AFrench writer once mused, "Germany? Ah yes ..." before adding, with all the catty wit at which his compatriots excel, "... I love Germany so much, that I'm delighted there are two of them." And in the immediate aftermath of a war, inspired by Germany, that had left a continent in rubble, anyone who didn't happen to be German almost certainly agreed.

The battle for the parliamentary seat vacated by former House of Commons speaker Michael Martin could hand the British National Party its first major breakthrough in Scotland, it was claimed yesterday.

David Cameron has been given an 18-month deadline by a powerful band of Eurosceptic Tory MPs to renegotiate Britain's relationship with Brussels or face an "all-out war" for a referendum, it emerged yesterday.

The rats are having a field day. The scavengers have been pigging out on the rich pickings of the refuse collectors' strike in the suburbs of Leeds. For two months the rodents have been fattening themselves up for the coming winter. They are the only ones who are anything like content.

Gordon Brown suffered a rebuff from Washington yesterday after he signalled Britain's backing for plans for an international transactions tax on banks to help the world recover from the financial crisis.