Category Archives: Euro

What independence?

Posted on by
16

I really am starting to worry about what the future holds for Scotland. Seriously. I can’t get a handle on what it is Salmond and his pals want to achieve. My position is fairly clear, one of extreme ambivalence; I have no desire to see the Union break up, but at the same time have no objection to seeing Scotland going it alone.

I find the whole thing fascinating from a constitutional point of view, and my opinion is that it isn’t a question of Scotland the plucky underdog casting off the chains of bonded servitude – let us not forget that the formation of the Union came about at the behest and under the reign of a man who was king of Scotland way before he became king of England – we are talking of a divorce. England’s status in this union is not one of master, as I see it  England and Scotland are as equal as Kent and Surrey are in their relationship within the configuration of state. Scotland is not dependent on England, it is not a vassal state. Scotland does not have to ask England’s permission to do things, England cannot dictate to Scotland what she will do. Beyond cultural definitions there is no England and there is no Scotland, there is the United Kingdom only. This is why I find the whole thing so utterly fascinating.

After 300 years of union I can’t see how any division can be effected to the satisfaction of both parties. The cross-fertilisation between the two constituent parts is so far developed that it makes an equitable division almost impossible. Land is easy, sea less so. The division of people is almost impossible. Anybody who claims some racial purity along English or Scottish lines is deluded. We are the most mongrel of people, that is why we are so strong. Our ability and natural disposition to absorbing newcomers has given us qualities that has allowed us to achieve way beyond our means. Our openness to new ideas and methods has allowed us to steal a march on other more insular societies. Our language’s readiness to adopt new words and the resultant subtlety has aided its rise to the global language. In terms of governance, democracy, finance, engineering, sport, science, medicine. commerce, diplomacy, all of it, it is down to our (and God forgive me for trotting out such a cliche) strength through diversity.

When I talk about that diversity, it isn’t about the easily recognisable differences between the English and Scots, it is the fact that there is no difference between the English and Scots. That’ll have some English raging on St. George’s Day and some Scots furious that I would say such a thing. But I’m sorry, after 300 years there is no difference between the two. I’ve bad news for you; if you claim to be ‘pure’ Scottish, there’s an Englishman’s dick at play somewhere in there. If you claim to be ‘pure’ English, there’s a Scotsman’s dick involved too. Before that there will be Celtic, Roman, Norman, Viking, Angle, Saxon and other genetic material swimming round. After that there will be Flemish, German, Russian, Polish, West African, East African, Southern African, West Indian, Jewish, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and countless other genomes in effect. Our diversity is seamless.

Before the Union there was no prohibition of movement, the idea of the closed border, the passport and rights or exclusions of settlement and movement is a very recent one. We live on one island, if there is a base building block for these islands, we all share it. From an anthropological perspective it is also a fascinating study.

These high blown concepts are all very well, but the real meat of the matter comes down to the every day things, that is what quite rightly exercises people. This is where my thoughts turn from academic interest to real concern. On the face of it, it is a simple question with a simple answer. What does Salmond want for Scotland? Independence.

But what independence? Salmond’s ranting seems to become more childish and petulant every day. If you are a pro-independence person, you will no doubt believe that your country is governed from London. You’re right, it is. But you send people to argue for your little corner of Scotland, of the UK. As I do for my little corner of England, of the UK. More than that, you also have a Scottish parliament that has powers not available to England, a set up whereby MP’s representing constituents in Scotland file through and vote on legislation that has no impact on them. However, if you’re pro-independence, how do you square that with a system where your supposed leader is convinced that they will morph seamlessly into an independent nation state within the EU? You think London is dictatorial? Wait until you report directly to Brussels. You don’t have to wait, you do so already. London doesn’t act as a filter, occupying some middle ground between Brussels and Edinburgh. That is not independence.

More than that, Salmond is convinced that having been banging on about this for so long, the absolute best thing to do is to jump right aboard the sinking Euro tanker. He shouts down those from the Euro-machinery who state Scotland would have to re-apply, and the terms are not attractive. You’d have to accept the Euro, the Schengen treaty, all the social chapters. No opt out, no rebate, no influence, you’d be like Slovenia. Your economy would be hostage to the fortunes and ideas of the big boys in the single currency.

