When Bertie accounts for himself today, will we see Brandt or Nixon?

DO YOU remember the phrase ‘Ich bin ein Berliner?’ Most people of my generation do because it was uttered by John F Kennedy a day or two after he completed his famous visit to Ireland in 1963.

He travelled straight from here to Germany and Berlin, the first American president to visit the city since the end of World War II.

The phrase has gone down in history for a number of reasons. Kennedy was at the height of his powers when he visited Berlin, and the city was a place in desperate need of his support.