Commissioner Joaquin Almunia expressed deep concern Monday that inflation in the euro zone is around 4 percent. Twenty-four hours later share prices crashed around the world on fears of inflation, near record oil prices and fears of further bank losses. An interesting place to be while this was happening was the European Parliament, bastion of democracy and the will of  the people. A lively debate was going on in the so-called members bar between a group  of three right wing and one left wing MEPs. It was not about the global or even the European financial crises but about why they  were avoiding a three day junket in Paris “for fear of being caught on camera by the bloody media”.

The  French Presidency of  the European gets under way officially as of Tuesday (July 1)  amid more controversy than almost any other in living memory. That is  without question why President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered the creation of an elite corps of journalists to cover events of  the coming six months. The condition of being included: “Being known to be sympathetic and to have a track record of good behaviour”, one journalist told us.

In his conference contribution "the cost of Sovereign default" Eduardo Borensztein of the research department of the IMF cited the mathematical impossibilities of our present economic system as being responsible for the current financial turmoil.

If the European Union feels that it must speak to Russia in the form of a summit then it must not avoid speaking about the 'elephant in the room'. I refer of course to the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London in December 2006. Mr Litvinenko was murdered by means of a radioactive substance, Polonium 210, 97% of which is manufactured in the Avandard nuclear facility in Russia. His murder has all the hallmarks of an assassination by the Russian security services.