50,000 members, and British Mensa, with about 25,500 members.

dailymail.co.uk

I hope she will do alright. Having such a high IQ is not the easiest thing to live with... It doesn't mean you are doing well in your life either, mentally or else.

It's good to see that, after all these years, the French and the British still love each other intensely....

Rant ... Julie Bois in photo she posted
on internet site. She says that British kids are dumb

Kids see French miss' Net rant

By KATHRYN LISTER
and BEN ASHFORD
June 23, 2007

The two year old British girls with an IQ of 152 - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770

A GRAMMAR school’s French mistress has launched an internet rant at her British pupils — claiming some are “little s***s” who should be SLAPPED.

Julie Bois, who is French, lashed out in an online blog in which she also branded some of her schoolchildren “thick”.

And she told how she dreaded “killer” parents’ evenings, saying: “I hate having to shake all those hands. Some are so wet and flabby.”

Mademoiselle Bois, 28, posted the attack on bloggers’ site Terapad.com — but hastily removed it after it received scores of hits. Many were from her pupils at Chesham High School, Bucks.

In her blog, which she calls Miss Frenchie’s World, she moaned about some Year 11 pupils and called them thick because they “miserably failed” their mock GCSEs.

She wrote: “They are so c**p sometimes. Some are just really thick. But they still manage to make me laugh with their stupidity.

“You also have the little s***s’ parents who can’t believe their kid is a nightmare. What a shame that we can’t say, ‘Please slap him/her, tell him/her he/she is a little s***’. No, we have to be positive.

That’s one thing we don’t do in France — if you’re rubbish, you’re rubbish.”

One pupil said: “News of the blog went round like wildfire. People couldn’t believe she’d be so naive.”

Classes ... Chesham High

Mademoiselle Bois, who lives in High Wycombe and posted her picture on the Net, has been teaching at the 900- pupil school for three years.

Ofsted has praised the school’s “supportive atmosphere” and “attentive” students.

Last night Mademoiselle Bois went into a flap when questioned by The Sun.

She first said: “I didn’t put it on there — it was not me.” Then she said: “I don’t want to talk about it. It’s a private matter. I’m not saying whether I regret anything.”

Headmaster Tim Andrew said last night: “An allegation has been made of inappropriate comments being posted involving pupils and parents.

“The school takes a situation such as this very seriously and will take whichever action is appropriate.”

thesun.co.uk

Brits build bridge of heroes

Under fire ... British soldiers toil while guarded by pals

By TOM NEWTON DUNN
June 23, 2007

DARING British soldiers build a bridge across an Afghan river — while under fire from the Taliban.

The front-line crossing allowed fast-moving troops to destroy a force of the fanatical fighters.

It was the first time the Royal Engineers — who were guarded by 200 fellow soldiers — have built a combat assault bridge since the 1950s.

The mission was launched before dawn yesterday to drive the enemy away from the besieged town of Garmsir, in the war-torn badlands of south Helmand province.

On guard ... a British soldier with bayonet prepares to defend the Royal Engineers

Squaddies in an outpost base there had been attacked more than 100 times in the past two months.

Meanwhile, a squaddie died last night after another Iran-supplied bomb tore through his armoured vehicle in Basra, southern Iraq.

The unnamed member of the 4th Battalion, the Rifles, had suffered head and chest injuries.

The bomb is believed to have been a type made and handed to rebels by Iranian troops.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman expressed “deep regret” and said next of kin had been informed.

thesun.co.uk

Meanwhile the usual suspects continue to denounce this as a combat mission and demand we just rebuild stuff, to be destroyed by the peace-loving muzzies the next night. Or, to abandon the mission so that the IED's and iran made bombs detonate on our streets.

:roll:

Were you one of her students?

RUGBY LEAGUE

The British Lions VS France, Frontline Test Match

Tony Smith enjoyed a dream start as coach of the British Lions as they thrashed the French in Leeds.

Great Britain 42-14 France

Burrow scored two of his side's tries on his club home ground

Great Britain:
Tries: McGuire, Burrow 2, Langley, Wild, Morley, Sykes, Roby
Goals: Sinfield 5

France:
Tries: Greseque 2, Anselme
Goals: Bosc

Tony Smith's reign as Great Britain coach overcame a shaky start as his new-look Lions ran in eight tries to get the better of France in Leeds.

