I spent yesterday in Berlin - the day after the German team was beaten by Spain in the Euro 2008 final, and the day before the start of the French Presidency of the EU.
I passed the buses taking the team to meet Mrs. Merkel and hundreds of thousands of supporters. Everyone I met was proud of the German team's performance, though they all agreed that the better side had won. It makes you realise what you miss when none of the home teams qualify for these major football finals, but hopefully it will be different for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.
As well as meetings, my friend the German Europe Minister Günter Gloser and I both spoke at a conference called Global Europe: An Anglo-German Agenda . All our relationships in Europe are important, but I left Berlin even more convinced that a continuing strong relationship with Germany is vital if we want to make progress through Europe on things that matter to people in the UK.
Posted at 14:51 01 July 2008 by Jim Murphy | Comments[0]
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Incidentally for those of you who follow these things I am now £10 worse off and the local bookie is £10 better off as a result of Spain beating Italy in a penalty shoot out last week. I've no idea who will win Euro 2008 now.
Germany and their remarkably reliable team with a couple of exceptional goal scorers; Spain and their high tempo game (although this wasn't much in evidence against Italy); Russia and their young team who seem to get better and more confident with each game; Turkey and their never give up style which has seen them as the competition's comeback kings.
I'll leave the predictions to others.
Posted at 17:13 25 June 2008 by Jim Murphy | Comments[1]
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