All Salmond does is shout that they are wrong. Well mate, I’ve news for you. Their club, their membership rules. You can’t turn up to someone else’s party and dictate music and buffet policy. If they say you ain’t in when you emerge from the divorce, then you ain’t in.

Independence?

Today we see that having split from the UK (not from England) that the plan is to keep the Pound Sterling.

Are you mental? If Scotland splits, its economy will be moving a much different pace to that of England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It will be subject to different stresses and strains, different requirements. You want to tie yourself to a currency that you will have no influence over, you will be utterly at the mercy of what the BoE decide to do, and the BoE will not be considering Scotland when they implement policy.

Salmond wants Scotland in the EU on current terms – it simply won’t happen. Salmond doesn’t want Scotland in the Euro – because not even he is that mad. Yet, he will happily usher in a circumstance where Scotland will be just as vulnerable as Greece or Cyprus.

The remainder of the UK will not give Scotland any say in the governance of the Pound. Why should they? We get no say over the currencies of Denmark or Sweden. Why? Because it isn’t ours. The Pound Sterling would not be yours.

Salmond merely stamps his feet and says the rump-UK would have to let them use it. Well, no they wouldn’t. Oh sure, you can use the currency, it happens elsewhere, especially with the US Dollar (East-Timor, Panama, El Salvador for example), but they’ve no say in its governance. It’s utter chaos.

Post ‘Yes’ vote, membership of the EU and adoption of the Pound Sterling is no independence.

What does Salmond want? My mind goes to a line spoken by Varys, the spymaster in the dramatisation of George R R Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series of novels on TV last night. He was talking of Peter Baelish, ‘Littlefinger’, a man described as one of the most dangerous men in Westeros. ‘He would let the country burn just so he could be king of the ashes.’ Salmond would be bending the knee left, right and centre as soon as he got his way, telling himself he was the head of an independent state.

I have no problem with Scottish sovereignty, but please Scotland, I beg of you, make sure it IS sovereignty.

You’ll pay for this.

Posted on by
2

If it wasn’t so laughable, the lengths to which the EU will go to in an attempt to drown out voices of dissent would be very sinister.

The Telegraph has broken a story about what the EU intends to do about the rise of EUroscepticism in the run up to the Euro elections.

Key to a new strategy will be “public opinion monitoring tools” to “identify at an early stage whether debates of political nature among followers in social media and blogs have the potential to attract media and citizens’ interest”.

Spending on “qualitative media analysis” is to be increased by £1.7 million and while most of the money is to be found in existing budgets an additional £787,000 will be need to be raised next year despite calls for EU spending to reflect national austerity.

“Particular attention needs to be paid to the countries that have experienced a surge in Euroscepticism,” said a confidential document agreed last year.

“Parliament’s institutional communicators must have the ability to monitor public conversation and sentiment on the ground and in real time, to understand ‘trending topics’ and have the capacity to react quickly, in a targeted and relevant manner, to join in and influence the conversation, for example, by providing facts and figures to deconstructing myths.”

It is navel gazing on an industrial scale, and speaks volumes about the attitude that pervades the corridors of the EU’s buildings. The whole line about ‘deconstructing myths’. Let us not forget, this is an organisation that hasn’t had its accounts signed off since the last sacking of Lindisfarne, and they seem to think people will just accept any figure that is thrown at them as undeniable evidence.

Look, you morons, the reason there is a surge in scepticism against your hateful little project is because people neither believe nor trust you, do you really, honestly think that trawling twitter, facebook and the blogosphere and posting fatuous little stat-attacks is going to make us love you? Especially when we are paying for it.

I DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU HAVE TO SAY.

I am not alone in this.

I DO NOT TRUST YOU OR YOUR MOTIVES.

Why? Well, the very fact that you feel it necessary to monitor what people are saying and writing for fear that they may be saying or typing something that is contrary to your agenda is one pretty good reason why.

It is all so. . . East German.

Really, it conjures up scenes from The Lives of Others (a superb film if you’ve not seen it). What’s next? Well, I can see a time when people are prosecuted for expressing a contrary opinion, because it would be against the ‘interests of the people’ or some such similar guff.

But this is just hors d’oeuvres. If they are going to throw all this effort behind the election of people to their irrelevant little rubber stamping chamber, imagine what they’ll do if Cameron gets re-elected and if (unlikely as I think it is) he lives up to his word and gives us the biggie. This is a training exercise for them.