Britain found themselves 10-4 down after 20 minutes following two Maxime Greseque tries for the French.

But the home team rallied to lead 16-10 at half-time thanks to tries for Rob Burrow and Jamie Langley.

Second-half tries for Stephen Wild, Paul Sykes, James Roby and Burrow, his second, sealed a comfortable win.

France looked lively from the start in front of a crowd of 12,685 at Headingley Carnegie and were helped when GB debutant Chris Melling misjudged a kick that went out for a 40-20.

David Hodgson was also forced to tackle Sebastian Planas into touch as the visitors sought to make their mark.

But Ade Gardner helped settle the home side's nerves with a superb break and inside pass to Hodgson, who sent Danny McGuire over for his fourth try for his country.

McGuire was forced off with concussion and blurred vision after taking a heavy knock in the build-up to France's opening try from Greseque.

The Pia player then grabbed his second touchdown four minutes later after GB were let down by some sloppy defending.

Gareth Ellis puts in a tackle on France's Olivier Elima

GB got back on level terms when scrum-half Burrow exchanged passes with captain Adrian Morley to dive over.

Then after Kevin Sinfield, on for the injured McGuire, had kicked the conversion to put the Lions level, Langley came off the bench to crash over.

Having led 16-10 at the interval, a more patient approach paid dividends for Britain in the second half.

Sinfield's craft and guile led to Stephen Wild going over for his first GB try.

Then Morley, playing his 27th game for the Lions, grabbed his first try for GB, crashing over after 48 minutes.

Some great support from Jon Wilkin and Melling sent Burrow in for his second try two minutes later.

The Lions then extended their lead on 55 minutes when Gardner rose highest to grab Sinfield's kick and pass inside to Sykes.

Eric Anselme cut the lead by going over from close range but Roby, one of Britain's top performers in last year's Tri-Nations, scored from Andy Lynch's offload.

France, who had to overcome early disruption caused by injuries to Constant Villegas and Thomas Bosc, never threw in the towel, dragging Hodgson into touch just short of the line.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Great Britain: C Melling; D Hodgson, S Wild, P Sykes, A Gardner; D McGuire, R Burrow; A Morley (capt), J Roby, A Lynch, G Ellis, A Coley, J Wilkin. Replacements: S O'Loughlin, J Graham, K Sinfield, J Langley.

France: T Bosc; C Villegas, C Stacul, S Houles, S Planas; M Greseque, C Moly; J Guisset (capt), J Rinaldi, D Ferriol, E Anselme, O Elima, A Cologni. Replacements: J-C Borlin, C Gossard, G Mounis, J Wynne.

Referee: Steve Ganson (St Helens).

Paul Sykes and Gareth Ellis tackle Constant Villegas

news.bbc.co.uk/sport

CRICKET

Sikh and destroy: Panesar magic does the trick

By Derek Pringle at the Riverside

20/06/2007

England's devastating Sikh spin bowler, Monty Panesar, is the star man as England beat West Indies to clinch a Series win

Result: Fourth Test, England VS West Indies

1st Innings

West Indies: 287
England: 400

2nd innings

West Indies: 222
England: 111-3
---------------------
England win match by 7 wickets.

England win the Series 3-0, with the first match tied.

England employed 'Sikh and Destroy' tactics at The Riverside to register their third victory of the summer over the West Indies. On a gripping final day that threatened to be settled either by pace bowlers or tenacious batsmen it was Monty Panesar, taking five wickets with his mesmerising left-arm spin, who stole the show.

Spin doctor: Monty Panesar took West Indies's middle-order apart

Panesar's haul meant England needed to chase just 110 from a minimum of 52 overs for victory after dismissing the West Indies for 222 in their second innings. Not a foregone conclusion, especially after the loss of both openers to Daren Powell in the opening eight overs caused a wobble, but simple enough against bowlers sending down enough dross for the job to be completed inside 22 overs.

To defray any unexpected nerves, Michael Vaughan batted with composed authority to finish with an unbeaten 48 off 51 balls after local hero Paul Collingwood struck the winning runs. It was a decisive knock from England's Test captain, which served, somewhat ironically the day after he renounced the one-day captaincy, to show us that he is no slouch when it comes to batting against the clock.

