I was delighted to see Europe win the Ryder cup again. Once again I enjoyed the rare thrill of cheering on Europe and finding that I liked it. And I'm definately developing a fondness for the bold simplicity of that flag.

But I'm not a die-hard pro-European. My identity is British and only tangentially European. I'm one of those miserable liberals who found their pro-European feet because they knew Mrs Thatcher wouldn't like it. And yesterday I came up with a theory why the Ryder cup's vision of Europe is so palatable. For one thing it's a Europe dominated by Britain and Ireland. There's a smattering of charismatic Iberians and cool Scandinavians but, perhaps most tellingly, very few Germans and even fewer French.

Which just goes to show that if the answer to any problem is golf, we are asking the wrong question.