Attention!

Stop!
Forgive me if I laugh but here (see right) is the official photo released to the world following the Saturday meeting of the EU's great and good. They met, if you remember, to 'fix' the economic crisis that is causing so much grief, so it's all brave smiles for the camera, except for the gent to the left of Nicolas Sarkozy. To the right of Sarkozy is Angela Merkel who up to that meeting had, as far as this crisis is concerned, been the big clunking fist. Germany under Merkel was holding firm and not going to panic, like Ireland, and offer bank deposit safety promises. To the left of Sarkozy is Gordon Brown, the original clunking fist, looking glum. Sarkozy looks to be preoccupied helping a lorry reverse, "this far and no further, stop". Well a day later whatever progress the attendees thought they had made, as a group, it was all over and back to the start. Perhaps Brown had a premonition hence his reason for looking glum, "what will Mandelson say if this goes wrong etc". In the group are, left to right, Silvio Berlusconi, Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown.
Attention this vehicle is reversing
But why these people? You would have though that the whole of the EU would be facing the same problems. Is this the 'core group' of the EU? Not according to the German Newspaper Der Spiegel which, as recently as mid-August this year, was saying that the EU core group was: France Germany and Luxembourg; but then that was all to do with the Russian invasion of Georgia.

Hang on, perhaps this is the answer, assemble the core group according to demand and what you hope to achieve. My God, flexible geometry as a way of problem solving? No doubt you thought that in the egalitarian EU such a thing was verboten as this amounts to a reversal of policy. Let's face it we cannot have this taking hold; this far and no further, stop, mind you don't get run over.