Finger pointing continues over Britain’s “veto”

The normally mild-mannered Jose Manuel Barrosso, President of the European Commission – the EU's administrative arm – unloaded today on David Cameron.

It's clear that what happened in Brussels last week was that Cameron was there to negotiate on market trading terms rather than agree a way out of a global crisis. He wanted to discuss improvements in trading rules for Britain's key industry, financial services, according to Barrosso, "The United Kingdom, in exchange for giving its agreement, asked for a specific protocol on financial services which, as presented, was a risk to the integrity of the internal market. This made compromise impossible."

Apparently what Cameron was asking for would have led to a wholesale renegotiating of the terms of the market when what everyone was focusing on was negotiating tighter rules on budget deficits.  It's sort of like turning up at an AA meeting and wanting to discuss speed dating rather than listening and helping partners with serious problems.

More reports here and here.

It looks like the news cycle is going to move on from the summit story to more intramural news. Inflation in the UK dropped to 4.8 percent last month. That's good news although it still leaves Britain with the highest inflation rate in the EU.

Next big headline is going to be generated by unemployment figures which are due to be released tomorrow.

I wonder if any hedgies are betting on how far up the figures will go.