Can somebody please fix Britain?
The British are increasingly gloomy about the state of their country, the front page of The Times reveals today. According to a new poll, 70% of voters believe that Britain is “a broken country,” while 64% also feel that Britain “is going in the wrong direction”. With 60% “hardly recognise the country they are living in”, nearly half the respondents claimed that they “would emigrate if they could.” For The Times’ leader, this strain of deep pessimism is a crisis of trust – “First, the political class is discredited. The expenses scandal is central.” Also, the leader pursues, voters are cynical about capitalism and fear for their jobs, with 68% believing that “people who play by the rules always get a raw deal”. Many of these themes echo the Conservative party’s long-running claim that 13 years of Labour government have led to a “broken Britain.” However, the poll is not all bad news for Gordon Brown, with Labour up 2 points to 30% against its Tory rivals, which makes the prospect of a hung parliament increasingly likely in this year’s general election.
Two camps, two theories, and two visions of France: 18 years after the massacre of 800,000 Tutsis, the precise role played by Paris is still the subject of heated debate, fueled by the findings of successive criminal investigations. 
Agree to new austerity measures or risk being kicked out of the eurozone: that’s the alternative presented to Athens on the day the euro group is meeting. It’s a situation Greek politicians have failed to avoid, regrets To Vima. 
At a time when Athens is still involved in debt restructuring negotiations with its private creditors, Neelie Kroes’ recent allusions to a Greek exit from the euro are a sign that European leaders are intent on preparing the terrain for such an eventuality.