Mr Cameron is prone to bouts of complacency amply illustrated by his refusal last year to use the expenses scandal as a pretext finally to get rid of Lord Ashcroft, a controversial offshore donor whose money the Tories plainly no longer needed.

ECONOMIST: The British election

The President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, was quick to warn Italians not to use the "next elections as a pretext to put in doubt the necessity of the measures approved until now".

BBC: Italy: Last days of Mario Monti

Turkey fears that Iraqi Kurds, who set up an autonomous administration in northern Iraq after the 1991 Gulf war, might use the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime as a pretext for setting up a Kurdish state, thereby encouraging similar sentiments among Turkey's extensive Kurdish population (see map).

ECONOMIST: Caught in the crossfire