Things are all a kerfuffle in Polish politics at the moment. The president backed out of an international summit a few days ago because he had a pain in his stomach. Before that a German newspaper made some unpleasant jokes about him and Poland. Then every former Polish foreign minister wrote an open letter condemning the president for backing out of the summit – blah blah blah, the usual farce. Poor old Gazeta Wyborcza devoted several serious pages to the affair this Friday and then — if Beatroot is to be believed (and of course he is) — the prime minister goes and resigns, making, I can’t help think, the GW‘s thundering look like a lot of hot air. Beatroot brings up the subject of media management in his post (the news breaks late on Friday evening – the government seems taken unawares) and it is tempting to picture newspaper editors cursing Marcinkiewicz for letting the teevee get the jump on them, for keeping their staff awake all night, for making them re-set the front page. So well done Marcinkiewicz.

I wonder how the stock market has reacted to this. Actually, that’s a total lie but I guess the papers, in the absence of any information, will pad out their speculation with worrisome articles about what is happening to the share portfolios of people who own shares. Presumably share prices will wobble and someone who was in the know will make a few quid on it before it goes back to normal — oblivious as all sentient beings should be to who gets to be called prime minister.