Category Archives: Greece

That’s not how it works.

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Those silly Hellenic types, for all this time they’ve been doing the democracy thing, (well except for when they were part of various occupations, empires or under the control of their own military dictatorships) and they’ve somehow formed the opinion that just because you’ve voted for something it means you stand a better than average chance of getting it.

Fools.

Now, I can’t comment on the integrity of Greek politicians, but I’m certainly not naive enough to think just because a particular candidate for PM gets in that s/he’s actually got the intention of delivering upon their promises, but I can’t blame the Greeks for chucking out the political parties that sold their nation’s sovereignty. The fact that they’ve decided to back a group that wants a return to the pre-crash days of money for nothing and your chick(pea based dip)s for free is neither here nor there, it’s their country and their decision to make.

Not everyone is of that opinion though:

Germany’s Angela Merkel has made clear that Greece’s reforms must go on.

Well how many people in Greece voted for Merkel? As mad as I think they are for wanting to carry on without paying the credit card bill, they would be just as mad to carry on with the status quo.

The arrogance of these people who think they have the right to dictate to a nation how they must conduct themselves is amazing. The Greek people have decided and that is an end to it. Who the hell do you think you are, Frau Merkel? Even if Europe needed a supreme overlord, I bloody doubt it would be you, you’ve your own election coming up, and seeing how leaders have been toppled all over Europe I don’t much fancy your chances of holding onto the big chair.

More to the point, she’s gone wading into French politics as well, Hollande has made it quite clear that France has had enough of all this austérité and will go back to pissing cash away like a sailor on shore leave.

Angela doesn’t approve.

Mrs Merkel said she would meet France’s next president next week “with open arms” but told a news conference that “we in Germany are of the opinion, and so am I personally, that the fiscal pact is not negotiable”.

Do as you’re told, Froggies. One of the most amusing things about the whole financial situation is that France thinks it is bigger than the markets, they are very, very wrong and they will find this out to their cost. Hollande’s plan to institute a French ratings agency is downright hilarious, the fact that he would actually expect the global markets to give it even the merest shred of attention is nigh on incontinence inducing.

People criticise France for looking out for themselves. I do not and never have, I applaud them for it. Their ignoring of rules, directives and diktats whilst remaining within the machinery of the EU is a policy of amazing footwork, I only wish we would do the same. I do not criticise their self-interest just because we don’t have the gumption to do the same. A degree of Gallic arrogance is something to be aspired to on occasion.

There is little doubt in my mind that the policies of Hollande will be the ruination of France, but once again like a family addicted to benefits, the French public just won’t accept the fact that there’s no money, it is almost like Chekov’s Cherry Orchard on a national scale, a grand old family fallen on hard times with no intention of, and no idea how to go about, rectifying the situation because they honestly believe something will magically turn up.

They are deluded in the extreme. But I’m delighted to see him win. Because they will hasten the demise of the Euro and the EU.

For ages Nigel Farage has been talking about how we’ve been shackled to a drowning man, I just wonder what will happen first? Will Germany come to the same conclusion and realisation that while they can trample all over Greece, their war guilt will never let them do the same to France, or will France storm off in a huff like a washed up old diva who hasn’t got her own way?

Things are about to get very interesting.

That pesky democracy thing.

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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.

And so it begins.

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Picture liberated from here.

Just a few short days ago I predicted that seven weeks could see revolution in Greece.

This evening Athens is burning, the police are horrendously outnumbered and seemingly have little hope of controlling the mob.

Papademos, the unelected puppet leader of Greece, addressed the nation a couple of days ago warning of chaos if the cuts needed to meet the bailout conditions were not enforced.

Well, I hope you’re looking out of your window now chum, because if this isn’t chaos, I don’t know what is. In a scene eerily reminiscent of the final scene of V for Vendetta, the Greek parliament is surrounded by a thin line of police and a huge crowd (some sources are saying over 100,000 people are on the streets tonight). The crowd is angry.

Some will be angry that their country has been forced to bend the knee to Germany and Brussels, some will be angry that their politicians have lied and dissembled to get to this point, some will be angry that their government has surrendered their population’s sovereignty, some will be angry that the cuts are hurting them, most are probably angry with themselves, angry that they swallowed every promise of free money and gratis luxury.

