The Euros

I felt sickened this morning as I heard the election headlines: gains for the far right parties, in France and the UK especially. A vote for UKIP is a vote against Europe, ignoring the force for relative stability and peace that the EEC/EU's been for most of my lifetime. People who know me won't be surprised I voted Green: good to see that it helped Molly Scott Cato get elected in our neck of the woods! (This photograph I took in Ulm last month. The Germans hate Merkel, I was told, but still vote for her.)

"It's called losing"

A great-grandmother of mine was born in Daventry: we went there briefly on Saturday, but not for family history purposes. A short way South of the town lies the village of Canons Ashby, dominated by the remains of its Priory and an Elizabethan manor house, the home for many years of the Dryden family, now owned by the National Trust: we didn't have time to pay a proper visit, but this delightful early 18th Century statue caught the eye when I had a peep over the garden wall from the roadside.

Segue to Chris Heaton-Harris, Daventry's Eurosceptic MP, who numbered himself amongst the 100 or more Members putting questions to the Prime Minister in the Commons this afternoon: unusually, I found myself watching more or less the whole proceedings. You couldn't but admire Cameron's stamina and courtesy, in keeping up the appearance of considering each question on its merits. But he surely suffered from Ed Milliband's early barb: a veto, he said, was what one deployed to stop something from taking place. If what you tried to stop goes ahead anyway, it's not a veto - "it's called losing."