Has German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck finally said what many world leaders think but are afraid to say? That the British government won't sign up to meaningful reform of financial markets because it is too worried about what it would mean for the country’s most famous cash cow, the City of London.

The City, which accounts for around 35 percent of global foreign exchange turnover, has been a popular target for critics of capitalism for years. But it has rarely been singled out so bluntly as a problem by one of Britain’s close allies.

Even for a man not known for holding his tongue, Steinbrueck’s remark on Wednesday that Downing Street was impeding reform because it had “practically aligned” its interests with the City, was unusually undiplomatic. Just days before global leaders meet at a Group of Eight summit in Italy, Steinbrueck suggested the British government was plotting a “restoration” of the pre-crisis order to protect its own interests. The United States, by contrast, was now open to reform, he said.

Rather than attempting to smooth ruffled feathers when she addressed parliament on Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel picked up the thread, saying she would not tolerate efforts to stall reform at the G8 summit, though she did not name Britain.

Steinbrueck’s comments generated a strong response on German websites. Though he belongs to the centre-left Social Democrats, many readers of conservative daily Die Welt wrote in to praise him. “Finally the truth”, “genius” and “backbone” were some of the remarks his stance provoked. Across the channel, the most popular reader’s comment posted online in an article by Eurosceptic British newspaper the Daily Mail also backed the 62-year-old. “I’m with the German finance minister,” it begins.

Whether one agrees with his approach or not, Steinbrueck knows he is not talking into a vacuum. Large swathes of the commentariat believe not enough has been done to stabilise financial markets over the long term. Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator of the Financial Times, wrote on Wednesday that without radical changes, another banking crisis is inevitable.

PHOTO: German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck addresses a news conference in Berlin, May 13, 2009. Steinbrueck said on Wednesday Germany's interbank lending sector was still suffering from weak confidence. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

The Saatchi Gallery in London, known for its role in launching conceptual Britart in the 1990s, is collaborating with Google to exhibit the work of winners of an international online photography prize competition.

More than 3,500 student photographers from around the world submitted images to try and win a chance to show their work at Saatchi, a trip to London, 5,000 pounds and to illustrate personalised iGoogle Internet homepages.

Public online voting begins Friday on the work of 36 shortlisted photographers from which the six finalists will be chosen for the week long Saatchi exhibit opening on June 24.

The overall winner will be selected from among the six by a panel of art critics and artists.

Shortlisted works include narrow, panoramic images of animals, toys, abstract designs and nature. Click on the links below to see slideshows:

Alexander Baych, EM Lyon, France

David and Thomas Favrod and Rousset, ECAL, Switzerland

Juan Camilo Caicedo Forero, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Columbia

Mikhail Simin, University of South Carolina

Will Ormerod, University of Central Lancashire

Sergei Varzin, State Marine Technical University of St. Petersburg, Russia

Ivelin Metodiev, University Of Portsmouth

Fleur Audet, University of New South Wales, Australia

Live in a big city, ride public transportation every day, and chances are that you pay very close attention to your experience when riding in a taxi cab.

From grumpy drivers to fanciful detours, taking a taxi through the congested heart of a major city can easily become the most irritating — and costly — part of your day.

Still, when it comes to taxi-friendliness, not all cities are created equal, and not all stereotypes about road safety and customer awareness are borne out in reality.

A recent survey of cab users shows that people still judge London cabbies to be the best in the world, but rate Parisian chauffeurs — commonly excoriated for their rudeness — above their counterparts in Berlin, Sydney and Las Vegas.

New York scored second best in the survey, held back in part by safety concerns. Third place went to Madrid, followed by Paris and Barcelona.

Languishing at other end of the list were Rio de Janeiro, Moscow, Cape Town, Shanghai, and Santiago de Chile.

What people liked and disliked varied widely by city. In London, users valued the roominess of black cabs but not their price; in Berlin they liked the sturdiness of the driving; in Dublin they enjoyed smiling drivers; and in Bangkok and Hong Kong, they warmed to the low cost of getting around.

