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It’s fairly well known that Beethoven’s Ode to Joy (the 4th movement of the 9th symphony) is the European anthem, but less well known that the European version has no words, to avoid the need to translate it two dozen times.

Billy Bragg has recently retranslated the passages from the symphony, taken from Schiller’s Ode to Joy, for a performance at the Festival Hall, and I think he’s done a great job. Given that English is one of the working languages of the Union, I think the relevant verses are a good candidate for an English set of words:

See now like a phoenix rising
From the rubble of the war
Hope of ages manifested
Peace and freedom evermore!
Brothers, sisters stand together
Raise your voices now as one –
Though by history divided
Reconciled in unison

Throw off now the chains of ancient
Bitterness and enmity
Hand in hand let’s walk together
On the path of liberty
Hark a new dawn now is breaking
Lift your voices now in song!
Though by history divided
Reconciled in unison

As the pound and euro hit new dollar highs, New York magazine has an interesting article on the potential risks to the US economy.

The slightly odd proposal not to have an English Parliament, but to have a sort of English pseudo-Parliament made up of existing MPs, is “debated” on the BBC’s Jerk Your Knee message board, where a lot of angry loners passionately agree that they want English independence (even if they can’t spell it).

I think I’ve said this here before: there’s a perfectly rational case for an English Parliament as part of a wider constitutional settlement – reserve Westminster for UK-wide federal issues, and have an English Parliament in Birmingham or somewhere that, on the Scottish model, dealing with the elements of domestic policy that seem to be done best at that level. Of course, the sort of people who are proposing an English Parliament (or worse, a first-past-the-post English pseudo-Parliament) are not doing it for any rational reasons – they are doing it because they hate Blair/Brown/the Scots/the EU/black people and think that in some way having a more right-wing Parliament (which they assume it will be) will deliver for them.

Actually, I should exempt Sir Malcolm Rifkind and his task force from this – they seem to be in this argument purely for party advantage rather than anything more nasty.

On the regular occasions when I get annoyed by the paranoid rantings of Eurosceptics, I like to read articles on what American politicians think about international law (for instance). Summary: they’re against it, because it might stop them doing whatever the hell they want, and damn what anyone else thinks. Give it a few years with the rise of China, and I expect they’ll be as keen on it as the Europeans are.

Live in Oklahoma? Support George Bush II’s Global War on Terror? The DMV has a license plate just for you, complete with stern-beaked eagle. (via MeFi)

The Polish people have spoken, and with one voice (well, mostly) they have said “Sod off, Law and Justice“. A great victory for modernity and liberal Europeanism over the voices of fear and hatred. Yay, Tusk!