I was very sad to hear about the tragic events in Norway and my thoughts are of course with the people of Norway right now.

The big news which was somewhat overshadowed by the continuing News International saga, was that the European financial crisis continued to teeter on the brink of collapse. In a last minute deal Germany agreed to bail Greece out and for now it seems to be OK. For how long we do not know.

The Guardian indicated how the Eurozone crisis had affected the UK as our stock’s plummeted and shares in the UK banking sector closed at their lowest level for almost two years. Lloyds Banking Group and RBS suffered the biggest losses. You can read the Guardian article here.

It was a big moment for the Labour party as trade union official Iain McNicol was announced as the party’s new general secretary.

He was formerly the national political officer of the GMB union for 14 years. He will be formally endorsed at conference at which point former general secretary Ray Collins will stand down. You can read more about Iain McNicol’s appointment here.