Former PM Blair said earlier this week that we need a President for Europe, no doubt still hoping it would be him (though surely Peter Mandelson would want to stand against him - that's if he has time after running the World Bank before breakfast).
Europe is bankrupt; not financially, not morally, not socially but politically so Blair has a point. Worse, there is a crisis of corporate confidence in where growth in any of our economies is going to come from as India and China steam on with double digit growth.
We have been conditioned by the concept of a nation state and supra-Europe is a non-starter. Indeed, the EU as it is, looks a busted flush. How on earth did Greece, Ireland Portugal and maybe Spain reach their nadir without intervention much, much earlier? Is the ECB that hopeless?
I'm for Europe but as it stands it is not possible for it to continue without wholesale reform. Once that is finally in position then we should seriously consider a President.