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Mark Mardell's blog on the BBC website mentions rumours of the cooling relationship between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy.

Apparently she's not too happy with Sarkozy's proximity. She's not fond of all that kissing and pawing. She'd rather keep a distance.

So is the romance really over?

If only she'd kept a distance earlier this year when she was all to happy to cosy up to him to get a deal that would help out the German car industry carry on churning out their oversized gas-guzzlers, flying in the face of a growing consumer preference for smaller more efficient cars. If only she hadn't settled for a marriage of convenience just to get her way, she wouldn't have had to put up with the touchy feely stuff, and there would have been no reason to ask the German Ambassador in Paris to pass on her complaints to the Elysée.

But though breaking up can be painful - this could be just the news we needed. As long as Sarkozy admits that it's all over and lets the divorce go ahead, he can make sure he keeps something valuable in the settlement.

He could do a big favour to his nearest and dearest, the Citroëns, the Renaults and the Peugeots, and let them use the advantage they have in being much nearer to the 2012 targets. And he should spend a bit more time convincing them that hanging out in that clique called ACEA where the BMWs and Audis spent most of their spare time might not be in their own interests.

Now he's free again he can throw away the ideas he had back then when the romance was going so well and he was anxious to please the Bride's side and keep hold of the main prize. He can be the one who, in the face of all the pressure from the car lobby, made sure we got proper climate protection legislation to reduce CO2 emissions in cars.