Taking sides in the Middle East. I wonder if the US State Department is surprised by this: Saudi Arabia transferred $4 billion to the Egyptian army yesterday in aid – $2 billion deposited in cash to the central bank in Cairo. Riyadh later announced a gift of $1 billion worth of gas and $1 billion available for propping up the Egyptian currency. Another $3 billion transfer was due from the United Arab Emirates after a UAE delegation spent a few hours in Cairo yesterday.

While being an obvious vote of support by Riyadh and the UAE for the military coup which deposed the Muslim Brotherhood, the move also makes it clear to the ignorant infidel that (a) not all Arab regimes are in concert with religious fanatics, and (b) it’s not as simple as Sunni v Shia. The Saudis are predominantly Sunni (like the Muslim Brotherhood) but they abhor MB violence, radicalism against monarchies, and fanatical fundamentalism.

This puts Washington in even more of a cleft stick (not to say palate) than they put themselves into by backing the Brotherhood in the first place.

Silvio’s Bunga-Bunga haunts the eurozone still. An argument involving Berlusconi’s appeal date (the Italian Supreme Court has decided to fast-track the appeal against his four-year jail sentence) is threatening the stability of Italy’s governing Coalition. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi believes his lawyers are being railroaded into a session for which they aren’t prepared, and his threats (as usual) to do this and withdraw that are worrying bond investors already shaken by S&P’s downgrading of Italian debt bonds to two levels above junk status.

Which is all, of course, exactly what Brussels wants at the moment. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Do we need help to build, not Help to Buy? Feedback is heading my way to the effect that while Draper Osborne’s votecentric Help to Buy scheme is easing through more house sales than one would expect given the dire economic situation, the real issue is materials supply problems. Says a Slogger informant, “In the South East UK it is Bricks and Tiles….. just been quoted 24 weeks for supply of particular bricks that had to match houses already built on one estate…..many brickyards are no longer carrying stocks and have switched to ‘just in time’ while others (that had not gone broke and closed down) cut back in the early spring due to concerns about UK gas supplies.. [they] have all been caught out by the sudden demand.”

As it happens, this tallies exactly with an article at the Midland Business site, which opines. ‘West Midlands businesses and unions are calling for urgent Government intervention to protect industry from gas shortages. They are warning that UK supplies of gas have been running perilously low and that the consequences of this are harming firms and stifling employment….’

But somehow, we always seem to manage to get the horse, elbow, cart and arse thing muddled, do we not? I am reliably informed this evening that, as ever, we have Whitehall Mandarin idiocy to thank for this. Either way, it’s one to watch.