Cameron again refuses a Referendum

My comment to a Times report that David Cameron, still refuses to address the Lisbon Treaty issue, linked here, was as follows: If the Irish change their previous vote and now give Lisbon a 'Yes' it will be because they have been threatened. If all the 'hurdles' Cameron lists are overcome, it is because all the politicians in the EU countries are scared of the monstrous EU that they have created. Rightly so, consider the actions taken by that organisation to force their self-amendable Constitution upon the 27 former sovereign states. If the Conservatives had the courage to halt this destruction of European democracy, they and Nick Clegg's Libdems, could have joined forces to do so in the House of Lords. Cameron clearly intends to stand aside and allow totalitarianism to return to Europe in order to gain power in one of its small subjugated outposts. Hoping no doubt, like the rest of those politicians who have sold out their citizens, to eventually advance further on the juggernaut himself with all the tax-free perks and power that such treachery still returns.

'The Sun' switches sides

So - After what is probably some fifteen years and a country effectively completely wrecked, possibly partly as a result of this newspaper's almost blind and unthinking support for the New Labour charlatans, this trashy tabloid, the largest selling daily newspaper in the UK, The Sun, is to switch its support from Labour to the Tories. The economy of the country lies in ruins, the streets of its cities awash with uncounted outsiders, its manufacturing industry trashed, widespread drug use, unsafe neighbourhoods, the once respected City of London filled with spivs almost exclusively engaged in casino style market speculation rather than the oiling of the wheels free enterprise, a Cabinet filled with Ministers with minds so depraved and corrupt they have turned the whole nation to suspecting their neighbours of paedophilia, while the State, as created by these creatures, uses peer group pressure to turn fourteen year old girls into sex objects such that they require immunisation against a sexually transmitted cancer and apparently causes the death of one such innocent in the process. One could of course go on and on with such a list, as the paper indeed attempts, but I will rest with one final item, the extra billions the nation must annually pay in the attempt to buy Tony Blair, the main culprit for this national disaster, the Presidency of the EU. AND YET does The Sun put forward an apology for these incalculable costs of their terrible and long-running misjudgement? Not that I can find - read it here.

BNP Paribas Rights Issue

The Wall Street Journal, link, reports this evening:

What a difference six weeks makes.

Back in August, BNP Paribas said it wouldn't repay the French government's €5.1 billion ($8.1 billion) stake in the bank until at least early 2010. Now it is launching a €4.3 billion rights issue to do just that -- in the process leapfrogging a clutch of other European banks, including Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, mulling similar efforts to repay government aid, and Unicredit, which announced a rights issue later Tuesday.

Watch for developments in the Lloyds HBOS and RBS Asset Protection Scheme saga as the next stage of the credit crunch looks set to hit removing the world from the relative calm of the phony recession.

Read John Redwood on Quantitative Easing from here.

Returning value to money is the only cure, everything attempted over the past 25 months has been working in exactly the wrong direction.

Free flights for EU wage slaves to further dirty Democracy

The following is directly copied from a Web Site "Europe for Ireland" pushing free flights to Eurocrats in Brussels who must first commit to canvas for a YES vote in the repeat referendum! How much lower can these filth sink?

A Day in Ireland to Work for Europe – Free Flights

Interested in travelling to Dublin to work for the Lisbon Treaty? Ryanair have offered us some free seats for people who volunteer to canvass for the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland.

Briefly, you should meet the following conditions:

-Flights (to and from Ireland) will be booked only for Tuesday and Wednesday 29-30th September and 1st October.

-Europe for Ireland will arrange the flights – you may not book directly.

-You must agree in writing to canvass for a Yes vote while in Dublin. We will put you in touch with one of the relevant organisations in Dublin. (If you do not turn up to canvass, your return flight may be jeopardised.)

-If you stay overnight you must arrange your own accommodation at your own expense. If absolutely necessary, we may be able to find someone willing to put you up but this cannot be guaranteed.

-The usual taxes and charges (about 50 euro) are not included in the Ryanair offer. If this is a problem for you, Europe for Ireland may be able to cover these costs, as well as the cost of travelling to and from Charleroi by bus.

-You must be 18 or over.

If interested, contact us quickly with your name, address, and telephone number, together with your preferred dates of travel. Email us at contact@europeforireland.eu or call us on +32 (0) 476084167.