I go back to what I wrote the other day; it may be that the crowds, having had their say, go back to the few jobs they have tomorrow, or it may be that the ground outside the Greek parliament resembles Tahrir Square or the land surrounding the ‘House of the People’ when Ceaucescu got his as the underdog locks in his teeth and hangs on for grim death.

If the police really lose control or are incapable of imposing order, and bear in mind the police are right in the firing line for these cuts, then the only solution is to call in the troops. I wonder how well disposed they’ll be to supporting the status quo?

In a way it is irrelevant, if it doesn’t happen this time, the next bailout tranche will see more cuts, more bending of the knee and kissing of the EUro imperial ring, and more riots. If the big one isn’t tonight and this week, then it will be the next one, or the one after, but it will come, this course of action by the IMF, ECB, European Commission and Greek politicians have assured it as much as day follows night. Meanwhile the politicians, with no democratic mandate, stand in their parliament dictating to the population what they must do at the behest of foreign powers. Big mistake.

Interesting times indeed.

Seven weeks.

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Screen shot lifted from here.

Seven weeks, until a radical prophecy could come to pass.

From the above it is starting to look increasingly unlikely that Greece will get its next bowl of gruel in six weeks’ time. It is common sense, they have to kick the habit, saddling a debt ridden man with more debt is not going to solve the issue. Only default, only devaluation and only a return to the Drachma can save Greece.

But this is about more than Greece’s economy, it is about Greece’s people. What has happened to them is shocking, sure they voted for it, it was their electorate that kept hiding the credit card bills under the carpet, but at least it was their choice.

What happened when Papandreou stated he was going to take the question to the electorate was an affront to the nation that invented democracy. Possibly the government could have done with changing, but that wasn’t my decision to make, it certainly wasn’t the EC’s decision to make, but they unseated him anyway.

Now the Greeks have a puppet, a place-man in the big chair who used to be a big noise at the ECB. A puppet who has fortnightly meeting with three other unelected puppet-masters, from the IMF, the ECB and the EC who jet in once a fortnight and tell him what he will do and what he will not do.

Youth unemployment runs at around 50%, the fabric of Greek society is crumbling and the economy has gone from recession into depression. They’ve lost more than their dignity and their sovereignty; they’ve lost hope. There’s not a damn thing they can do about it. Nothing. They can’t vote their leader out, they’ve been denied their democratic right. Things are desperate.

People who have lost hope do desperate things. Ask Ceaucescu, ask Gaddafi, ask the military leaders of Egypt and the erstwhile President.

In six weeks, the cheques will bounce, and the scenes of civil disobedience will take one week to degenerate into all out revolution. The Arab Spring will cross the Med.

The Greek army will come in and restore order. It will not stop there.

The Greek army will send the ‘troika’ away without a handshake, without coffee. They’ll probably threaten to shoot their jet down.  They’ll not kow-tow to the Brussels mandarins, and what then?

Can we see the EU tolerating a military regime in their midst? They’ll tolerate a regime without democratic legitimacy, they hate democracy, but it has to be their un-democratic regime. What do they do then?

Expel Greece from the EU? What if the other member states refuse to sanction such a move? What if that gives military brass in other EU countries ideas?

Send in the troops? Whose troops? No NATO member is going to sanction their troops invading another NATO member’s territory.

The big ugly pot is coming to the boil, and the Euro-elite, so keen to by-pass the grubby and inconvenient democratic stuff, so full of arrogance and vanity, will see their dream disintegrate. The real tragedy is that it will be paid for in blood.

Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.

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As poor as Papandreou and Berlusconi were as Prime Ministers, we must not lose sight of the fact that they were elected in democratic elections, something their successors cannot lay claim to. I’ll leave aside my objections to these successors’ politics for the moment. What has chilled me to the bone is this from the BBC:

Who, What, Why: What can technocrats achieve that politicians can’t?

I’m not even going to dignify that with an answer.

As the prime ministers of Italy and Greece exited through the revolving doors of power, in came two wise men with no mandate to govern but clutching glittering CVs.

Glittering? Really? Please elucidate.

