• THE European Union continues to have major financial and banking difficulties with several of its members including Greece, Italy, and Spain. An underlying difficulty for these countries is having to comply with EU rules.

At a conference on international finance, Nemat Shafik, director of the London School of Economics, who was once deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said that part of her brief for the IMF was keeping an eye on the countries in the eurozone that were in trouble.

She attended a meeting when Greece was discussed. Two things stood out for her: they would not let Greece solve its own problems, and the countries who might be asked to provide extra funding for Greece wanted the country to provide some collateral. One suggestion was that Greece should hand over one of its islands.

In a BBC documentary on the EU they focused on the financial crisis in the eurozone. Britain was asked to contribute even though we are not in the eurozone. Britain would not contribute direct but agreed that some funding sent to the EU for another purpose could be used to help bail out the eurozone.

What’s happening to the United Kingdom now is a source of surprise to many countries, but surely the most bemused must be the countries in the Commonwealth, such as India, that we helped to independence. That Great Britain must plead with a collection of European countries for its independence. Amazing.

DAVID CHEESEMAN
NW2