We look forward to hearing from you.

English Democrats' Leader, Robin Tilbrook on Radio 4 Today Programme

At the rather early hour of 06:55 am John Humphrys interviewed the very reasoned Mr Robin Tilbrook , leader of the English Democrats Party, home page linked from here. The interview may be listened to by those still abed at that hour from a link that will be placed here when available. This is a major milestone for the small but fast-growing party which presently offers one of the best chances for the recovery of Britain and the restoration of equitable economic governance for England.

MSM mum on Lisbon Poll plus for the No Vote

The following poll was released last Monday, have you seen these results put about in any of the mainstream media?

Lisbon Treaty On The Rocks

A new opinion poll shows that there has been a massive surge in support for the No side, which, if it holds till voting day would result in the Lisbon Treaty being heavily defeated by a margin of 59% NO vs. 41% YES.

In one of the largest polls of its kind ever carried out: Gael Poll polled 1,500 respondents in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, Galway, Athlone, Tralee, Dundalk and Letterkenny over the course of six days last week.

The respondents were asked one single question: How do you intend to vote in the Lisbon Treaty Referendum?

A substantial 723 (59 %) said they intended voting No as opposed to 502 (41%) who indicated that they would vote Yes. The survey also showed that 15% percent of voters were still undecided.

When pollsters discounted the don’t knows: an overwhelming 59% of people would vote No in the referendum as opposed to 41% who indicated that they would vote Yes. The last Gael Poll which was published in the Irish Sun (June 4th 2008) accurately predicted that the Lisbon Treaty would be defeated by a margin of 54 % for the No side versus 46% for Yes campaigners. On the day of the count -which took place nine days later- the actual result was 53.4% No and 46.6 % Yes. The uncanny poll prediction which was out by only a half a percent was the most accurate poll in the country.

Pollsters at Gael Poll which is a non-profit social affairs research organization are quietly confident that they will be accurate for a second year in a row:

“Our Poll was carried out over an extended six day period and we used the exact same methodology as we used last year. In our experience the vote is not half as fluid as one might believe. People tend to have very definite ideas about which way they intend to vote, and those who don’t know tend not to vote at all,” explains Pollster Paul Murphy.

One interesting insight that the pollsters gleaned were the variety of ‘off the radar’ reasons why people intend to vote No:

“Frankly a lot of the personalities who are fronting the Yes campaign don’t appear to be very popular and a lot of people have commented upon this.”

“Apart from the obvious well known issues, we found that people were very concerned about the curtailment of alternative medicines and the banning of turf cutting to the over preponderance of EU flags and emblems. If you were to boil it down to core emotions, No voters tend to be enraged and up for a fight whereas Yes voters tend to be motivated by economic fears,” explained Paul Murphy.

The results will came as a shock to the Government and business groups who have poured over €10 Million eur+ campaigning for a yes vote in the Lisbon Treaty. In comparison No campaigners are poorly funded with a total combined spend of just under €1 Million eur.

Strategic Mortgage Defaults - Walkaways (continued).

Two days ago I linked to an article by Larry Doyle on the growing problem in the USA of people, with good credit records and in employment, walking away from their houses and defaulting on their mortgage repayments. I did so as such an event is exactly what this blog predicted would occur one year ago to the day! I have had some internet exchanges with the author of this original article over the past couple of days and quote the latest exchanges below:

Martin Cole says:

September 24, 2009 at 7:43 am

Larry,

Thanks for your reply, a welcome change as my suggestions this side of the pond are inevitably met with a wall of silence.

I agree the retroactive element of my proposal is a drawback, also within the US environment the impact on interest rates a potentially crippling disadvantage.

Let me discuss these factors from a UK standpoint, however, and you might then be better able to determine whether there is later applicability for the US which has the major advantage, when compared with ailing sterling, of the dollar’s reserve currency status.

Even a year ago it was obvious that the pound sterling was assuming junk status, hence my tagging of some posts on my blog with “funny money”.

Here is the key “The loss of a good credit rating earned with “funny money” is of small immediate significance and zero long-term effect” – hence the walkaways.

