My eye was drawn this weekend to a reported comment by Jacques Attali, the former President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

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He is sitting on a report prepared by Jacques Attali, a Socialist grandee, which advocates a liberal shake-up of such highly regulated sectors as taxis, pharmacies and shops.

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British and other shareholders of the Bank have launched an inquiry into confirmed reports of exorbitant expenditures on marbled offices, extravagant furnishings, salaries, staff parties, a private jet for Attali, etc.

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Jacques Attali, a French economist and former adviser to the late president Francois Mitterrand, warned of a Europe in danger of "falling asleep", of young people being excluded from a changing world.

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It can only be hoped that the Bank's shareholders will demand that "heads roll" -- starting with Monsieur Attali's -- when the annual shareholders meeting is held in London this coming week-end.

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It could also be that he hopes to use the Attali report, written by a one-time man of the left for a president of the right, to find a new consensus for pressing ahead more forcefully.

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