By Rob Marchant

“Send in the clowns” ran the Economist’s front page last week, in a biting but wholly apt comment on the disastrous election results in Italy, which looks likely to stop its progress towards vital economic reforms in its tracks. Italy’s very own Laurel and Hardy show tells the Italian public what they want to hear: that no reform is necessary. On one side we have the now thoroughly-discredited Silvio Berlusconi; on the other, Beppe Grillo, a real-life comedian fronting an [...]