In spite of her husband’s spangling array of medals, Queen Elizabeth II looks suitably glum on today’s front page of the Independent. The London daily reveals that 2009 is set to end with yet another blow to the House of Windsor’s faltering prestige as both Buckingham Palace and the government are forced to reveal secret correspondence about “the growing public cost of the Royal Family.” In a “far-reaching” ruling made by the UK Information Commissioner, “the Government must disclose more than 100 letters and memos written by ministers and members of the Royal Household during negotiations over public subsidies paid to the Queen for the upkeep of her palaces.” It has emerged that the royal family spent £41.5m in public money last year, an increase of £1.5m from 2008. £250,000 of this was spent on redecorating “Princess Beatrice's university accommodation.” The Independent, which has campaigned to make the correspondence public for three years, also reveals that the “Queen's accommodation is in a parlous state… Princess Anne had a narrow escape after some loose masonry was dislodged from the roof on Buckingham Palace.”
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.