Merkel comes to Brown's rescue
Gordon Brown would like Britain to believe that he has stumbled into the sort of family row that erupts when two drunken relatives turn on each other at the end of a wedding. The prime minister said that Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, had decided to dismiss Britain's £20bn fiscal stimulus plan as "crass Keynesianism" because of "internal German politics". That's a polite way of describing a feud in Germany's grand coalition as Steinbrück's SPD gears up for a general election next year against the CDU, led by the chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Brown's explanation appeared to be borne out as the EU summit opened this afternoon. Hours after Steinbrück's sniffy remarks about Britain's 2.5% cut in VAT, Merkel announced that she supported a European-wide €200bn fiscal stimulus package that is one of the main items on the summit agenda.
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