MPs and peers laughed as Merkel, who recalled her first visit to London in the spring of 1990 shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, said those expecting a "fundamental reform of the European architecture" in Britain's direction would be disappointed.
But at least it is a step in the right direction.
Her government's tacit support for Saddam Hussein's war against Iran led to successive Gulf wars and John Major's studied neutrality in Bosnia – which later pushed Tony Blair in the opposite direction, towards costly interventionism that overstretched MoD resources.
And as far as there was any direction to party policy under Kennedy, it was away from that you would expect from his publicly expressed views.
But it was also symptomatic of the lack of direction to Liberal Democrat policy or strategy under his leadership.
Related: Australia has forfeited world leadership on climate policy, says Kofi Annan panel "So I am on a mission, I'm on an environmental crusade to go and motivate everyone to go in that direction".
"We have recent pronunciations from the prime minister and the defence minister that go in a different direction from Alfano, who is also head of a small rightwing party that worked with Berlusconi until the day before yesterday and so has to keep his people quiet," he said.
Her retirement is another step in the right (or, technically, left) direction for Minnesota's progressives, who are on something of a roll lately with the defeat of a voter ID law and the passage of marriage equality legislation.
The Matrix took Oscars for the sound, visual effects and editing, and Sleepy Hollow for art direction.
Until McIlroy and Dubai Duty Free stepped forward, this was a tournament minus a sponsor and, essentially, direction.
Now she asserted her constitutional right to take over the running of the country, and got the military top brass – themselves concerned with the direction Malawi was taking – to support her. Banda's inauguration as president in April 2012 was a turning point for Malawi.
