Politics this week will be dominated by economics. On Monday and Tuesday, a whole string of ministers are at the CBI conference. Then, on Tuesday, the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, will introduce his pre-budget report. The Conservative Opposition are staging a debate on the economy on Wednesday and on Thursday the Chancellor faces Treasury questions in the Commons.

The Ron Davies affair is continuing to cause problems for Labour in Wales, with the Welsh party executive meeting on Monday to decide what to do about the vacant Labour candidacy for the position of first Secretary in the Welsh Assembly and on Thursday the Commons gets the chance to kick off the national debate called for by the government on the recommendations of Lord Jenkins's report on electoral reform.

The Sierra Leone/Sandline affair will be revived on Tuesday with the appearance before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the security firm boss Tim Spicer and the British High Commissioner Peter Penfold.

The government will launch its consultation paper on the family on Wednesday in less than happy circumstances and it faces more potential defeats in the Lords over the Scotland Bill, notably on the powers of the new Scottish Parliament to sack judges and on its rights over abortion law.

Labour and business

The Chancellor, the Trade and Industry Secretary, the Defence Secretary, the Education and Employment Secretary and the Foreign Secretary are all attending this year's CBI conference.

Perhaps recalling that it was at the CBI last year that Tory leader William Hague delivered his most wide-ranging assault on the single European currency, Gordon Brown has chosen this year's business gathering as the appropriate venue to unveil his blueprint for a "national changeover plan" for the Euro, despite the fact that the government has deferred any decision on when to join EMU until after the next general election.

With the CBI broadly in favour of the single currency, Mr Brown has been able to burnish Labour's pro-business credentials once again. It is one of the key planks of Labour's project that at the next general election nobody will even ask the question, "Which is the pro-business party?" But the chancellor is also keen to answer criticisms that the government has done little to make the case for the euro, despite its support in principle for a single currency, leaving the tabloids, The Times and The Telegraph and the Euro-sceptics to make the pace.

The changeover plan will set out the practical steps for switching from the pound to the euro and outline the legislation necessary. The chancellor has also been announcing plans for a new cross-party committee to oversee the changes required for the single currency.

The pre-budget report

Last year's pre-budget report was turned into a mini-budget. This year it will be an opportunity for the chancellor to recast his predictions to allow for the turbulence in the world economic situation.

He will announce a sharp drop in the previously expected range for next year of growth between 1.75% and 2.25% to half that level. He will also have to use the occasion to fend off Tory claims that there is a £35bn black hole in his calculations and to substantiate his claims that the £40bn of extra spending on health and education promised over the next three years can still be found despite the fact that he has had to halve his growth forecast . He will be expected to demonstrate his claims that sufficient margins were built into his original forecasts.

His case will be helped by the generally supportive noises from the CBI, which has said that the comprehensive spending review plans are "not under threat from short-term economic pressures". The CBI has supported the idea of some increase in borrowing as growth slows and MPs will be looking for some clear figures from the chancellor on his borrowing intentions.

Mr Brown has argued consistently that the government's tight hand on spending and anti-inflation drive since the election has left Britain in a better state than most to maintain stability through the current economic turbulence but he will have the chance to marshall all the arguments in his report. He is determined that there is no need for any cuts in the essential spending programmes.

But the shadow chancellor Francis Maude insists that the chancellor will either have to increase borrowing or put up taxes. The chancellor, he says, will have to break his "golden rule" of borrowing only to invest.

At the Euro-summit in Austria ten days ago Tony Blair was somewhat taken aback to find his fellow EU leaders seeking to pressurise the central bankers into interest rate cuts and calling for a large-scale injection of Euro-spending on big transport projects. He chose to go with the flow and not to be a party-pooper, but it was scarcely the language of New Labour. The focus on growth and jobs was surely right, said Mr Blair, but it had to be done in a sensible way.

With the arrival on the scene of the new German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder, in Britain for talks today, and of the new Italian Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema , Europe has taken a swing to the left . Eleven of the fifteen countries are now led by centre-left administrations and a British government aware that it has lost clout with not being a founder member of the Single Currency is keen to show it remains in the European mainstream.