It won’t work. Even with all the money the EU has to throw at the problem it will have little effect. The world has changed, and all the money in the world will just not allow a centralised rigid system of control to compete with an organic and chaotic system. The problem with the lad sticking his finger in the dike (stop sniggering at the back) is that it just moves the pressure on to the next weak spot, and pretty soon you run out of fingers.

There will be strategy meetings, reviews, lots of little diagrams and analytical charts, but it won’t matter, someone is going to have to co-ordinate. Social media, blogs and so forth need no co-ordination, no blueprint or over-arching strategy, this is one of the reasons why the Left have traditionally struggled with blogs; independent thought and action are discouraged. You see when I write this, I just sit and write. This is the world according to Wolfers, I have no source I have to refer to, no higher power I have to be on message with, nothing but me, my thoughts and my opinions.

The debate will suck in millions of people, many for, many against. But, EU, you are control freaks, you just won’t trust your drones to do it right. How many different lines will you be able to put out? Do you think the organic mass won’t notice? Won’t compare notes? Won’t mock?

There is no head on this gorgon to cut off. All it takes is a few posts, comments, Facebook statuses or tweets to go viral. You are only going to be reactive, the people will be proactive. As soon as you make yourself visible, you’ll be swamped. You’ll be laughed at. Nothing destroys credibility more than laughter, ask the bully who ends up humiliated in front of a large crowd how it hurts his rep.

This, along with the aforementioned fact that people will just not believe you or those who appear to support you independently means you will only serve to undermine your own arguments.

And when push comes to shove, comments which come on here that I consider to be coming from some EU machine (unlikely given my modest traffic) will simply be deleted.

That’s the other thing; I can delete you. You can’t delete me. I have the power, not you. Sucks doesn’t it?

Hopefully my little corner of the ‘net will do its bit to ensure your eventual and complete deletion.

It will only be a little bit though. For starters most people couldn’t give a pair of dingo’s kidneys about political blogging and tweeting – a fact most of us forget from time to time. Most people who do partake the intermong political thing are unlikely to be persuaded too far from their convictions.

If the EU thinks Twitter is responsible for Euroscepticism then they’re even more deluded than I thought. Not for one moment does it occur to them that it is their actions and attitudes that is turning people away from them in droves.

Wow, nice imagery.

Posted on by
1

Was watching Sky News this evening, and was struck by something I saw posted on a building in Brussels that was shown during a report about the ongoing mess that is Greece.

The tin-foil hat wearing part of me wants to believe they are actually trying to hide this in plain sight, as a taunt to show how very clever they are:

That pesky democracy thing.

Posted on by
3

The EU hate democracy. They know best, dammit, and it really is the most intolerable imposition when people won’t do as they’re bloody told. How are they supposed to usher in their era of utopia and solidarity when people go around voting for stuff that isn’t in the plan?

No, it must be stopped. That’s easy enough in their own institutions, there’s not a hope in hell of me or you getting a say in the selection of the Commissars and the parliament is just a large rubber stamp, like the enormous gatherings you used to see in the USSR (as an aside I attended a talk given by Nigel Farage as part of a season of political debates hosted by a local university the other night, during the Q&A session one of the Labour/Common Purpose/EU placemen who’d been parachuted in actually used the phrase ‘democratically elected’ in respect of Van Rompuy. I and a number of the audience had to take five minutes to change our under crackers after that. Farage spoke without notes whilst the placemen were reading from sheets, posing questions which had no doubt been handed to them. Farage won, even accounting for my bias.)

But how to do this with national parliaments? They’ve demonstrated they can unseat a democratic leader when the need presents itself. But how to ensure you keep control? After all, elections have to come eventually.

The answer is simple, you make all the parties sign an agreement that states when election time comes around, the electorate will have no alternatives, they will only be able to vote for what the EU wants.

I’ll let the BBC take over:

They [the Eurozone ministers] have also insisted that all major Greek parties give an assurance that the cuts will be enacted regardless of who wins a general election scheduled for April.

That’s it. No comment on that from the BBC at all. Democracy removed at a stroke. This is one step from all parties having to submit their manifestos for approval. And it merits one sentence in a BBC report.