His partnership of 76 with Kevin Pietersen secured the chase with aggressive intent. Indeed, their blitz against fast bowler Fidel Edwards saw the Barbadian concede 33 runs in three overs. Having already seen Andrew Strauss dropped at slip off his bowling just after tea, the pasting simply added insult to injury. When you compare his effort to reward ratio to Panesar's, it does not take a genius to see he is not getting value for calories expended.

The Monty show is confounding those, Duncan Fletcher among them, who believed orthodox finger-spin to be dead when it came to deciding Test matches. But while they believed the future lay with exotic exponents of the genre, like Muttiah Muralitharan, Panesar has plied his simple but direct approach with deadly efficiency.

His effectiveness has been undeniable and since making his Test debut 18 months ago, he has bagged 65 wickets in 17 Tests. This series has been particularly bountiful with 23 victims in four matches, though dismissing batsmen with techniques forged in the Blacksmith school of playing spin (with Shivnarine Chanderpaul the notable exception) has not proved too taxing.

Yesterday he got even him, only the third time Chanderpaul has been bowled by a spinner in his 104-Test career. Having batted for 17 hours and 40 minutes without losing his wicket, Chanderpaul was last man out, his ungainly swipe trying for the boundary that would make England's task that little bit harder.

Despite being on the losing side for 13 of his last 18 Tests - the others were draws - Chanderpaul is still setting records. His 70 meant he was his side's top-scorer for the sixth Test innings in succession, a feat he achieved by reaching at least fifty in each of them.

Vivian Richards did the same over five innings, but until yesterday no one had ever notched the half-dozen. His bonding with the crease set another benchmark as he became the only man to pass 1,000 minutes between dismissals in Test cricket for the third time. Other notable technicians and concentrators like Jacques Kallis have done it, but not as many times.

England's began their day trying to remove him and Chris Gayle as quickly as possible. Fortunately, Gayle did not detain them long, his languid waft at Matthew Hoggard bringing the swing bowler his 240th Test wicket, a haul that sees him sixth in the all-time pantheon of England's leading wicket-takers.

That apart, there appeared few alarms for West Indies as Chanderpaul and Dwayne Bravo, as they had done in the first innings here, kept England's bowlers at bay with a mixture of stoic defence and silken shots. But wary should be the batsman finding it all too easy and just as Bravo had shown Panesar what he thought of him bowling over the wicket, with a crisply lofted boundary over mid-on, a repeat of the shot to the very next ball saw him hole out at mid-off.

Thereafter it was the Monty show with potent support from Steve Harmison, a sterling effort from the fast bowler after being diagnosed with a "non-dangerous" hernia, though one according to England's medical team that will "require surgery at some stage". With Panesar teasing from one end and Harmison beating the bat with some scorching pace and bounce from the other, the West Indies lost their last five wickets for 60 runs.

Although his figures might not suggest it, Harmison bowled better and with more menace than he has mustered all summer, which just adds to the puzzle that surrounds him. It is as if given an excuse to fail, in this case the hernia, he is more relaxed, which in turn allows him to bowl better.

Either that or new bowling guru, Allan Donald, has worked a miracle.

Panesar has no need of outside help at the moment, seeming to advance his skills and repertoire every time he bowls. At Old Trafford he bowled flat, pinning the batsmen back in their crease. Here, in less favourable conditions for spin, he was prepared to give the ball more air.

One peach saw him clean bowl Denesh Ramdin, who, lured by some inviting loop, on-drove at a ball that was not quite there.

Panesar spins England to 3-0 series win
Day five: England (400 & 111 for three) beat West Indies (287 & 222) by seven wickets

England beat West Indies by seven wickets in the evening session on the fifth and final day of the fourth Test at the Riverside after Monty Panesar's five for 46 helped to dismiss the tourists for 222 earlier in the day, despite Shiv Chanderpual once again proving to be a thorn in the home team's side with a gutsy 70, setting Michael Vaughan's side just 110 for victory.
*************************

Play began half an hour late due to some light early-morning drizzle, but when it did get under way, England made the perfect start by ending Chris Gayle's and Chanderpaul's 56-run fourth-wicket stand
**************************

Matthew Hoggard pushed one across the former and the opener was on his way having not added to his overnight 52 to leave the tourists struggling on 94 for four
****************************

But, if Vaughan was expecting that dismissal to be the catalyst to yet another West Indian collapse, he was sadly mistaken as new batsman Dwayne Bravo ...
**************************

... and the immovable object that is Chanderpaul put their heads down and saw their side safely through to lunch at 131 for four, their lead just 18 runs
***************************

England did finally manage to break the partnership half an hour after lunch when Bravo, attempting to hit Panesar for successive fours over deep long on, only succeeded in skying one to Ryan Sidebottom and the Nottinghamshire seamer took the steepler at mid off.