While he was EU competitions commissioner, respected economist Mario Monti showed his mettle by taking on computing giant Microsoft, and he’s expected to appoint a government made up of other technocrats.

Riiiiiiiiight. So he was an EU commissioner, and that’s glittering, is it? He ‘took on’ Microsoft. That’s the same Microsoft who have the same ubiquitous hold on the PC software market now as they did then? I’ve no axe to grind with Microsoft, there’s a reason so many people have their software installed on computers, it is because despite of the gripes surrounding it, it is the best on offer. And he’s giving jobs to his mates. Well, so far, so the EU in microcosm.

Lucas Papademos is former vice-president of the European Central Bank.

The BBC don’t inform us of his glittering list of achievements. Probably because it contains stuff about the Euro. You know, that same currency which is to blame in a large part for Greece’s demise?

Both men now find themselves cast as the unlikely saviours of these two countries and by extension, the eurozone.

Let’s wait to see what they save, shall we? If we’re supposed to believe they’re there to save Greece and Italy, we may be disappointed. Make no mistake, their job is to save the Euro.

The following just about pushed me over the edge (I publish excerpts, for the whole context go and read the article, if you can stomach it.):

What technocrats can do is rise above the paralysing political rancour in these two countries, says Marco Incerti of the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels.

The democratic approval will come at a later stage

The Soviet Union is sometimes held up as the world’s first technocratic government

There are several benefits to a technocrat-led government in times of crisis

there is an anti-intellectual streak in British politics

Bear in mind this article is telling us that technocratic governments are a good thing. So as far as the BBC is concerned, technocrats are better than elected politicians, they don’t need democratic backing, they are beneficial during a crisis (when is there never a crisis?) and we in the UK only vote for stupid people, thus we must assume that the electorate are stupid. Oh, and the government of the USSR was a good thing as well.

What is the licence fee for again?

You might as well just rename it.

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Soooooooooo. Sky News breathlessly report good news that Italy’s bond yield as of about 1700 GMT has dropped to 6.58%. That’s hardly saving us all, Britain’s bond yield stands at about 2.2%, so that’s a huge gap.

However, even more astounding is the gap between the real €uro big boy and their biggest little brother, as the difference between German rates and French rates now stretches to almost 1.5%, and growing. This is what is meant by a two-speed Euro; Germany and everyone else, and as total and catastrophic disaster may be avoided in Italy, settling for just an enormous disaster, the markets nervous eyes flick to the next victim. So the fact that French 10-year bond spreads reached euro-era highs above German yields yesterday could be very bad news.

What makes the news worse is that the powers that be in EU steadfastly refuse to admit that anything that has happened is in any way linked to their actions. Indeed they actively poke fun at those who had the good sense to stay out of their insane project. It smacks of a fallen dictator ranting to tame media outlets about the fate that awaits their opponents, they are just unable to grasp the fact that the whole thing has been a disaster. Not only that, but they then work to make sure that those who are unfortunate enough to live in a country that has buckled under the stress of marching to the beat of the drum of Germany’s industrial might now find themselves living under what is little more than a Viceroy as two new Prime Ministers (Mario Monti in Italy – former EU commissioner and Lucas Papademos in Greece – former VP of the ECB) are pretty much imposed on the countries and are utterly in the thrall of those who have brought about this crisis in the first place.

It seems ironic to me, on this day of all days, that the Euro may just as well be renamed. They may just as well call it the Reichsmark.

Must be October soon.

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German children playing with some Euros, earlier today.

I know this to be true. It is not just due to the cooling of the day, nor the drawing in of the nights. It is not the gentle turning of the leaves on the tree, or the fact that the football season is starting to pick up whilst the cricketers get ready to pack up.

How do I know that October is just around the corner? Simple. The Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany tells me so.

Oh, she doesn’t say it in so many words, but when she says:

“Everything I hear from Greece is that the Greek government has hopefully seen the writing on the wall and is now doing some of the things that are required“

it serves to remind me that the next credit card bill is due to drop on the doorstep in Athens fairly soon.

Let’s just re-examine that line, shall we?