On the retroactivity consider a UK employee, retiring this year, who has saved a reasonable sum in a pension fund throughout his career. OK some decline would always have been a risk, but post credit-crunch he has been double zapped with both the fall in the funds value and the reduced annuity value which he can now purchase. This has been of such severity that a huge and retroactive pension fund reduction is effectively what has occurred in the private sector.

His peer who has historically ridden the inflated UK property market to the maximum and therefore done nothing to promote the true free-market system with his savings, is presently sitting on a huge untaxed and unearned apparent asset gain.

The UK Government, with the collapse of tax revenues from the City and escalating welfare bills has resorted to printing even funnier money with so-called Quantitative Easing. This is retroactive impoverishment par excellance.

When foreign lenders no longer consider sterling interest rates sufficient to cover the risks of further devaluation where can extra sterling revenue then be found? The presumed wealth of the country, wasted during the apparent high-growth years, now rests in an over-valued private property pool. No surprise then that this week the third largest political party in the country has been the first to suggest property taxes.

In the USA restoring faith in the national currency remains a viable possibility, thus a damaged credit rating might remain a deterrent to strategic mortgage defaults.

In the UK outside of the casino style banking industry, the government and the civil service, people in the country at large have noted the stark reality and will likely start to cut their own losses in far greater numbers, possibly involving agreed cross-squatting (also covered on my blog last year).

Walkaways, mutually agreed cross-squats and property taxes will dish the property market for certain …. and potentially the rule of law in the process.

Things for the UK look sombre, hence my proposal for sharing property equity losses for the period during which Gordon Brown and Mervyn King deliberately distorted inflation indexes.

I would welcome your further thoughts and will link this exchange from my blog.

Reply

Larry Doyle says:

September 24, 2009 at 8:09 am

Martin,

I find your comments to be very interesting. Your perspective from your ’side of the pond’ is on one hand understandable to anybody following economics but on the other hand very difficult to fathom for those of us on ‘this side of the pond.’

What is hard to fathom? The effective ‘taking’ of private property. I think that may create civil unrest of unprecedented proportions. Not that we may not have civil unrest for other reasons.

Suffice it to say, both the UK and US economies have real issues all of which center on excessive debt. No surprise that the sterling and greenback are each having issues.

Are we living through a multi-generational shift in the primacy of what once were two world leaders. I believe we are. To what extent? Time will tell.

Living beyond one’s means is a recipe for underperformance.

In summary, from an American perspective, I have a hard time grasping the government unilaterally assuming a degree of ownership in what was private property.

I thank you for sharing your thoughts and perspectives. I welcome continuing the dialogue on this topic as well as others.

Best.

The earlier exchanges and original article may be read from this link.

My repeated cure for Strategic Mortgage Defaults or Walkaways

Last evening, in the posting immediately beneath this, I returned to the problems of negative equity in the US and UK housing market. I later recalled that I had proffered a solution to avoid this obvious potential problem and reviewing these blog archives I found that such a cure was offered on 22nd September 2008, exactly one year ago from the dire posting of last evening. That post may be read from here in full, it was titled 'Curing Britain's Property Price Crisis', it concluded with the following idea: Mortgages have always assumed the equity provided by the mortgagee is the first at risk. In this crisis that has to be changed. I suggest that for houses purchased since Gordon Brown, in the words of incoming BoE Governor King, to paraphrase 'moved the Goal Posts and excluded house prices from the CPI' any loss of value on the resale of such houses be directly proportioned between the first mortgage holder and the mortgagee. This is potentially expensive, but less so if it halts further slides in house prices. As the country is effectively bankrupt such a move will need financing and as a further step to somewhat also put the cost of the greed at the door where it lies I would further suggest the exemption of the first home from capital gains tax be withdrawn. On the first anniversary of putting forward this so obvious proposal, that was picked by the BBC News web site for recommended reading, I must once again ask on this blog, "Why are we led by such incompetents?"

Mortgage walkaways - the next crisis!

What starts in the USA soon spreads across the Atlantic as we learned in the ongoing sub-prime mortgage inspired credit crunch and Britain's developing bankruptcy and national debt default. As I predicted the problem several months ago and on several different occasions, I chose to call the action "walkaways", or described those involved as "mortgagees handing back the keys". The US has chosen the term "Strategic Mortgage Defaults" read here. The following extract from that article describes the situation:

The number of strategic defaults is far beyond most industry estimates — 588,000 nationwide during 2008, more than double the total in 2007. They represented 18% of all serious delinquencies that extended for more than 60 days in last year’s fourth quarter.

