There's actually too much happening today to be able to cope with it, so I am minded to use this as a running post - noting that the legacy media seems to be rather relaxed about it all. We have The Guardian putting its euro-story way down the list, but when you get there, it declares: "Spanish bailout fears rock European stock markets".

The strap line then tells us: "Brussels makes last-ditch attempts to prevent Spain becoming the latest eurozone country to need a financial bailout amid mounting fears of a banking collapse".

I may be a little old fashioned on this, but I would have thought this was slightly more important than the latest twists and turns on the Jeremy Hunt saga. Even in the august Times, it is vying with the news: "New York to ban large fizzy drinks" - riveting stuff. Is it me losing it, or are they?

Looking at Zerohedge for a quick dose of panic, however, we get exactly the opposite. "Due to lack of apocalyptic headlines in the overnight session", it says, "and some speculation that Spain will get a one year reprieve in hitting its fiscal pact targets, risk has seen a modest rebound …".

Lack of apollocliptic … er … acopolo … er … apocalyptic headlines? I am definitely missing something here.

Mind you, today's the day of the Irish vote on the fiscal pact, and Zerohedge thinks that will make for a very volatile session on the markets - although it is hard to see why, as the results won't be available in time to affect sentiment - or so I assume. 

David Bowden of the Independent seems to be more worked up than most about it, suggesting that the vote begs the question: "Will the EU be the death of democracy?"

Here is another one who seems to assume that we actually have a democracy, functional or otherwise. What he is actually talking about is the transfer of some more power from one set of the ruling élite to another. The people aren't really involved in the decision-making processes.

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