And now the begging bowl will be passed around, with Britain — despite not being a memebr of the Euro — expected to cough up a good portion just to show what a good European it is. Gordon Clown will probably agree, if only to make life more difficult for his replacement.

There is not one decent, honest person in the Labour Party.

To the extent that the Greek Treasury may hold UK bonds (I don't know if it does) the Greek taxpayers have subsidised us.

A difference between being in the euro or not is that different people pay for the profligacy of governments and bankers. In the euro those who borrowed money have to repay it; outside the euro those who saved are forced to pay, by having their savings devalued.

Jolly good move at long last if so but is this a new 'appointment' John?

Reply: No new appointment. Mr Letwin is Mr Cameron's policy adviser. I give Mr C and Mr O my thoughts on the economy from time to time in my capacity as Chairman of the Economic Policy review.

Brussels wants to mastermind the bailout. van Rompuy and Barroso have been champing at the bit, claiming they have rights of direct rule under Lisbon according to reports from Ambrose Evans Pritchard. The Greeks have been revolting or striking depending on your point of view and opinion of them – some of them directly castigating the EU and the Greek government supposedly taking orders from Brussels.

A silver lining is that maybe we won't be supplying funds under a G20 bailout if the EU insists on not letting others like the IMF get involved. A second silver lining is that the EU is being shown up for what it is: incapable of enforcing its stability pact budget rules in any way other than attempting direct rule. If they think they're going to attempt that across all the PIGlets they might be in for a rude awakening. The Euro project now seems a step too far too soon.

In the mean time, the Germans and ECB have been told "Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to bail out the EU: the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Otherwise, the EU will self destruct in five years."

The only thing is a re-write of this tragi-comedy will be playing at a cinema near you soon enough.

I note Mervyn King has called CML's bluff and told them they must repay the special liquidity facility on time. That's £300bn of mortgage sweat. Still, as expected he is admitting QE may restart. Trying to be a net seller of gilts in a market running the risk of a chain of sovereign default can't be the easiest job in the world. Rolling over in excess of £50bn of treasury bills every few months must also start looking dangerous – the amount has more than doubled since the bubble burst.