Instead, the EFSF will provide guarantees either to a new fund, that could lend to eurozone governments unable to borrow elsewhere, or could guarantee direct loans to such governments.

BBC: Will propping up Italy weaken France?

The broken budget mechanism and the twin failures in California's representative and direct democracy are enough to guarantee dysfunction.

ECONOMIST: California

There is no cast-iron guarantee that the centre can direct spending much better than the localities do.

ECONOMIST: China

An even more market-friendly approach would be to fund these loans into an administered fund in the IMF, which would provide more flexibility for the loans, but would not guarantee that countries are willing to accept direct credit risk from recipient countries.

FORBES: Geithner To EU: IMF Will Play A Role, But Without Fed Money

Labour backbencher David Winnick urged Mr Cameron to guarantee that no military action would be taken against Libya without "direct authorisation" from the United Nations Security Council.

BBC: PMQs: Government accused of incompetence over Libya

Democrats want to give direct payments to laid-off workers to help with COBRA premiums, saying there is no guarantee governors will use the federal funds for assistance with health insurance.

CNN: Senate Republicans propose payroll tax holiday

Mr Salmond attributes the development substantially to policies pursued by the Scottish government: notably accelerated capital investment, access to finance and the stability involved in a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies in those areas of the public sector over which he has direct control.

BBC: Alex Salmond's Plan Macb