BBC News - British Gas profits jump by 58% to record high‏

I heard about this on the news last night. What struck me most about it was the inability of the government to do anything other than talk about it. "we'd like to see X, Y, Z happen" but are powerless to actually see it happen. Ahh yes, that would be the efficient market, which is so efficient and so wonderful and is never wrong. Bollocks. Get the government involved in the market rather than reams of regulatory beau racy which does the grand total of fuck all

UK anxiety over influence in Europe after crisis‏

It's odd, and I'm not sure national sovereignty is the issue. The UK government has been banging on about the need for regulation, yet when there is talk of regulation, the UK gov is the first to urge caution. Caution is fair enough, but (I think) it was the free market economic policies followed by us here that lead to a bubble and bust. So maybe a bit more regulation and direction (like Germany) would have done us good. The highs wouldn't have been so high, but the lows might not have been so low.
The intervention they finally got around to doing has saved us from being in a far, far worse mess (see Ireland).
But Mandy, Gordy etc. have been going on about the need for international regulation, so I hope they don't then come out and criticise said international regulation.

I don't know too much about French politics, but why would Sarkozy have an "arch-socialist" as a minister?

Financial regulation

"It’s clear to me that the FSA has to be very, very wary of seeing the competitiveness of London as a major aim, and that’s not a popular thing to say .."
He's "right on both counts" according to those damn commies at the FT. That's interesting, coz the FT tend to be in favour of business, they might even know a thing or two about it. But aren't they supposed to favour free markets and that? Apparently not. Very interesting.

I'm in total agreement with the closing remark:
"But the regulator’s role is neither to promote the City nor to shrink it. It is to help make financial activities sound, both at home and abroad. This is in the true interest of the UK. Promoting activities likely to generate hugely expensive global crises is not."