Sometimes you don't see what is most obvious, but haven't we all been living through an incredible German Renaissance? Across business, European politics, sport, social theory and the arts, hasn't Germany been the focal point of an amazing landscape of change? Since the end of World War II, its recovery has been remarkable. Sensational, you might say.

And moving my lens outward a little, isn't the European Union one of humankind's greatest ever achievements? Is it too big to say that it is so? We have here a system of bringing people together through common frameworks of economics, politics and learning. It always reaches out from its borders. Nobody is forced in. Instead, nations queue up to belong.

Sure it has problems - many big problems - but surely we accept that the European Union is one of the biggest stories of all our lives, and that Germany's remarkable success has given it a hot core of confidence.

I know there are plenty of reasons and ways to talk up the UK, but sometimes it feels like we have condemned ourselves to our bedroom in the manner of a sulking teenager or truculent old aunt. Having squandered the potential of the Commonwealth, we sulk about needing Europe and lust greedily over "a special relationship" with the USA. The language of the "special relationship" is heard in Whitehall but never in Washington. Isn't it time to get real?

Sadly in this coming election, I fear political parties will again compete to be anti-European.

Thoughts?