Strategic mortgage defaults are nothing more than a very calculated financial maneuver primarily by people with high credit scores. These people are literally walking away from their homes, and the mortgages on those homes, with little to no warning or indication of stress typically identified by increased delinquencies on the mortgage payment or other credit payments.

Why are people doing this? To fully understand the reasoning behind people strategically defaulting, we need to understand why people bought these homes and took out these mortgages in the first place. The likely result, as predicted in the same article is another crisis, quote: Have loan officers, bank examiners, and regulators factored these strategic defaults into their financial models and loan loss reserves? Rest assured, the thought of strategic mortgage defaults was not incorporated into a bank risk model prior to writing the loan. Now loan officers, bank examiners, and regulators are likely working overtime to incorporate the actuality of this phenomena creating a vicious cycle downward for housing just as the actual lending practices and accompanying purchases of homes drove the housing market higher over the last decade. Did Secretary Geithner incorporate this phenomena into the Bank Stress Tests? Not if we checked the default assumptions on HELOC (Home equity lines of credit) relative to the actual statistics. Have UK politicians considered the likely impact of similar actions in the UK. I earlier predicted such defaults would kick in when price falls began to exceed 20 per cent, a point now reached and with the next downward plunge about to commence as the currency tumbles and Schedule D property taxes look certain to return as one of the few sources for government revenue, a rout to sell at any price appears a possibility. Those walking away from unaffordable mortgages and their homes will start to be such a force they themselves will become a factor not to be ignored. As the non-resignation of Baroness Scotland, supported by the Prime Minister, this evening clearly illustrates, the ministers and leader of this UK administration have not one single moral principle in their make-up. Their financial ignorance in the face of the obvious fact that money has been their sole obsession for many, many years, makes their incompetence and lack of any foresight in the area of economics even more incredible.

Open letter to David Cameron from Anne Palmer JP

Address removed

22.9.2009.

The Rt Hon David Cameron MP

Leader of the Conservative Party

House of Commons,

London

SW1A OAA.

Dear Mr Cameron,

Although I am not in the Conservative Party, I have always voted for the Conservatives in a General election. However, as the EU instigates so very many of our Laws now and a great deal more should ‘Lisbon’ come into FORCE, we all, even our own MP’s will have to obey, I question why anyone would want to vote for any British political Party that, although elected by the people of this country, to speak for the people, do not do as the people wish. It is well known that the people were promised and should have had a referendum on the very constitutional EU Treaty.

Having just written that, and knowing the contents of that Treaty, I believe anyone that voted for it, may be violating their solemn Oath of Allegiance to the British Crown and the present wearer of it. If I just take the smallest Article (Article 47) in the Treaty of Lisbon, it gives the European Union as a whole, for the very first time, “legal personality” which allows the EU to “speak with one voice” for the whole of the EU on many subjects and at meetings and to ratify Treaties on behalf of all 27 Countries without debates in National Parliaments. War making Power? There is no mention that this is NOT so.

As far as the UK is concerned our Government uses the Royal Prerogative on behalf of the British Crown for many things and particularly, for ratifying Treaties. The power of the Crown is used through the Royal Prerogative. It is held in trust by Government Ministers and to pass on to the next maybe different Government to use. Through Article 47, it means that our Government has given the Royal Prerogative to foreigners to use through the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon. The power of the British Crown is the ultimate authority (sovereignty) of Parliament and its Treaty making instrument, the Royal Prerogative. It is not in the authority of Government to give away this Royal Prerogative to anyone and certainly not to foreigners, it is not in their ‘gift’ to give, for it belongs to The British Crown.

The Treaty, I believe, is contrary to our own Common law Constitution and Her Majesty’s Coronation Oath, "That no foreign Prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate hath, or ought to have any jurisdiction, power superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm, So help me God." ALL our politicians swear a solemn Oath of Allegiance to the Crown and through the Crown to this Country and its people before they can take their seat in Parliament. How then can they ratify Treaties that allows foreigners to ratify Treaties on our behalf, and for all the years to come?