The pair had added 68 valuable runs though, with all-rounder Bravo's contribution being a breezy 43, with nine boundary fours
***************************

Panesar soon had his third victim when Marlon Samuels received a devilish delivery from the Northamptonshire left-arm spinner that turned and bounced to catch the shoulder of his bat and Paul Collingwood did the rest at slip with a head high catch
*****************************

Meanwhile, amid all the chaos remained that man Chanderpaul, who moved on to his 43rd Test half-century in the process, coming from 127 balls and including just three fours, but more importantly, using up 207 vital minutes
************************

However, England had now opened up an end and Steve Harmison took full advanatge by removing Daren Powell, caught by Vaughan after a wild slog ...
*************************

... and Fidel Edwards, who was castled for a duck, in quick succession

telegraph.co.uk

Ok that game has no place on a Canadian forum

If the leaders of the EU stopped arguing with each other and instead concentrated on making the EU more democratic - such as bringing in an ELECTED President - then maybe traditionally anti-EU nations such as the British may be willing to embrace the project a bit more.....

Europe must stop fighting itself
By Niall Ferguson
24/06/2007

From 6 states to 27: the EU at it is today

Last week I watched hundreds of Europeans re-enacting the Battle of Waterloo. It was a rather surreal experience. Immaculately turned out in Napoleonic uniforms, the re-enactors had spent the night before the battle under authentic period canvas, polishing their replica muskets. As the grey dawn broke they lit campfires and prepared for action.

Despite appearances, re-enactment is not just slightly different from the real thing. It's the complete antithesis. Needless to say, the muskets fire blanks. More importantly, there is rampant fraternisation with the enemy. I distinctly heard some English accents among the supposed Frenchies at Napoleon's headquarters.

And what was it about those kilted Highlanders that didn't look quite right? It turned out that they were all Germans. "We are from Hanover," explained one young man who might easily have been an accountant. "So we refuse to fight with the Prussians." "Also," chipped in his wife, "these really are the best uniforms when it's cold at night. And you get porridge for breakfast. Would you like some?"

What better symbol could there be of the success of European integration than a German hausfrau dressed up in a kilt offering me porridge in the middle of a Belgian battlefield?

A week later, the same country was playing host to another historical re-enactment. On Thursday, the leaders of the European Union gathered to re-enact not one but several historic battles.

The Kaczynski twins (who govern Poland) decided that they would re-enact the Second World War. Before the summit began, Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski argued that voting shares on the all-important EU Council of Ministers might be adjusted to take account of casualties between 1939 and 1945. As Poland suffered by far the highest losses in relative terms, the country's population today is much smaller than it would otherwise have been.

Actually, I liked the Poles' second idea even better. Instead of re-enacting a battle, they suggested, the summiteers should re-sit advanced level mathematics. Voting weights should be based on the square roots of the member states' populations. (Pocket calculators allowed.)

The British twins, Tony and Gordon, were meanwhile arguing for another re-enactment: that of the Battle of Maastricht (1992). Fearful that they might be accused of selling their birthrights as free Britons, they sought to extricate themselves from virtually all the proposed changes to EU governance. Their predecessor used to ask for "opt-outs". But "red lines" sound better - as in "the thin red line". Re-enactment enthusiasts will remember this was the nickname earned by the Sutherland Highlanders at the Battle of Balaclava (1854).

Now, I am all in favour of historical re-enactments. If people could only agree to skip the real battles and move straight on to the re-enactments, all our troubles as a species would be over. Just imagine: Hamas and Fatah meeting annually in Gaza to fire blanks at each other. Sunni and Shiite Iraqis gathering in Baghdad to blow up pedal-cars. Alas, the re-enactments in Brussels last week were less sensible than that.

I can understand why the Poles resisted what used to be the European Constitution, rejected by the French and the Dutch two years ago and now triumphantly resuscitated by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, as a mere "reform treaty". Under the existing arrangements, established at Nice in 2001, the Poles have almost as large a voting share on the Council of Ministers as the Germans.

