Airstrip One

Carving "4REAL" on their arms - 28th July 2003, 22.42

Even under the unpleasant decline over which this government resides: rising taxes and smothered growth, it appears that Britain still enjoys a final Indian summer of good management. Six of the ten best companies in Europe have been identified as British in one of those dull comparisons that management consultants make to justify their fees. The consultants must have been British because the Germans didn't get a look-in.

If only the government saw this as evidence for a tax-cutting deregulating agenda...instead of another corporatist alliance on a continental scale. France, Germany and the UK have realised, after signing their powers away, that their industries could be threatened by the environmental agenda that loves tax, hates industry and destroys employment. So they set up a common memorandum. Their only problem is that you can't solve problems without power.