It doesn't happen often, but it appears that our politicians have been out-double-talked by their Belgian counterparts. Belgian banks want their government to take on the lion's share of the cost of introducing Europe's single currency in the country.

"We must come to an honest distribution of the costs . . . (in which) those who are the originators of the switch to the euro (the politicians) contribute their bit," Belgian Banking Association (BVB) chairman, Mr Willy Breesch said. Now let me get this straight . . . Belgian banks want their government to part-fund the cost of conversion to EMU - a cost that will have to be borne by the taxpayers - so that the banks' customers - those same taxpayers - won't have to bear the burden. To the Margin, this sounds distinctly like an exercise in shifting responsibility.