Fair. It was more of a generic "you, hypothetical guy" than "you, Jorodryn"...you, Jorodryn, just happened to pick the sort of thing I've heard with sincerity far too often.

I do that a lot.

I'm not really seeing any pulling back - the austerity programme is marching on unhindered. Even the IMF is now saying that it's a stupid idea, which prompted Barroso to defend budget cuts by declaring that "there is nothing more anti-social than high levels of debt," which demonstrates a lack of imagination on his part.

I don't know if the Euro will collapse, but I fear that if the mainstream parties carry on doing their best to ignore people's complaints, it's only going to mean successes for scary extremists. The Communist party just won 20% of the vote in regional elections here this weekend; and their deputy chairman finished first in the Senate elections in one of the Prague districts. This is the first time any left-wing candidate has won a Senate election in Prague since the Velvet Revolution, let alone a Communist.

The government's response to this obvious sign of public discontent? They're going to continue with the program of budget cuts.