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Paper Monitor

10:23 UK time, Monday, 4 October 2010

A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.

For just a few days, every two years, Paper Monitor loves golf.

It is not so much that the Ryder Cup brings a refreshing element of team play to a sport which is usually the preserve of ruthlessly efficient individuals.

Nor is it that it is the only golfing tournament that allows raucous football-style chanting and wild celebrations to pervade the sedate atmosphere of the fairways.

Rather, Paper Monitor delights in the rare opportunity to see the British press unite unconditionally behind a European cause.

And while fans surrounding the greens struggle to come up with a coherent chant - the continent's two syllables are just not conducive to hollering [got a potential Europe team chant? Post it on the ] - the papers suffer no such difficulty.

"Eurostars," screams the back page of the Daily Mail, a paper more usually associated with barracking Brussels bureaucrats.

Inside, it proudly flies the EU flag opposite the Stars and Stripes as it runs through the opposing pairings for the final day's singles. It is Team Europe's official emblem but still...

Meanwhile Neil Squires, at the Daily Express, was positively salivating with continentalistic fervour - did Paper Monitor just invent a word? - over Europe's "golden day" on Sunday.

"The force is with Europe and in Lee Westwood they have their Luke Skywalker leading them out."

Paper Monitor was beginning to wonder whether EU foreign minister Baroness Ashton had negotiated an uneasy truce with Fleet Street's editors for the duration of the competition.

Reassuringly, however, page 19 of the Mail reveals a short article predicting the "death of the euro".

With the economic woes of Ireland, Greece, Spain and Portugal threatening the currency's future - in the eyes of some economists at least - the Sun's Trevor Kavanagh describes the euro as "like a dodo":

"Just as we warned at the launch of the reckless gamble a decade ago, we can see this bird was never meant to fly."

However, he is not the only party pooper to spoil the European love-in.

With rain forcing the Ryder Cup to spill over into an extra day for the first time, many fans had hoped for a Wimbledon-style "people's Monday", where tickets would go to people on a first-come, first-served basis.

However, as the Times reports, as if things weren't sodden enough already at Celtic Manor organisers chose to [subscription required] on the prospects.

Only those with valid Sunday tickets will be allowed in, prompting speculation of spectators sending sick notes back to work en masse.

It leaves one wondering whether a clause could be added to the EU working time directive to allow people leave in the event of a repeat of this year's over-run.

Surely everyone would unite behind that?

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