Antonis Samaras, whose New Democracy party is a member of the governing coalition, has hinted that he would try to renegotiate the bailout deal after the election.

Reports say he has refused to give a written assurance that the cuts would be enforced.

Naughty Antonis, bad Antonis.

New Democracy is expected to win the election.

Hence the rushed insistence that all the politicians sign up to the EU’s demands. Because now it’s looking a little shaky again, the other day it was all settled, now it’s up in the air. Someone the EU doesn’t like might win and we can’t have that. Note that Samaras hasn’t said that he’d phone Olli Rehn and tell him to go stick his head in a pig, he hasn’t said he’d ensure that a dirty great default went ahead (surely the best thing for Greece), no he said that he’d TRY to renegotiate terms.

Well who does he think he is? How dare he make a statement to be put in front of the electorate, get elected on that promise and then try to represent those who put him in charge? No, no, no, that will never do.

On Sunday, Greek MPs approved extra cutbacks, but coalition parties had to expel more than 40 deputies for failing to back the bill.

Had to? Had to? Since when was representing your constituents and saying ‘hang on a minute, I don’t agree with this’ a disciplinary offence? What sanction was available to use against those parties who decided not to expel their deputies?

Just as here, never for one moment think that your MP is there to represent you, they are there to push through the wishes of their party machinery and increasingly the agenda of the EU.

It’s happened there, it’ll happen here. This is why the next time the Conservatives call round my gaff I’ll send them away with a flea in their ear. Labour only field paper candidates down here, and the LimpDims don’t call any more, because I just laugh at them when they do. Cameron’s three line whip over the referendum debate means that I would never vote for his party whilst he had any influence over it, he’s decided that we need to stay in, and therefore I can just sit down and shut up. Uh-huh, no way sunshine. Bad news for Daniel Hannan, a man I have a good deal of respect for, but that’s one vote he’s down in the next Euro elections.

As for Julian Brazier, I wrote to him a fortnight before the debate entreating him to vote in favour of a referendum, he didn’t reply until after the vote, when he voted against. In his letter he told me he was a Eurosceptic. His voting record suggests otherwise. So he can bog off as well.

There will be no orderly default by Greece, there will be no amicable departure from the EU by the UK. It will only end in violence, destruction, fire, blood and death. I am resigned to that now.

I only hope that those responsible for ensuring this response from us, the voiceless population of an entire continent, will be dealt with as traitors and criminals.

Well said, Comrade.

Posted on by
2

Never let it be said that our lords and masters in Europe are adept at hiding their true colours.

Just take a look at that thing they call a flag. Yellow stars? On a blue background. Really? That’s the equivalent of writing your name backwards as a code so people can’t work out who wrote that secret note. What you’ve done is the colour version of that, we know you really wanted it to be red, and we know this because you say things like this:

Big talk from Olli Rehn, European Commissioner responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs, who says that ratings agencies are the tools of “American financial capitalism”.

(Taken from the Torygraph’s debt crisis ticker, so probably way down the page now).

They really are barking, they honestly think the whole shabang is down to the evil American capitalist running dogs. It really, actually doesn’t occur to them that this ridiculous currency they’ve thrown together can be to blame, because it was their idea, and it was such a good one.

Never be under any illusion that these people are as red as red can be. Whilst watching Sky News from around six this evening, there was some line from some apparatchik (and I  paraphrase) who was saying that we need to learn to live without ratings agencies.

Oh yeah, because the markets are bound to take you at your word, aren’t they? I mean, why shouldn’t they when your organisation is the very model of financial probity?

It’ll not be long before we see the emergence of of ‘EUrorate’ or something similar, a ratings agency set up by the EU that can be trusted to give ‘real’ and ‘sensible’ credit risk analysis. I also forecast that their first actions will be to downgrade the US dollar, British pound and any other non-€zone EU national currency to junk status. Meanwhile the €uro will of course be rated at AAAA Double Plus Good.

Sky News is also reporting that S&P have downgraded the EFSF, they’ve downgraded the bloody rescue fund.

If this was a horse, you’d shoot it. If it was a relative on a life support machine, you’d pull the plug. But not the EU, their agenda must be followed no matter what the cost.