Everything I hear from Greece is that the Greek government has hopefully seen the writing on the wall and is now doing some of the things that are required

Hardly a ringing endorsement, is it? So effectively, here say is that Greece may have worked out that they are in the shite, and has done a bit towards sorting it out. Phew, everyone can relax. Can’t they?

fears of an imminent Greek default pushed interest rates on the country’s 10-year government bonds to over 24% on Tuesday

Blimey, that ain’t good. Even my credit card has a better interest rate than that, and it wasn’t exactly a chucklefest when the last bill arrived.

So it looks fairly certain that once again the more prosperous nations will go to the well to draw their own very valuable water. What happens when the well has run dry?

Every team or organisation is only as strong as its weakest member. Yep, the EU is screwed. I can’t wait to see who gets the blame when it falls apart.

Yes, but what is it you actually want?

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I’m sat here watching Sky News’ coverage of the latest strike cum tear-up in Greece. A crushing realisation has dawned upon me.

Firstly, this whole episode is self-perpetuating and can only end one way. One of two things will happen. The Greek parliament will vote through the latest austerity measures and get the bail out. People will keep striking, the goverment may come down, but it doesn’t matter because whoever takes their place will be in exactly the same situation. It’ll happen again in October. Maybe they’ll get another bail out, certainly sooner or later they’ll go to the well to find it empty and Greece will have option but default. Or, parliament will vote down the austerity measures, the government will resign, but it doesn’t matter because whoever takes their place will be in exactly the same situation and Greece will default.

The powers that be in the EU and the IMF will argue this is not the case until the cows come home but it is utterly predictable in its inevitability.

But what is it the Greek public want?

Well, here are the stats Sky are running in their report on Greece:

  • The average retirement age in Greece is 61 – but millions of workers in public and private sectors retire at 50. (Life expectancy – 79)
  • Whilst paying out pensions, the Greek government has failed to generate incomes to cover this cost. Tax evasion seems to be a national sport. Only 5,000 Greeks declare an income of over €100k (£89k). Self declared income is rarely challenged and loses the Greek economy an estimated £13bn a year.

So, the Greeks are out on the street demonstrating against increases in taxes nobody pays, an increase in the retirement age which is ignored by over 10 years at any rate, and a cut in spending which, as the current situation shows, even with large reductions already put in place, the Greeks haven’t a hope of funding anyway.

So what do the Greeks want? Well, I can draw only one conclusion; they want to continue retiring at 50 on a state pension, pay no tax, have all their services and have somebody else pay for it.

Well, you know what?

Fuck you.

This isn’t the fault of greedy bankers, corrupt politicians or evil big business. This is your fault. Oh granted the politicians made the pension laws, they spent the cash, they didn’t collect the taxes, but who put them there? You did. Did you not think at any point ‘there’s something wrong here, I’m only paying €100 tax a year, how can we afford this?’

And then complacently and selfishly you came up with the answer. ‘You’ll pay for it.’

Did you really think your EU masters would just hand over the cash without condition? Fools. They own you now. Protest all you like. Burn your cities to the ground for all I care, it will make no difference. Your politicians will continue to pass laws, but they’ve yet to enforce any of the fiscal laws they put in place thus far, why would they start now? Either the IMF, ECB or EU will slam the door shut, or the market will. Why the hell should I pay for your laziness and greed?

That being said, you also have my thanks, because your actions appear to have holed this horrible, authoritarian, corrupt and greedy European project below the waterline. Let’s hope the hull breach expands further.

Well, you asked for it.

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Hey, you. Yes, you! Want a tenner?

It’s yours. Well, it’s not yours, but you can have it. You deserve it.

Of course what you don’t realise is that the tenner I’m giving you is actually yours. It was to start with, what I’ve done is promised everyone a tenner, but some people don’t have a tenner to start with, so in order to give everyone a tenner I have to take a tenner and a fiver from those who do have the cash to start with.

People like getting tenners. Because people like it so much, they vote for me. They still haven’t realised that it was their tenner in the first place.

I’ve had an idea. Perhaps if I promise people two tenners, more of them would vote for me. Hmmm, yes, I like that. What do I care that I actually don’t have all these tenners? What do I care that if you add up all the tenners in the country, it doesn’t actually equal all the tenners I’ve promised to shell out? By the time everyone’s realised what’s happened, I’ll have stepped down or been kicked out in favour of the bloke who has promised everyone three tenners.

