Osborne gets frank with Europe

George Osborne’s attack on the European Commission and his fellow finance ministers, for wasting time talking about a financial transactions tax when it is not going to happen, is quite a significant moment. It marks an attempt by Britain to knock this idea, which would hit this country far harder than anywhere else in Europe, off the agenda.
 
The Treasury, the Foreign Office and Number 10 have become increasingly exasperated about how this issue keeps coming up again and again. This feeling has been intensified by the fact that this issue is being discussed even as the crisis in the Eurozone is worsening by the hour.
 
Osborne’s remarks that the Eurozone now needs to stop talking about a firewall and actually put one in place also marks a change of tone by the Chancellor. It seems that Britain is now going to be franker about how frustrated it is with its continental partners.