But of course there will be no cost, everyone will be joyously happy, everyday will be the first day of spring, we will produce record numbers of tractors to bring in bumper harvest after bumper harvest, because our great leaders will legislate and rate the weather to make sure it is perfect as planned, every day, and you’d better agree unless you want to find yourself living in a hut in Finland, shovelling snow all day at bayonet point while you atone for your lack of education.

Is this what they were on about?

Posted on by
2

At first I was incredulous, then I became annoyed, then I was insulted, then I started laughing. Now I’m quite sad.

You see when the Euro was announced and launched I was pro-EU. This isn’t a ground breaking revelation, I’m big enough to admit that I was taken in. Even today I can brook no argument against a free trade area with freedom of movement of goods and services. I’m even happy to have freedom of movement of people, although just not with the enormous number of countries there are now in the club, and with certain caveats regarding what happens if you so much as steal a mars bar from the newsagents.

Even though I was pro-EU at the time of the announcement, and what was effectively EU-neutral at the time of the launch of the Euro, I had severe misgivings about it all, I just couldn’t see how a country like Greece could co-exist with a country like Germany, there’s a pronounced difference between the north of England and the south of England with a (fairly) stable and respected national currency, across a whole and very diverse continent? I just couldn’t see how it would happen.

I’ve been insulted for my opinion on both the Euro and the EU, I don’t care, it’s all the Europhiles have left, screaming about rats and dogs like Gaddafi or some other soon to be deposed dictator. It’s water off a duck’s back to me. I take no pleasure from being proven right, none at all, because as much as this is going to hurt us, it will hurt millions more on the continental mainland, and they never asked for this either. It’s very easy to think that we are the only ones, the only faction in the only country that is unhappy with the EU, but we must remember all the others who have had not only the EU foisted upon them, but the Euro as well, they’ve been sold a pup of epic proportions. Thank God we’ve a degree of insulation against this.

The news this evening that S&P have downgraded France (and according to the Sky TV coverage all the other Eurozone countries with the exception of Germany, The Netherlands and possibly Finland) is no cause for celebration. Yes, it is another huge nail in the coffin of the Euro and possibly the EU, yes all bets in France are now off, yes it is going to make Sarkozy’s re-election almost impossible, and no doubt he’ll blame us while in the next breath demanding we ride to France’s rescue as long we don’t make it look like we’re riding to France’s rescue. It’s going to make for great TV as the great and the good see their dreams reduced to dust, but for Jose Schmose this is going to make life very, very uncomfortable.

The fact is that this situation should never have come to pass, and the machinery that has brought this situation about has to fail, it is the only way to escape, but the untangling of national sovereignty from EU machinery is going to take time and is going to be damn ugly.

We will all be better off without the EU and the Euro, eventually, but the few years after the breakdown will be bleak indeed. This bleakness is not cause to pull out all the stops to try and keep the beast alive, it is doomed to die, and the longer we prop it up, the longer and more bleak those bleak years will be when the inevitable happens. All empires fall.

And so it is of another empire that I find myself thinking. Much has been made, and no doubt will be made of the fact that this year marks the end of the Mayan long count. I’ve found the theories surrounding this fact to be quite entertaining, they range from zombie apocalypse or meteor strike bringing around the end of the Earth to the fact that the blokes doing the count just got pissed off with it and knocked it on the head.

Some theorise that the end of the count marks the emergence of a new era. I must admit that I lean heavily towards some Mayan bloke saying ‘look, the bloody Spanish will be here soon, and I’m gasping for a pint, shall we just call it a day?’, however there is something in the air, isn’t there?

Riots in the UK, with the participants not really having any idea why they’re rioting beyond just being a bit pissed off.

Regimes toppling in North Africa and the Mid-East.

The death of the ruler in North Korea with a relatively unknown quantity taking over.

A young and artificially bloated empire starting to crumble as quickly as it sprung up.

The emergence of Ron Paul in the Republican party who, although he is unlikely to win the nomination, will probably see a wider acceptance of his ideals in the party if their nominee is to have any credibility with the wider membership given the support he’s attracting from a very diverse support base.

There’s certainly something in the air, and 2012 looks like it is going to be a very, very interesting year.

