A frequent correspondent points me to this story in which Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, takes exception to the Prime Minister of Iraq describing non-participants in the liberation of his country as “spectator” states. My correspondent suggests that, rather than apologize to Juncker, Allawi should have told the esteemed European leader to “go fuck himself”. I think there ought to be an online petition so that I and millions of others (quite a number living in Iraq) can join in in encouraging M. Juncker to go forth and multiply.

Elsewhere in Old Europe, the Greeks are throwing a hissy fit about the USA deciding to call Macedonia “Macedonia”. What are you going to do about it Greece, smash some plates? Perhaps a more practical response would be to prepare for the humanitarian crisis the renaming will inevitably cause.