But grassroots unease about the long-term implications of the Blair-Ashdown axis is also bound to surface.

ECONOMIST: The party is either being very clever, or very stupid

To provide a better experience, Olympus has created the STYLUS SH-50, a new premium, compact long zoom camera that's equipped with 5-Axis Video Stabilization, 3-Axis Image Stabilization for stills and Full 1080p HD Video.

ENGADGET: Olympus SH-50 iHS touts 5-axis video stabilization in a compact, $300 camera (update: hands-on pics)

As of last week, Clyde Union Pumps (formerly Weir Pumps) has been added to the long list, and Dundee's diagnostics firm Axis-Shield is resisting a takeover bid from the US - at least at the current bid price.

BBC: Who owns the best of Scotland?

"We're finding that when you rub a natural biological surface that has an orientation - that has a grain, if you will - and you run that grain perpendicularly to the long axis of the ridges, we find a dramatic increase in friction, " Dr Dominy told BBC News.

BBC: Artificial finger tests evolutionary origin of prints

French elections are still three years off, and, as long as President Chirac remains in office, efforts to prop up the Franco-German axis will be firm.

ECONOMIST: Franco-German relations