As a user of taxis in some of these cities, I can add that London cabbies, in addition to knowing their stuff, tend to show more than the usual amount of interest in customers’ well-being.

When I was dropped off upon arriving in London last year, the cabbie took care to warn me about the dangers of my new neighbourhood: “Watch yourself around here,” he said. “People may try to take advantage of you, on account of the accent.” (U.S.)

In Paris, where taxi drivers tend to see themselves more as independent businessmen than jobbers, in-journey conversation alone can be worth the fare. Ask politely, and a driver may well give you an informed run-down of the major political, economic and sports news of the day. Passable French is a requirement, though, as most Parisian cab drivers — however worldly — will not exhaust themselves trying to speak your language.

New York cabs are full of surprises – some good, others nearly fatal. Speak through the plexiglass barrier in front of your seat and you may find that you are sitting behind a doctor in mathematics, the principal of a small religious school, or a high stakes poker player down on his luck (I’ve met all three).

Just as common, however, is the aggressive driver whose wrenching turns, knee-jerk honking, and rally-racing approach will leave you exiting the vehicle with bruised ribs.

So how does your taxi experience compare?

The Tate Modern art gallery in London is reviving an interactive installation that was forced to shut in 1971 due to the “exceptionally exuberant and energetic participation” it provoked in visitors.

The work by artist Robert Morris on show in the Turbine Hall as part of a four-day festival titled “The Long Weekend” is constructed mainly of unpainted wood and includes such objects as a balance beam, a caged ramp, a rolling tube and a sloped climbing wall.

Participants slither and slide on the slopes, feel a sense of terror in the rolling tube and clutch at the air on a rocking panel.

The original materials weren’t strong enough to sustain the “unbridled enthusiasm” of gallery-goers unused to installation art.

It seems the initial crowds used the space like a gymnasium and had no qualms about intensive interaction.

“In 1971, this work was a surprise to both visitors and gallery staff, neither of whom knew quite how to respond to it,” a Tate spokesperson said after the Friday launch.

What makes curators think the installation will fare any better under the heavy feet of gallery-goers today?

“Tate Modern now has a history of producing innovative artist’s commissions in the Turbine Hall, some of which have been participative, such as Carsten Holler’s slides and the Fluxus Olympiad, therefore it has an excellent understanding of how to ensure a safe and informative experience for all viewers.”

Indeed.

-- Alexander Smith is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own --

New regulations may be cooked up to curb the excesses of its bankers but London will always attract those who believe its streets are paved with gold.

Some predict that the financial crisis spells the end for London as a major global financial centre, arguing it has thrived on lax regulation and a quasi-tax haven status and that the regulatory backlash which inevitably follows such a catastrophic economic debacle will suffocate the innovation and the financial incentives which have driven the growth of services in the British capital.

But these doomsters are overlooking key factors which have made London a world hub for centuries. London's geographical position -- most notably Greenwich Mean Time -- has served it well as a bridge between the time zones, its almost unrivalled cultural diversity, its global outlook, the advantage of English as the common language of finance and not least the trading and financial heritage it has built up since Roman times.

Throw in the advantages of maintaining its own currency during a period of downturn (particularly when a weaker pound gives it an economic advantage) and London is well served alongside New York and Singapore, Hong Kong or Tokyo when competing with other centres which have harboured global ambitions such as Frankfurt, Paris or more recently Dubai.

The City of London, also known as the Square Mile, which immodestly by British standards bills itself as "the world's leading financial centre" also clings to a host of antiquated traditions whose quaintness, including the appointment each year of a Lord Mayor, remains a tourist draw if nothing else.

Another factor in London's immediate favour is the infrastructure spending which is taking place to coincide with the Olympics in 2012. The massive Crossrail project will link the capital's east and west, while despite constant carping from its users, the underground "Tube" network is undergoing a major upgrade to bring it into the 21st Century. The lure of the capital's arts and culture, its shops, restaurants and pubs all combine to keep people coming to visit and to live and work.

