What the Germans want is this: their leaders to get their boots muddy. Opinion polls up and down the country are apparently all aflush like the cheeks of a northern German country girl that loves it. The message of 2002 was clear – Schroeder piled sandbags as if he had been a sandbag-piler all his life, and Stoiber looked on like a pale wet lemon, with a little too much pride in its peel. And who won? That’s right – the man who looked like he had nothing to lose. The man who was not frightened to look desperate.

So put on your boots and jump in the water, Mrs. Chancellor. Get piling, and don’t spend too much time in the helicopter looking concerned. Flying over a disaster area is worse than staying at home and watching it on TV. It looks like you’re gloating. Bush found that out. Stay on the ground, and watch them come to you. Make your paranoiac energy your friend. Make it your slave.

Do you want it? How much do you want it?