Forget the troubles of Tony Blair, or Britain's isolation from the euro. The juiciest story from across the water this week falls into the Margin's "pubs-with-no-beer" category. Burger chain, McDonald's, ran into serious problems with its two-for-one Big-Mac promotion. Having estimated that normal weekend demand of 500,000 Big Macs would expand to two million, the chain was caught with its larder empty when demand soared to four million. The tabloid press, never slow to get their teeth into a whopper of a story, gloried in reports of "near riots", police being called, managers being pulled over counters by irate punters and restaurants having to close to restock.

Obviously, the British public believes that there is such a thing as a (half) free lunch. Poor McDonald's had to take out apologetic ads for its legions of Big Mac lovers.