Barnier and barmier

The Standard & Poor's ratings agency is to warn that a double-dip recession in Europe would imperil France's AAA rating and set off a string of downgrades across Southern Europe, says Ambrose.

And on the facing page in The Telegraph's printed edition Hella Ebrahimi tells us that

Europe could ban credit-rating agencies from giving their verdict on the finances of troubled EU countries under draft new laws set to be announced as early as next month.

Could these two reports by any chance be related? The rating agencies are, says this Frenchman, "one of the causes of the crisis due to mis-assessment of risk".

If this report is right, how does M Barmier plan to curb freedom of speech outside the EU as well as in it?

The excitable may think this would be like Gaddafi's henchmen trying to hide incriminating files when the rebels were at the gates of Tripoli - that is, utterly pointless.

The EU tried to bury bad news with their bank stress tests which weren't stressful enough. Now it seems they just want to ban bad news. It's what régimes do in their death throes.

Here's hoping.