I doubt any of us believe the people will continue voting or paying for a "pretendy" Government for long, especially as time goes by. This is not what we vote for them to do. All three major political parties are presently talking of cuts in spending. Stop paying the billions in “contributions” to the EU and paying the unlimited amounts in “fines” when this once sovereign Government does not always get EU laws right, and then everything will fall into place. Working with others and not ruled by them.

Has Government in ratifying this Treaty revoked the power of the Crown as exercised by Government denying the exclusive authority of the British Government to use the Royal Prerogative in those areas they have agreed to allow the EU to use the powers of the Royal Prerogative in their stead? In the doing, the EU “Binds the Crown and Government”. Not only is our Government made subservient to the EU, the Crown is also by this action. I write

of “The Crown”, for I recognise that the power of the Crown is the ultimate authority (sovereignty) of Parliament and that power, (sovereignty) is used by Government through the Royal Prerogative. It is that sovereign power this Government have given away to the European Union for Article 47. As the EU Treaties are designed for all time and the EU is planning for the next 50 years, it would seem to be a gift of which there is no return, given by a temporary Government, binding every new future Government and future Heirs to the throne. I submit this was not in the gift of ministers and that they could, at a future date, be held guilty of sedition against the State.

I am mindful that it was also the Conservatives that made Her Majesty a Citizen of Europe through the ratification of the Treaty of Maastricht. It is well known that two subjects of Her Majesty tried to bring charges of treason against the Government but it was deemed, as I understand it, by the then Attorney General as ‘not in the public’s interest’ to allow the case. (yet one rule of justice is that no man be judge in his own case, “non judex in causa sua”. However times change, and we also know that “Lisbon” changes (deepens) that EU citizenship, for the Treaty of Lisbon has ‘competence’ over all Nation States’ Constitutions and Laws. However, in spite of the Treaties ratified by this Government, or perhaps because of, if Lisbon goes through without the people having had their say in a referendum, the people’s allegiance to their own Country will become stronger and parts of their own Constitution, Magna Carta and the Declaration and Bill of Rights 1688/9 will eventually be put to the test once more. It does not bode well for future peace.

Not many people have any trust left in Members of our Parliament and even less in the present Government. “Britain will not be bound by Treaties to which the British have not given assent”. That was written by William Reese-Mogg September 13 2009. Should you wish for my vote, I would need a total vow of commitment to hold a referendum whether the Treaty has been ratified or not and the Treaty withdrawn immediately whether all 27 States have ratified it or not. Never in the history of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties has anything like this happened before, although a Treaty has been withdrawn once, before all parties ratified. It is however, very questionable if the Treaty of Lisbon complies with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties own articles, for the Treaties should be clear and precise in order to be understood by all those to whom it applies. The Treaty of Lisbon is perhaps the most (deliberately) ‘muddled’ EU Treaty of all time and perhaps the last EU Treaty, for its acceptance will finally destroy the self-governing of each Nation State. I await your reply and actions with great interest.

Yours faithfully,

Anne Palmer. JP. (Written copy in the post.)

Pig Ignorance from a Telegraph Political Editor

In Britain today an online edition of a 'Telegraph' group newspaper has this statement:

The Government has refused to hold a referendum here. The Conservatives, however, have not ruled out offering a vote even if the treaty has become law by the time they come to power.

A “no” vote in Britain would then, according to experts, inevitably lead to Britain withdrawing from the treaty and effectively “de-ratifying” it across the Continent – throwing the EU into chaos and potentially forcing a large majority of member states to draw up a new treaty from which Britain would be excluded.

Such reporting is dangerous rubbish! The British Government, following a conspiracy involving the timing of the take-over of power between Blair and Brown, the lying and manipulation of D. Milliband and M. Beckett and various parliamentary shenanigans unworthy in any democracy (but, shamefully, involving the three leaders of the main political parties) has already ratified the Lisbon Treaty, had it printed on animal skin, signed by the Queen and lodged in Rome). Once the other 26 signatories similarly legally ratify that treaty it becomes binding on all 27 members for all time, only allowing withdrawal from its totalitarian and democracy destroying provisions by the trigger of its own withdrawal procedures, effectively requiring national castration and other even more severe forms of sovereign self-mutilation. There is not, nor can there ever be the possibility of - “de-ratifying” it across the Continent. The author of this dreadful piece of journalism, suggesting de-ratification as a possibility, is the following: Patrick Hennessy, Political Editor Published: 9:00AM BST 20 Sep 2009 Read the entire article from this link, if, like me, you find such rubbish difficult to believe. The Telegraph, once again, plumbs the depths - it remains an honour to continue to be black-listed from their Comment threads!

