Cameron plays his part in an eventful G20

And there we were thinking that the G20 would be another insipid talking shop. In fact there was intrigue, animus and even a modicum of progress on the crucial question of the moment: how to cure the Eurozone.

In a major shift in policy, Germany has agreed to use European bailout funds to buy Italian and Spanish bonds in the hope of reducing yields to a sustainable level. It was felt that if the cost of debt financing was not reduced, then Spain and Italy might slip into the abyss.  £600 billion will be made available from the two EU bailout mechanisms, the EFSF and the ESM. This is but a few drops in the ocean Spanish and Italian public debt (87 per cent of GDP in Spain, according to the Bank of Spain, and just shy of 119 per cent of GDP in Italy, according to the IMF), but it is hoped that the move will convince markets that European countries, and Germany in particular, are prepared to arrest the crisis.