United in discord

So much for European unity! The threadbare "common front" on economic stimulus packages is unravelling in style. The UK government got a very public dressing down from their German counterparts, who deemed the UK Labour Party's record borrowing as "breathtaking".

At last! Someone in the political space has come out with an iota of common sense. It's great politics (in the short run) to try and spend your way out of recession, but the ballooning debt burden could take decades to work off. A fine legacy indeed. Thank goodness that Gordon Brown has saved the world - talk about delusional!

Of course, there is a political agenda here. Within the Eurozone, there is great tension between the fiscally efficient German economy and some of the more "basket case" members (such as Spain, Italy and Greece). Berlin is reluctant to weaken the euro as a quick fix for less efficient Euro countries, and rightly so.