Mayfair's hedge funds, the mammoth City bonuses and the days of light-touch regulation may be a distant memory, but London still has the trading infrastructure, the expertise and the confidence to reassert its position at the heart of the financial system. Given its dependence on financial services, London is far from immune from the global downturn, but with huge volatility in the markets it has traditionally dominated, including foreign exchange and commodities, as well as booming equity and debt issuance, its prospects are nothing like as bleak as its detractors would have us believe.

London's streets may be paved with less gold than before, but that won't stop people finding new and inventive ways to make money on them.

-- At the time of publication Alexander Smith did not own any direct investments in securities mentioned in this article. He may be an owner indirectly as an investor in a fund.

Spring is making a cautious appearance in London now and with it a growing number of cyclists are venturing out onto the streets of the capital.

I also noticed, as I rode south towards the Smithfield meat market last week, another less welcome sign of the season -- a ghost bike. This one had only been there for a few days.

The ghosts are white-painted bikes chained to a railing or a lamp post near where a cyclist has died in a traffic accident. I've spotted a few of these rather grim memorials in London, and they can also be seen in other cities in Britain and around the world.

Cycling has become more popular in London, perhaps because people want to do something for the environment, and also perhaps to escape the bombers after the city's public transport system was struck in 2005. But as the ghost bikes show, there can still be a price to pay.

When in Rome . . .

As I watched the snow fall gently from London skies on Sunday night, I asked an acquaintance if I would have to go to work the next day.

My Canadian “snow radar” — fine-tuned from living in the snowy cities of Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax — was telling me that there wasn’t going to be much accumulation, but given the regular daily London transit delays in fair weather during the rush hour, I had a gleeful feeling a “snow day” might be in store.

“If the snow is 3-feet deep you might get away with it,” said my acquaintance, who commutes in and out of London from the Southwest each day.

I awoke the next day to discover that he was wrong.

Almost the entire Tube system was shut, buses cancelled and within a few hours Heathrow, the world’s busiest international airport, had closed, although there was nowhere near 3 feet of snow.

The heaviest snow fell in southern England. Epsom, Surrey, had depths of 31 centimetres (12 inches), south London had 28 cm and the North Downs in Kent got 25 cm.

Where I live in southwest London, it looked like the snow was about 15 cm deep.

(Can you tell I am trying not to smirk as I write?)

That amount of snow would be noticed in a Canadian city - but barely. It would take much more than that to put the brakes on the engines of capitalism.

Some years ago in Toronto, so much snow accumulated so quickly that former Mayor Mel Lastman called in the army to help dig out in a frantic effort to keep the city operating. This action left Toronto open to the ridicule of the rest of the country, which in general sees much more annual snowfall.

I lived in Washington, D.C., for four years and witnessed that city shut down due to a few inches of snow several times. President Obama, who moved there from Chicago in January, mocked the city last week for its panic over a day and night of snow and freezing rain, which led to school closures.

The storm in London this week cost the UK economy up to 3.5 billion pounds ($5 billion) according to Britain’s Federation of Small Businesses.

Even my British relations expressed disgust at the transit closures.

An aunt near Maidstone, Kent, said: “It’s typically British.”

A cousin in Paignton, Devon, said: “I’m sorry, I just don’t believe it.”

Their attitude seemed to be that people were just looking for an excuse to take the day off.

And why not? Given that it was the worst snow here in almost 20 years, I think it does call for a holiday. I certainly enjoyed my two days working from my studio flat.

“What are you doing at home? You are used to worse than this,” a Canadian colleague asked. I’ve never had a day off work due to snow in Canada.

“When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” I replied.

Looking forward to the possibility of more snow . . .

So what do you do when the TV and radio news are all telling you not to travel, and then you receive a group SMS from your company saying stay at home?

