The leaders, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, were particularly scathing about go-it-alone efforts by some countries, such as Ireland and Greece, to guarantee savers' deposits.

The touching show of unity lasted less than a day. Within hours, Merkel announced that Germany was, in fact, going it alone, too, and would guarantee bank deposits – triggering chaos across the continent's financial markets.

The message was loud and clear – the rest of Europe could go hang.

At a time when Europe needed firm resolve and steady nerves, the EU offered only panic, confusion and selfishness.

We shouldn't really be surprised any more. It happens every time. If there is one thing Britain should have learned from our years in the EU it is that our European "partners" will always put national
self-interest ahead of the ideals of unity and cooperation.

It happens in Afghanistan, where Germany and France speak brave words about the need to confront the Taliban, but then stubbornly refuse to carry their share of the burden, preferring instead to let British troops do their fighting for them.

Similarly, the French cling to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), despite clear evidence that reform would boost free trade and allow poor countries access to rich European markets.

Only the British are expected to put the EU ahead of our national interest – and we fall for it every time.

Take, for example, Tony Blair's disastrous decision, in 2005, to surrender Britain's £7bn EU rebate – famously hard won by Margaret Thatcher – in return for a solemn promise of "fundamental reforms" of the CAP. That money has long since been gobbled up by the EU's notoriously corrupt bureaucracy, but the promised reforms of the bloated CAP have never materialised – and never will. The French will never allow it.

One side-effect of the current financial crisis may be the end of the dream of a European superstate – a project that has been streamrollered through by the continent's elite in the face of an emphatic rejection by the French, Dutch and Irish peoples (the British have never
been allowed a vote, despite being promised one).

Perhaps in its place will emerge a more modern, flexible, equitable Europe that is more responsive to the needs of its peoples, and less destructive and selfish in its dealings with the Third World.

After all, every cloud is supposed to have a silver lining.



Money matters

POPE Benedict weighed into the financial crisis this week, saying that it showed that money was futile.

"Now with the collapse of big banks we see that money disappears, is
nothing and all these things that appear real are, in fact, of secondary importance," he said.

Well, if anyone understands the true value of money, it should be the Vatican – currently, the papacy relies on earnings from roughly $1bn (£676m) worth of stocks, bonds and property.

In addition Catholics around the world – some of them desperately poor – contribute a further $79.8m (£46m) via the collection plate, to the Peter's Pence fund that goes directly to the Holy See.

Not half bad for an organisation that thinks free market capitalism has "grown too much and badly in the past two decades".

But surely, given the Pope's comments, it can only be a matter of days before the Catholic Church announces it is giving away all its money to the poor?

Yeah, sure, and my name is Cardinal Newman.