Erdogan gets his rockets….what next? Amid all the furore about Syria’s chemical weapons, and NATO ‘voting to allow’ Turkish Premier Recep Erdogan to receive Patriot missiles ‘for purely defensive purposes’, very few people are listening to what the Syrian state-controlled media are saying: viz, we have no such weapons and have no intention of using them.

Two key points to note here: following a few carefully staged border incidents a month ago, hey presto, Turkey winds up getting armed to the teeth with warhead-armed missiles. And if the Syrian rebels are now on the verge of success (which I suspect they are) why does Turkey need the missiles at all? Why, to shoot down any chemical weapons being lobbed onto Turkey of course. Well, of course. But, um, why would Assad do that?

Vladimir Putin has just returned from his postponed Turkish visit. He and Erdogan got nowhere. You read it here first: Turkish missiles and inconclusive Putin visits are chiefly about Russian arms supplies going into Syria…and other places Erdogan might want to aim at further down the road. Stay tuned.

No gain from Spain for Merkel. In case the finer point passed you by, Madrid did at last ask for a €40bn bailout yesterday, but for its banking system, not the sovereign Exchequer. As first asserted here in 2010, the real danger in Spain is the utterly enormous (and understated) insolvency of its banks in general, and cajas in particular. Rajoy continues to stress that the problem is about private banks not public money: this way he and Brussels are able to continue their pretence that Spain does not need the rabid attacks on its independence that have been the unlucky fate of the Greeks.

For northern Europe – and especially Germany – the publicised problem with Spain is that its banks are on the line for huge amounts of the banking-property balloon debt. But the Berliners are also waking up to another problem that the cunning Spaniards have handed them: since 2007, the balance of trade between Spain and Germany has changed radically. German exports to Spain dropped from their highpoint of €43 bn in 2007 to €30bn in 2011. Over the same period, Spanish exports to Germany have risen steadily and reached €21bn last year.

The total net loss of trade for Germany is around €25bn, and rising steadily. Cheap labour forced onto Madrid by the crisis is rebounding on the Germans.  Berlin would like to get tough, but the banking blackmail remains to stay their hand. Prepare for some strong-hand negotiating by Mariano Rajoy.

Crosbie sings, but it’s not a happy tune. Sir James Crosbie has told a Parliamentary Committee he is “very sorry” to have trousered around £12m from his eight years at HBOS (formerly the Halifax Building Society) that cost the taxpayer around £21bn. But he seems reluctant to reduce his £600K annual pension, or give back his knighthood. I once had the pleasure of being called “a Trot” by Crosbie, who was a leading player in the demutualisation of Halifax…and something of a Boris Johnson in his day when it came to rubbishing alternative viewpoints with insane defences.

But now I am informed by one who would know that the Serious Fraud Squad is severely bent out of shape about matters relating to HBOS declarations of one form or another. I’ve no idea if the SFO’s anger will surface in the public arena, but you never know. Worth keeping an eye on.