Every year, there is a period of time in summer when the news all but dries up. In Europe and the US, governments take a summer break, politics goes briefly quiet and journalists are left scratching their heads and clutching at straws to fill empty newspaper columns and pages.
Michel Barnier as France’s PM: are they having us on?
Brits who view the appointment of Barnier as a wind-up are flattering themselves. The present crisis is all about France.