There's an intriguing rumour in European circles. It's that Downing Street has been considering whether Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs supremo, could be the UK's next European Commissioner.

It sounds implausible, but I am told it has been seriously discussed in Lib-Dem circles. Huhne, once a financial journalist, is also a former Euro MP.

There is no suggestion Huhne, 54, wants to quit the Commons, and his office tells me it knows nothing about the rumours. But observers point out he might not be entirely averse, having twice failed to win the party leadership — the second time in a bruising battle with Nick Clegg.

Britain does currently have an EU Commissioner, of course. She is Labour peeress Catherine Ashton, wife of YouGov polling expert Peter Kellner. Baroness Ashton became a commissioner only last October, when Peter Mandelson was abruptly recalled from Brussels to be Business Secretary. But the term of all EU Commissioners— including that of President José Manuel Barroso — expires in October.

It is up to member countries to decide whether their representative should continue in their current roles. They can stand for a maximum of two five-year terms.

The Foreign Office can't give me any guidance about whether Ashton's term will be renewed. Labour does not have to appoint a member of its own party. Mandelson's predecessor, Chris Patten, was a Tory. In the unlikely event that Gordon Brown did appoint a Lib-Dem, what would he want in return?

* After Alistair Darling's extraordinary performances last week, the betting against Labour winning the most seats at the next election has now gone to a record high for the current parliament of 9/2. Enough said.

Ashley to ashes: Curse of the Toons

Another bad night for Newcastle United and beleaguered owner Mike Ashley. The nil-nil draw with Portsmouth at St James's Park on Monday leaves the Geordies staring relegation from the Premier League squarely in the face, and makes Ashley's investment in the Toon Army look even more disastrous than it did just a few months back. His fortune has already halved in the past 12 months, from £1.4 billion to £700 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. How much further will it fall if Newcastle lose Premiership status next month?

* Some good news at last for Hampshire football supporters. VTFC, the works football team of the listed battleships-to-schoolbuilding group VT, have made it to the final of the Hampshire Cup tomorrow. They have also won promotion to the Conference South. That puts them next season just three leagues below Southampton FC, the bust quoted football club that has acrimoniously tumbled into League One under the leadership of its hapless former chairman Rupert Lowe. Worse, Southampton will start the next season on minus 10 points. What odds on passing the Saints if VT get into League Two in a couple of seasons' time?

* This is how bad things are. An advertisement in Estates Gazette offers a recently refurbished fully tenanted building in Barrow-in-Furness. It has had more than £2 million spent on it and has been through a top-to-tail refurb. It produces a rental income of £66,000 a year, and the asking price is £595,000. OK, it's Barrow-in-Furness but even so...

Jessops darkens the picture

* Beleaguered camera seller Jessops found an elegant way of chastising the fools who bid up its stock more than 100% last week.

In a perfunctory statement to the Stock Exchange, Jessops said it “would like to draw shareholders' attention to the preliminary results announcement issued on 30 January 2009 and in particular Note 1 to the accounts”.

There, in over 700 words, are statements such as “in the immediate future the directors expect that the group will breach its covenants under its existing banking facilities and so the entire bank debt will be repayable on demand at the option of the lender” and “the existing lenders have also indicated that they will not increase the total borrowing facilities made available to the group”.

It also notes “the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt on the company's and the group's ability to continue as a going concern”.

Perhaps not a “buy” just yet, then.

* Is US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner the man to lead Wall Street through the clouds, stand up to the top dogs, and generally play hardball? A New York Times profile the other day suggests not: “In a May 15, 2007, speech to the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Mr Geithner praised the strength of the nation's top financial institutions, saying that innovations like derivatives had improved the capacity to measure and manage risk' and declaring that the larger global financial institutions are generally stronger in terms of capital relative to risk'. Two days later, interviews and records show, he lobbied behind the scenes for a plan that a government study said could lead banks to reduce the amount of capital they kept on hand.”

Awaiting an Innocent verdict

* It could be another famous tax case, like whether a Jaffa Cake is a cake or a biscuit.

Drinks company Innocent is to find out soon whether it has been successful in its claim that its smoothies are an essential foodstuff and therefore should be not VATable, rather than an utterly non-essential drink that feels the full force of sales tax.

Innocent, which was founded by three charming public school sorts who have rather lost their foodier-than-thou reputation by trousering millions from a sale of 30% of the company to Coca-Cola, have hired giant accounting group PricewaterhouseCoopers to fight Revenue & Customs, despite the failure of previous manufacturers' attempts to get smoothies de-rated.

Innocent claims that smoothies should be treated like milk and tea and carry no VAT, rather than like a fruit juice which does.

VAT partner at rival accounting firm BDO Stoy Hayward Mark Selby, however, wants to know why his local Waitrose puts the smoothies next to the fruit juices in the cool counter. Selby's judgment? “They haven't helped themselves so far as historical positioning.”