Bankrupt Britain - Blame Ourselves

The Government knew on 24th July that savage cuts were inevitable. Read here. A then "Spectator'' journalist challenged the Prime Minister directly with these same staistics from the IFS. The mainstream media has been deliberately silent on these facts throughout the sumer. Politicians did not hold the Government to account although they were warned, see my post of 24th July, linked here, the day this report is dated! Politicians have colluded in the unlawful spending of taxpayer funds throughout this summer which continues to this day and must do so until Parliament re-convenes. Quantitative Easing has been admitted as having failed by the Governor of the Bank of England yet it continues still further worsening the indebtedness of the nation. The HBOS Lloyds merger was a national disaster, again as warned on this blog. In the face of all this, how is it the British people, led by their media, remain silent? How can The Times of London, headline, in its online addition of this morning, on citizens, " in the future" having the right to choose their own Doctor.... have I lost my mind???? Afterthought - having corrected some (hopefully all) of the ghastly typos my astonishment earlier caused- I have indeed gone mad, how else can this report on Barclays Bank's moves to hide and bury their 'poisonous' ie "worthless"assets to the Caymen Islands be true???????

German Parliament approves its Special Status under Lisbon Treaty

The BBC reports the passage of the legislation through the German Lower House as follows:

German lawmakers have approved legislative changes paving the way for ratification of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

The lower house (Bundestag) backed the legislation with 494 votes in favour, 46 against and two abstentions.

The changes should give parliament a bigger say over EU matters that concern Germany. The country's Constitutional Court called for these changes in June.

Wake up Europe - special provisions applicable only to Germany?????

EU Stockholm Programme

De-humanising the serfs and destroying the last vestiges of individuality within the EU Lisbon was never to be the end. Download the complete PDF File COM 262 Stockholm 2009.pdf - from here. Try the annex for a taste: ANNEX: Priority issues Promoting citizens' rights: a Europe of rights Fundamental rights The Union must accede to the European Convention on Human Rights in order to enhance its system for the protection of fundamental rights. The Union will assess, on the basis of a report published by the Commission, how to facilitate a sharing of the memory of totalitarian crimes. Free movement The effective implementation of Directive 2004/38 on the free movement of persons is essential. The Commission will back it up by publishing guidelines and monitor its application. A system will be set up in this context allowing citizens to obtain civil status documents easily and free of charge. In the long term, the Union must consider mutual recognition of the effects of civil status documents. Respect for diversity The Union must devise a common approach for mobilising the existing financial and legal instruments better in order to tackle discrimination, racism, xenophobia and homophobia. Protecting the vulnerable An ambitious EU strategy on the rights of the child must be developed. EU action for the protection of the vulnerable, women victims of violence and dependent persons has to be strengthened. Data protection The Union must establish a comprehensive personal data protection scheme covering all areas of EU competence. The introduction of a European certification scheme for 'privacy-aware' technologies, products and services must be examined. Data protection requires strong international cooperation. The Union must contribute to the development and promotion of international standards in this area. Participating in democratic life With a view to the European elections of 2014, the Union will introduce innovative measures to encourage citizens' participation. Consular protection A stronger framework of coordination and cooperation in the consular protection sphere must be introduced.

Sarkozy stands by as Merkel declares German EU Sovereignty

I have scanned the morning media to try to locate a report to link to the extraordinary defeat for democracy that occurred yesterday evening. At a joint press conference yesterday, screened live on France 24, while Britain was on its Bank Holiday, Merkel described the procedure by which the German Parliament will assume "control" on all EU matters undertaken within the EU under the terms of the soon to be ratified Lisbon Constitutional Treaty, whilst leaving every other national parliament within the corrupt organisation effectively neutered. The presumed head of state of France stood by, looked on and said nothing. No links have been found. Later last eveing, it was reported, the two presumed leaders, met over dinner to discuss the future of Europe. At least, for the moment you can still read such details on this blog, but if it is buried everywhere else, how long will my "write" to blog continue?