Euro-fighting over Opel

It does cross the mind that the acceptance of the last tranche of Eurofighters, (late but trusty weapons in fighting the Cold War), by a Brown so notoriously mean with defence expenditures he's probably won a couple of small wars for whatever is the other side all on his own, is in the hope of tipping the German Chancellor against the FIAT deal.

If FIAT takes Opel then the essential capacity cutbacks will occur in the UK. None of the cutbacks were ever going to occur in Germany - the suggestion is just smearing and lying by the usual suspects at Brown Central. Equally, the suggestion that the UK government might put some money into any deal is not so much usual-suspect smearing and lying as usual-suspect self aggrandizement and showing off. We're bankrupt.

Germany has to decide: go with FIAT, have a pan continental European car deal that protects jobs and markets in most of Europe and opens the United States and indeed whole North American market, but shuts down car assembly for good in the UK, thus cutting Brown off at the knees and losing the Eurofighter purchase. Or go with Magna and do Brown a favour, shutting down excess capacity in Italy. But then it's much more expensive to act against Italy, because it is incoherent in terms of an EU car industry, and EU/US markets, and Italian workers are fully social-market protected.

So Mrs Merkel will have to balance aircraft workers against car workers; balance Brown's bust UK against the always competent and entrepeneurial Italy no matter what the numbers say, (and Brown's 'Britain' has only assembly plants, not a motor industry with research, design, and innovation); go for a thriving, capital and labour efficient industry against the trade union pressure to preserve all jobs, which is what Brown has got the UK Unions pressing on their German socialist brothers for; consider the slight German distress at being FIATed, and come to terms with EU rules and Ford not permitting a third (or is it fourth) way where Germany just nationalises her car company out of dying General Motors.

No wonder she keeps putting the announcement off. I wonder what offers she's wringing out of Brown in these closing hours.