Daily catch-up: the Greeks can stay in the euro or end ‘austerity’, but not both

Plus American legal logic, Labour’s Tory defectors, lone wolves and French kissing

1. Syriza, the Greek coalition of the radical left that is so admired by the sort of people who made sure Labour lost here, has finally led its voters to the point where denial meets reality.

And yet Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, still refuses to face it, calling a referendum that asks a question pretending Greece can stay in the euro without having to abide by its rules. A leader would tell the Greeks they can have the euro or they can have an end to austerity. As Sean O’Grady explains, decoupling a currency need not be disastrous. Instead, Tsipras blames Germany for not giving Greece more money.

I can see why he is surprised. I thought Germany would pay up to preserve the euro, but Andrew Lilico was right in April when he predicted Greece would leave the euro this year.

2. “Because capital punishment is constitutional, there must be a constitutional means of carrying it out.” Yesterday’s US Supreme Court ruling, again by five to four, that midazolam could be used in lethal injections, opens with a striking example of legal argument.

It was notable that two justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Ginsburg, argued that the court should reconsider whether the death penalty is in fact compatible with the Constitution.

US law and therefore US politics is completely different from ours. As Spinning Hugo argues, on gun law and gay marriage, the US Supreme Court seems to have an entirely flexible interpretation of the words of the Constitution.

3. I am still transfixed by Electoral Calculus’s chart of how voters switched parties between 2010 and 2015 that I featured yesterday. Stephen Wigmore points out that Labour lost more voters to the Conservatives than to UKIP and asks: “Have any Labour leadership candidates mentioned that?”

4. Matthew d’Ancona’s column in The Guardian yesterday was good and clarifying on the “lone wolf” objection to opposing the ideology of Muslim grievance.

5. An important map, via Amazing Maps. How about “none”? Where is “none”?

6. And finally, thanks to Tom Freeman for this:

“I’m still disappointed that when I did combined sciences GCSE, they didn’t call it ‘omniscience’.”