Under the planned treaty, which effectively makes council votes proportionate to population, they will lose out heavily. But why on earth were our twins making such a fuss? The changes were deliberately designed to strengthen the power of the biggest states in the EU. With the second largest population after Germany, Britain stands to gain, not to lose.

Admittedly, the new treaty is also designed to extend the competence of the EU, not least in the area of foreign affairs. But has it been such a disaster to hand over responsibility for trade negotiations to Brussels, which was the first crucial step in the process of European integration? If memory serves, the present Trade Commissioner is himself a Briton - and Peter Mandelson has been doing a first-class job in that role. Proof of this was the recent attack on him by the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Le petit Nicolas needs watching, like that other diminutive French leader who came a cropper at Waterloo. Sarkozy's complaint that the EU is too liberal on trade demonstrates that, far from being some kind of Gallic Thatcher, he is at heart an old-style Continental protectionist. According to one report on Friday, it was Sarko who persuaded the Germans to delete the phrase "where competition is free and undistorted" from the treaty's description of the EU's internal market. British Eurosceptics should remember that less power for Brussels means more power for Paris as well as for London. With the Doha round of world trade negotiations collapsing in Potsdam on Friday, that is a thought worth pondering.

The world is a big, bad place and the relative importance of Europe's individual states is declining economically and demographically with every passing year. As Mr Mandelson has found, it is hard enough to sustain the momentum of trade liberalisation even when Europe speaks with one voice. In other spheres, the EU is simply a negligible quantity. What would have been more absurd than to leave foreign policy divided between yet another set of twins, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (Javier Solana) and the Commissioner for External Relations (Benita Ferrero-Waldner)? The choice is no longer between national foreign policies and a European foreign policy, but between national irrelevance and collective influence.

But the best argument for reforming the EU's system of governance is that it may be now or never. The true significance of Sarkozy's victory in France, it now becomes clear, was not so much economic as political. The slogan that won him the election was not the pseudo-Thatcherite "work more, earn more". It was his promise to rescue France from a "national identity crisis". The fact speaks for itself that, before leaving for Brussels, Sarkozy held a meeting with the National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen. Sarko did not steal his voters by promising them lower marginal tax rates.

All over Europe, the politics of identity threatens to trump the economics of individualism. You can see it in the polls, which reveal that between 40 per cent (Austria) and 80 per cent (Hungary) of European voters favour strict limits on foreign workers. You can see it in the recent populist attacks on hedge funds in Germany and on private equity in Britain. Above all, you can see it in Sarkozy's success. If I had to hazard a guess about Gordon Brown's strategy in the year ahead, it would be to turn New Labour into National Labour. Those recent Brown speeches about British identity were merely the preliminary barrage. Starting tomorrow, expect him to outflank a liberal Conservative leader who hesitates to articulate traditional Right-wing views.

The irony is that this nationalist turn is happening at a time when a majority of ordinary Europeans appear to be moving in the opposite direction. According to Eurobarometer, the surveys conducted on behalf of the European Commission, membership of the EU is now regarded as "a good thing" by just over half of European voters (57 per cent), its highest level since 1994. Two thirds of voters favour the idea of a proper EU constitution. Slightly less, 62 per cent, support the idea of unitary EU foreign and defence policies. A startling 56 per cent expect the EU to have its own army in the future. And 51 per cent expect it to have a directly elected president.

The problem is not with the majorities, but with those noisy minorities that regard EU membership as having been downright bad for their countries, which amount to roughly 30 per cent of the electorate in Britain and 21 per cent in France.

I am not quite sure what battle it is that these people are re-enacting. Perhaps, come to think of it, they are re-enacting Waterloo.

EU Facts and Figures

Motto:
In varietate concordia (Latin)
"United in diversity"

Anthem: "Ode to Joy"

President: Jose Manuel Barroso

Area: 4,324,782 km²

Population: 494 million (only India and China have larger populations)

Economy: the world's largest at US$13.881 trillion

No of states: 27 (the two largest are Germany and Britain and the two smallest are Malta and Luxembourg)

No of official languages: 23

***********************************************

Niall Ferguson is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University

www.niallferguson.org
© Niall Ferguson, 2007

telegraph.co.uk