All of a sudden, all the people I borrowed tenners from to give to you, on the promise of them getting their tenners back, plus a fiver, based on the fact that the magic money pixie will pay a visit, want their tenners back.

Oh dear. I’ve got no tenners.

All of a sudden people are getting angry. The people I borrowed the tenners from are asking ‘where’s my bloody tenner?’ All the people I promised tenners to are asking ‘where’s my bloody tenner? You told me it was mine. I demand my tenner, or I’m going to smash the place up. My tenner, my tenner, you said, miiiiiiiiiiine!’

But you know what? Here’s the really good bit. All those tenners I borrowed? I didn’t borrow them in my name, oh no, I borrowed them in yours. Clever, isn’t it?

And then, and then, when everyone gets really cross, I get together with all the other tenner promisers and set up a unity government. What this means is that all the people who were promised tenners will be faced with a choice at the next election of voting for someone who promised them a tenner, can’t deliver on that promise and wants them to pay two tenners for the tenner that they gave their dad, or for someone who promised them a tenner, can’t deliver on that promise and wants them to pay two tenners for the tenner that they gave their dad.

OK, it may not be me, but it will be one of my friends that wins, and we are all friends really, even if we pretend we’re not.

Tenners all round!

Greece really is screwed.

What happens when they’ve sold everything?

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The European Central Bank said on Thursday it opposed forcing private creditors to take part in debt relief for Greece, pushing back against Germany, which has demanded a bond swap to lengthen Greek debt maturities.


Errrrm. . .

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet signalled the hard line at the bank’s monthly news conference, as new figures from Athens showed the Greek economy shrank by 5.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, a far sharper rate than expected.


5.5%? 5.5 bloody percent? Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus and all the baby orphans. Can you imagine the triumphalism if our economy managed to grow by that much in one quarter? 5.5% is a bloody catastrophe.

The data cast fresh doubt on Greece’s ability to meet targets for cutting its budget deficit, part of a 110 billion euro (97.6 billion pound) bailout agreed with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in May last year.


I’m not bloody surprised, the country is bleeding to death. How on Earth have they ended up being down so much that even almost £100bn gifted to them doesn’t solve the problem?

The EU is now considering another aid package for Athens, and euro zone sources told Reuters on Thursday the new deal would total about 120 billion euros, with the EU and IMF providing up to half of that sum and the rest coming from Greek privatisation revenues and private creditors.


So that totals £200bn give or take. That is an unimaginable figure. It’s all very well talking about privatisation revenues, but does the Greek government (and by that we really should say the Greek people) own assets amounting to £50bn? Even if they did, how would they ever expect to reach that revenue total given that the whole thing promises to be a fire sale of epic proportions?

Moody’s Investors Service warned a Greek default could impact the ratings of Ireland and Portugal, the two other euro zone countries that have required bailouts.


So if the Greek people dig their heels in, they could bring down Ireland and Portugal? Bloody hell.

The ECB, the European Commission and countries including France have warned against any Greek debt restructuring that involves coercion of investors, for fear that it could alarm markets and spread contagion to bigger members of the euro zone such as Spain.


And Italy, and probably everybody else involved in the currency.

Greece has to default, it is the only way they stand a chance to recover. Voluntary bankruptcy is often held up as a (last resort) solution to personal financial ills, but surely it is better than lying in the gutter with the rats feeding on your still warm corpse?

They have to pull the plug. They have to wipe the slate clean, they have to re-introduce their own currency, a currency which will make Greece so much more attractive to tourists and importers of produce, they simply cannot survive in this millpond with the grinding stone hanging around their neck, they will drown.

Look, I want the Euro to collapse, I want the hateful, horrible and corrupt EU to disappear, but bloody hell, no-one deserves this. Unfortunately I fear it will be an oft-repeated sight as the lights in the Eurozone wink out one by one, and a whole continent of people will be reduced to penury. It will stand as a monument to the vanity and arrogance of the EUrocrat class that have the gall to demand still more of our produce is poured down their throats.


The Greeks, already poor, will be impoverished, whilst their ‘betters’ vote themselves bigger expense payments, higher wages and ever more extravagant largesse. For shame.


Can we leave yet?

For shame.