The Periscope is going to be keeping tabs on Bush’s trip over the next few days, and already has lots of useful links.

It will, however, be a visit I shall probably avoid mentioning too much, as it appears that certain visitors to this blog are determined to misinterpret every single last thing I say whenever it comes to the transatlantic relationship (and various other areas for that matter). I really can’t be arsed to get into more pointless spats with people who think I’m some kind of anti-American maniac due to their inability to bother reading what I’ve actually written rather than what their ill-formed preconceptions lead them to think I’ve said. (Can you sense some exasperation here, perchance?)

In other news, European Commission President Jos� Manuel Barroso has been a bit of an idiot, and got involved in a dispute about electioneering. He is, of course, supposed to be obliged not to poke his nose into partisan politics as the supposedly neutral effective figurehead of the EU. This Commission really hasn’t been doing too well thus far, and is hardly helping the cause, it must be said…

Oh yes, and for those of us hoping that the Iranian situation can be resolved nicely via diplomacy may be interested by the news that Moscow is backing Tehran all the way on this one, and is determined to continue helping the Iranian nuclear programme. Or is this just another Putin ploy?