As my pen hovers over the ballot paper, I ask: am I a roundhead or a cavalier?

My pen hovers — but refuses to touch the postal ballot paper. I pour a drink (I won’t say whether claret, schnapps or English ale) and break off to watch Versailles, with its parade of lecherous continental backstabbers. The blood stirs, but still I cannot choose. So I defer the moment of decision, Remain or Leave, until after a short trip to France…

Middle-aged match

Meanwhile, business as usual. Microsoft is spending $26 billion to acquire LinkedIn, the social network for job-seekers. That looks a crazy price for a venture which lost $166 million last year on revenues of $2.9 billion and has never been regarded as cool. But what Microsoft is really buying, at $60 per head, is access for cross-selling to LinkedIn’s 430 million users in the hope of boosting its own flagging growth. Both brands feel middle–aged these days, so maybe they’re well matched. Microsoft boss Satya Nadella is also betting LinkedIn will endure, unlike networks such as Bebo and MySpace, which were bought by giants before shrinking to nothing.