Well it's the worse snow storm to hit London in 18 years and all you want to do is get out there and shoot it.

I get to my car and as I am wiping the snow off it I look up at the window and see my kids looking at more snow than they have seen in their lives. I watch their little faces light up as it dawns on them that all this snow means only one thing -- NO SCHOOL. Now let's face it, that's just about as good as it gets.

As I head into the office I start to call the guys. I know Darren Staples has a long journey to Cambridge and want to make sure he's on his way. I call him at 6:30 a.m. and he's already there, left his house before 4 a.m. to make sure he beat the weather. The same thing happens as I call the London team, they are dressed to impress in all-weather gear and in situ and already taking pictures.

So everyone's juiced and riding the wave.

Not sure if it's because I spent four years living and working in Rome but as I drive into town all I can think of is this beautiful golden statue of Saint Paul covered in snow. Luckily for me everyone else had better ideas. The pick of the crop is London staffer Toby Melville's beautiful view showing Big Ben through snow covered trees.

Now I know its only snow but the Brits, pretty much like every nation I know, are obsessed with the weather. We like to see the funny side as we watch society crumble -- no buses, no trains, no schools, no ambulances, no shops open, restaurants closing early, West End shows cancelled, etc..

Twelve hours later I'm heading home and I get a call from the office saying The Times is going to use Toby's picture on the front page and that newspaper websites are all full of our material.

Looking at the newspapers on Tuesday morning it's great to see them use our pictures to show their readers around the world what London looks like under a picturesque snow blanket.

The last time round when there was such widespread travel chaos in Britain due to snow was quite some time ago….it was in 1991 - the year the “wrong type of snow” was born - British Rail’s ill-conceived attempt to explain why the railways had come to a virtual standstill after heavy snowfall.

The “wrong type” of just about anything has since been used to explain why the country’s creaking transport system is grinding to a halt ….remember the one about the “wrong type of leaves” on the tracks?

OK, before you read on I should declare that I’m not British and hail from a country that usually copes with bad weather a lot better than Britain.

But I’ve been here long enough - 20 years to be precise - to think when I heard on the radio in the morning that no London busses were running at all - that didn’t even happen during the Blitz, apparently - …”oh well, it must be bad then … better log on from home”. And so did thousands of employees, many of them actively encouraged by their employers not to travel to work unless it was “critical”.

At least I could rest assured, sorry - work from home assured - when the Metropolitan Police declared in a news release that it was maintaining policing despite the bad weather.

But I still couldn’t help thinking:  why is this happening, and shouldn’t I make a bit more of an effort to get into the office? Why is there hardly any public transport, forcing so many people to stay at home when there is heavy snowfall? Can’t the streets of London be gritted, and why is no one shovelling the snow off the pavement outside their houses, an effort common in many countries that experience wintery conditions?

The cost to businesses is huge - an estimated 1 billion pounds a day as about 20 per cent of the country’s workforce is believed to have taken a “snow day” on Monday.

It’s not that it never snows heavily in Britain - but in London it’s not so common. London Mayor Boris Johnson, facing questions over the inability of the capital’s infrastructure to cope with six inches of snow,  conceded the city did not have enough ploughs to keep the roads clear.

“There’s no doubt about it, this is the right kind of snow, it’s just the wrong kind of quantities,” Johnson told the BBC.

But local councils said the snow was simply “too heavy” for their gritters to work.  “The problem with this sort of weather is when you grit and it snows heavily, of course, the maximum effect of that gritting is lost,” the Local Government Association said.

So, it WAS the “wrong kind of snow” again….

London is cheaper and warmer, at least compared with Davos, says London Mayor Boris Johnson.

"The fall in the pound is of huge value to London's exports and all sterling-denominated assets. We're seeing a very impressive effect here. We take advantage of the upside and the upside is that the pound is competitive," Johnson told Reuters.

"And everybody in Davos, once they finish this massive negotiation of egos, this complete vanity, should come to London. It's considerably cheaper and considerably warmer."