Great things are expected ....

... from the new German President, Joachim Gauck, former Pastor in East Germany (as was Chancellor Merkel's father) also civil rights campaigner before the fall of the Wall and former head of the huge Stasi archive where many itneresting things were discovered by many people.

The post of the President has traditionally been little more than ceremonial but there is a feeling that Herr Gauck might use the position to promote certain political values like freedom and democracy. Given that there has been the odd disagreement over certain EU treaties and proposals though the German Constitutional Court managed, with increasing difficulty, to find a compromise each time, an active and opinionated President will be interesting to watch.

Comments

There is some problem with the comments. They do not seem to show up on the blog and I do not know why. Questions have been addressed to the technical staff, i.e. North Jnr but problem has not been solved yet. I can actually see the comments on Blogger but that is of little use to this blog and its readers. My apologies.

Let me just say two things about Iceland

Firstly, that Iceland is doing rather nicely, thank you financially and is repaying debts ahead of schedule, which is more, much more than one can say about certain other countries.

Secondly, 67 per cent of the country's population would reject EU membership. Can't imagine why.

A long article on conservatism in the Anglosphere

This is well worth reading though it is long. John O'Sullivan who has made his appearance on this blog before here, here and here, has written a sort of end of term analysis of conservatism in the Anglosphere on NRO. Looking at the situation in the US, Australia, Canada and Britain (though not New Zealand, which would have been interesting) he comes to the unsurprising conclusion that conservatism is in worst shape of all in this country.

On the whole this is good news

The Archbishop of Canterbury, His Bloviation, Dr Rowan Williams is departing for greener pastures, to wit, Magdalene College, Cambridge. On the whole, this is good news. I don't care all that much about his travails with homosexuality in the Church apart from being puzzled why it had not been foreseen as a problem.

I do, however, care about his moral relativism, which is not what the Archbishop of Canterbury ought to be preaching, his trendy politicking and his refusal to stand up for Christians under attack, especially in certain Third World countries. Some previous postings on the ArchDruid are here, here, here, here, here and here. Nobody can accuse me of being silent on the subject.

Random pictures for this day

And a short film:

Eurasia Daily Monitor on what next in Russia

Like everyone else, Pavel Baev is speculating. Russia is an odd country (yes, thank you, you can pipe down at the back): the only one in which we always know the election results well ahead but can never predict what will happen afterwards.

His final paragraph is of interest:

The explosion of street protests in Moscow was a real scare for Putin. While now he enjoys his victory, granting concessions to those responsible for the weeks of panic would have been very much against his unforgiving nature. He believes that the weak always are – and should be – beaten, and fancies that he has proven himself to be strong. The fight on the last stretch of elections was, in his imagination, not against the cheerful crowds on the Bolotnaya square but against the dark forces that sought to dismember Russia in collusion with the eternal Western enemies. Those in the opposition who expect dialogue and liberal reforms are going to be disappointed – and will discover the depth of Putin’s vindictiveness. Paradoxical as it may seem, this revenge of Putinism could be the answer to the opposition’s search for a new energy and unity.

Actually, the whole piece is worth reading. As it happens, I do not think President-Re-elect Putin has shown himself to be strong and what is more worrying for him, it has become more and more obvious. Screaming abuse of one's enemies is not the same as strength of character or position. But he is, most certainly, unforgiving and a bully.