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Robin Oakley's week in politics
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By BBC political editor Robin Oakley
Politically the week seems likely to be dominated by the European Union Summit in Helsinki from Thursday to Saturday at which Tony Blair is likely to find life as uncomfortable as some of his Tory predecessors did.
The opposition and the tabloids are targeting his thinner-skinned Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott over his record on transport, aided by an opposition debate on the London Tube on Wednesday.
The home secretary will come under fire from the chattering classes with the second reading this week of his limp Freedom of Information Bill.
Both major parties are continuing to find the London mayoralty contest an uncomfortable experience, although Frank Dobson has emphatically denied that he is suffering from depression and likely to pull out of the race to be Labour's candidate.
The prime minister is on Monday and Tuesday touring the north west to argue that there is not a north-south divide but the very fact of a prime ministerial progress to the region will tend to underline the arguments of those who suggest there is one, fuelled by a southern housing boom and the Bank of England's adjustment of interest rates to cope with that.
The Helsinki summit
The troubles of the sinking euro are providing a grim prelude for Europe's leaders to the latest summit in Helsinki. Britain says the meeting should be dominated by European defence and framing the agenda for the next inter-governmental conference which must reshape Europe's institutions and voting system to cope with enlargement.
Other European leaders, notably the Germans, want a showdown at Helsinki on the "withholding tax" on savings.
The Germans are blaming Britain's attitudes on that for the fall in the euro, while the president of the European Bank, Wim Duisenberg, blames the German government for its propping-up of the ailing building firm Philipp Holzmann, an action which raises question marks about Gerhard Schroeder's commitment to Blairite market economics and the labour flexibility reforms which are required in the euro zone as he battles with political unpopularity at home.
The Germans are complaining that the British government's attitude is the real problem in Europe and that the euro would be doing better if there was more tax harmonisation and greater integration, two courses which Mr Blair and his government are determined to avoid. The controversy will almost inevitably see a further postponement of any referendum in Britain on joining the single currency.
Britain is holding out against the withholding tax, a cross-border savings tax designed to avoid tax evasion by investors. But Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are prepared to veto the plans on the grounds that they would do serious harm the City of London, wrecking the lucrative Eurobond market and triggering a flight of capital as investors switched to financial centres like Switzerland and New York where they would not face the tax. Some estimates say that as many as 10,000 jobs in the City could be at stake. Finance ministers are to have their latest get-together on the subject on Thursday as the leaders gather in Helsinki.
The issue shades into the argument being pushed by the Commission President Romano Prodi about removal of the national veto from more areas of policy in the IGC discussions. He has described the national veto as a "ball and chain" hampering European progress.
Britain is determined that the veto should stay on tax questions . Some commission officials would like to have the withholding tax redefined by lawyers as a single market measure which would not be subject to a veto but could be agreed by majority vote.
Apart from resolving the arguments over more majority voting the summit is expected to agree that the IGC will tackle the question of slimming down the number of commissioners as the EU expands, which could mean larger countries like Britain, France and Germany losing one of their two.
On defence, the summit will consider the plans being pushed by Britain and France for a 50,000 rapid reaction force to be deployable within 60 days and sustainable for two years for operations agreed under a common European defence and security policy but not necessarily involving Nato and the Americans.
The Americans like the idea of Europe spending more on defence and doing more for itself but are suspicious of anything which might undermine Nato. After the Cologne decision in principle to wind up the Western European Union (WEU) organisation which would effectively become redundant Helsinki will have to and there are tricky questions to be settled to about the role of the militarily neutral countries within the EU.
'Two Jags' under fire
The Paddington rail disaster, the government's change of tack on letting Railtrack take over a section of the London Tube network, the publication at long last of the major Transport Bill and the growing ructions in Labour's ranks over its proposed privatisation of the National Air Traffic Service, together with Tory claims that the government is waging war on the motorist with its proposed congestion charges and parking taxes have thrown the spotlight very much on John Prescott.
Mr Prescott is also secretary of state for the environment and for the regions and it seems significant that the prime minister has chosen to launch his big exercise to suggest that there is less of a north-south divide than some imagine with his regions minister out of the country.
In fact Mr Prescott may deserve some sympathy. He is having to carry the can for the perception that the government has so far done little on transport other than to increase motoring costs with steadily rising fuel taxes, a policy from which the chancellor has now U-turned under pressure from the CBI.
Mr Prescott was denied a major transport bill in last year's Queen's Speech programme and now he is a man under pressure. Transport requires long-term decisions and the danger for the government is that of raising expectations which it cannot possibly satisfy in time for the next election.
Some transport solutions too come into conflict with environmental objectives or with considerations of electoral popularity and Mr Prescott's ramshackle empire has suffered constant interference from Number 10 for that reason. Ministers have made sure that congestion charges and parking taxes, when they come, will be the responsibility of local authorities.
The air of crisis has not been helped by the last minute convening of a "motorists forum" and of the dropping of earlier leaked plans to reduce national speed limits. And it was unlucky for Mr Prescott that he was due on a visit to India this week just when all the transport questions were coming to a head.
He is due back for the Tube debate on Wednesday and with the Tories in full cry on transport issues and Ken Livingstone claiming a victory over the Railtrack decision it promises to be a lively occasion
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