And another thought occurs, since the spat where Cameron threatened to use a veto, but didn’t really, against a treaty that wasn’t a treaty really, but was, we’ve heard nothing but talk of ‘solidarity’, it’ll be interesting to see how far this solidarity stretches now that the markets have made the playing field even more uneven in the Eurozone. Germany is going to get leaned on big time by France, and as we know from De Gaulle with the liberation of Paris, if the Germans do come running, they’ll get no thanks for it. The whole show is going to end up in an enormous slanging match as France stamps it’s little foot like some diva, demanding sustenance and yet demanding everyone do as it says. Mark my words, it will be France that will be the end of the EU.

Punish debt with more debt.

Posted on by
2

This whole Sarkozy and Merkel thing gets ever more sinister. Mary Ellen Synon gives a pretty bloody good overview of the mechanics, sleight of hand and general anti-democratic way of things.

I also find it laughable that Delors sees fit to lambast the implementation of a system that he was heavily involved in setting up. It’s not his fault, natch, it’s all the fault of the national finance ministers, it was they who strongarmed Greece et al into signing up, even though there was not a hope of them meeting even the laxest conditions. In fact, bugger Greece, Italy would never have met them, either. Come on, Jacques, do you really expect us to believe that if you’d been given carte-blanche that you’d have excluded one of the EU’s ‘big four’ on economic grounds? I think it’s the first time I’ve ever heard the excuse that a little boy did it and ran away.

Really? You seriously want us to believe that the national finance ministers were falling over themselves to jump into the euro, and that if you’d been in charge things would have been more circumspect? You’re fooling no-one mate.

Memo to national politicians: Look at the evidence, you’ll be left to do what you want, as long as what you want to do is what the Commissars want you to do. Even when you’ve done what they want you to do, if it goes wrong you’ll be held up as the blame figure, and if you don’t do what the Commissars want, you’ll be removed from power. Either way, elected or technocrat, you’ll get the heave ho from them eventually because they are spiteful and arrogant, and because they’re dumber than a bag of hair and will make more catastrophic mistakes than a photosensitive epileptic surgeon operating in a theatre lit by strobe light.

Anyhow, back to ‘Merkozy’ as we’re supposedly calling them now. They’ve decided that it’s a great plan for all eurozone countries to submit their budgets to them for approval. Wonderful, someone who comes from a nation of inflationphobes and a man with a Napoleon complex who cannot accept that France is no longer a world Imperial power but at the same time would sell France to an Algerian umbrella salesman if he thought it would make him look tall. And good. But mainly tall. (I understand that France is going to change its name, it will soon cease to be the République Française and will instead be known as l’Allemagne de l’Ouest. Still, what do I care? It’s your country, Pierre.)

Not only that, but they also have plans for countries that break the financial rules (as far as I can make out from the parameters this includes everyone, including France, except Germany and Finland). Yes, if your country is in debt, they have a plan to . . . fine it.

Riiiiiiiight.

So, a country comes and says ‘look, Germany, this budget you set us is probably fine and dandy if you’re a northern European industrial power, but it hasn’t worked for us and we’re broke’ then the answer is to go in and take more money off that broke country to teach them a lesson for being broke? Are you verrückt? Because we all know that no government has any money of its own, it is all taken from the taxpayer. So, in effect, you set the rules, and when they don’t work, you then penalise the people living in that country for your failure.

Way to win friends and influence people.

Can we leave yet?

Ballsy or barmy?

Posted on by
2

Only the powers that be in Europe could release this video.

Only the ECB could, in the current climate, release a video bigging up the ten year anniversary of the Euro.

Chutzpah, much?

Perhaps a little surprisingly (or not) the owners of the video have decided to disable comments on it.

No room for dissent, Comrades.

I like the tag line: ‘The Euro – It’s our money.’

Yes, isn’t it bloody just?

 

Cake or death?

Posted on by
3

Behind The Times’ paywall is the following this morning (so no linky):

Cameron told to choose between EU and the City.

David Cameron is on collision course with Brussels and Paris amid warnings that Britain risks being left behind when the European Union reshapes itself after the eurozone crisis. José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, told the Prime Minister to choose between protecting the City of London and retaining Britain’s clout before a key EU summit next month.

Well what sort of choice is that? Especially if I was a politician with a very finite shelf life.

