Since the Kosovo issue has been run through so many times, let's change subjects.
I'm curious about the feeling among the social democratic left in Europe about deregulation. As you say, the low unemployment rate here is a powerful bludgeon against the European social welfare systems. But there is a quite convincing argument that the problem in Europe has more to do with the monetary and fiscal policies demanded by Maastricht (and with the behavior of the Bundesbank in the '80's) than with "inflexible" labor markets and the like. At the very least, a reflationary macroeconomic program should be tried before the Europeans junk a quite successful system.
To what extent does this argument register in the debate over there? Does it figure at all in people's conciousness? Is there a feeling of fatalism? And what has the reaction been to the brief career of Oskar Lafontaine in government?
I'm asking about opinion in West Europe as a whole, including Britain?
Seth