The Independent, 20 July 2010
“The Big Society: a genuine vision for Britain's future – or just empty rhetoric?” headlines The Independent. Nearly a month after his government announced the harshest austerity budget in living memory, David Cameron has unveiled his flagship Big Society policy, which seeks to devolve power from central government to local groups to manage post offices, libraries, transport services and housing projects. Speaking in Liverpool, the PM named four "vanguard communities" which are going to be the "great training grounds of this change", a change, the centre-left wing daily notes, that “has drawn criticism from people who think it is either meaningless, or an excuse for cutting public services.”
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.