What does the future hold for Cameron after he decides he doesn’t want to play any more, or as is likelier, we decide we don’t want him to play play any more. He could, eventually, re-attach himself to the teat by taking up a seat in the Lords, but that won’t happen overnight. Unlike the Kinnocks, Clegg or Mandelslime he won’t have the outrageously generous EU pension to fall back on, so the most likely outcome is some sort of soft non-exec directorship of some blue chip firm in the City where he can trouser a six figure a year sum for four days work a month.

Forget the national interest for a moment, let’s look at his own personal interest here. It really is a case of cake or death.

But in the national interest, we have an organisation that costs us £50m per day that seeks to take more of our cash by instituting a tax that is cynically and spitefully designed to take money from us because we haven’t done what we’ve been told and joined the €uro like a good boy. A transaction tax would hit the London financial sector harder than any city or country in the EU. Make no mistake, this has been designed to ensure that we end up paying for their vanity project anyway.

We need, according to Barroso, to be mindful of being marginalised. Well you know what, you disgusting little Maoist? I and many many others like me WANT the UK to be marginalised, we want us to be marginalised to the extent that the press of the crowd pushes us out of the front door at this particular house party. We don’t want to be here. He talks about the UK retaining its ‘clout’, we don’t have any clout, no country has any clout, any country that looks like it is going to give the EU a clout finds that their leader is ousted in pretty short order.

How about we take our £50m a day, plus the strength of our financial centre and go and have our own house party? We’ve been quite rude to our brothers, cousins and friends in the Commonwealth, and its high time we asked them round for a drink, don’t you think?

Meanwhile as of five to nine this morning, Sky News is reporting that the opening of the markets has seen the rate at which Germany borrows climb to a level which is higher than the level at which the UK can borrow.

Dave, when are you going to realise they are playing with our ball, in our garden and have the front to tell us that we have to let them win? Walk over, pick our ball up, kick their arse out of the garden gate and then get our real friends over for a kick about.

Really, they need us so much more than we need them. There’s no need to give in to their demands. Of course it will hurt us if it all goes tits up in the €urozone, but the thing is, it isn’t a case of if, it is a case of when, so let’s get it over with before it costs us even more cash. The markets don’t trust the €uro, the mob that are in charge can’t be trusted to run a bath let alone a continent wide currency.

 

Oh shut up you silly little man.

Posted on by
1

A day before Prime Minister David Cameron is due to visit Berlin to meet Merkel, the deputy leader of her Christian Democrats (CDU) in parliament also criticised Britain for lecturing the euro zone on what steps it should take to solve its crisis while not actively contributing towards a solution.

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the EU to a tee. Give us your damn money and shut your damn mouths.

We shouldn’t have to be like the parent bailing out the profligate child who has overspent, but I would expect any parent doing that to deliver the rescue cash with a lesson on financial prudence.

Pointing to populist tendencies across Europe, he drew a parallel to the period before World War One, saying all countries needed to “assume their responsibilities.”

“One hundred years ago, nobody wanted war. But all the governments seized on nationalist sentiment,” he said, noting that decades of instability ensued.

And here’s this line from the Germans again. They seem desperate to equate the collapse of the Euro with the outbreak of war. Is it because they are desperately afraid of this happening, or is it a threat?

In the same vein, Meister expressed concerns about the political situations in Italy and Greece, despite the introduction of technocratic governments committed to reforms in both countries.

“We have new leaders, but it’s clear that the old political forces are still trying to pull the strings in the background,” he said.

The old political forces? You mean, like the ones who were democratically elected? (Guess how many people in the new Italian cabinet were democratically elected. I’ll give you a clue, it is somewhere between one and minus one.)

Meister urged quick progress in finding ways to boost the firepower of the EFSF through leveraging. He also voiced support for accelerating the introduction of the EFSF’s successor fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).

Nope, still won’t back the ECB as the guarantor then. Visions of the Weimar Republic and wheelbarrows full of cash to buy a loaf of bread.

Well, you signed up for it mate. Your lot were convinced it was the way forward, your lot belittled and criticised us for staying out, and now we’ve been proven right you have the audacity to come knocking at our door, cap in hand, while continuing to have a pop at us?

I’ll tell you what, Buddy. If you find our foresight so offensive do feel free to fuck right off without taking any of my money, it’s really no skin off my nose.