The pulverisation of Portugal
The Observer newspaper, from Britain, presents itsef as a serious journal, enter Portugal in the search box facility of its headline page this morning and you get this, one joint letter signed by a Professor from the University of Porto!
The Sunday Telegraph does little better with one short item under 'Gilts' and another similar under 'Economics', both posted early on yesterday. None care what the Sunday Times reports, cowering as it is behind the Murdoch pay wall, the political influence of which man (in our now fully corrupted democracy) is the subject of the Observer's main story, linked here.
Britain, it appears has ceased to be interested in democracy.
We must therefore rely on other news sources to discern the detail of the disaster for pan-European democracy that is rapidly gathering momentum across the EU. RTT News, linked here reports as follows:
In considering the full nonsense contained in this statement, the following facts are crucial:
1. There are no Portuguese authorities with any constitutional legitimacy with whom to negotiate until after the General Election in June.
2. The Portuguese political parties who might be coerced into negotiations, as a result of such negotiations will be unlikely to be elected in the General Election, given the collapse of the previous government following its failure to push a similar austerity package through Parliament.
The General Election to be held in Finland on 17th April, will be the first hurdle in the evolving situation. Jyrki Katainen, the Finnish Finance Minister, who leads the party presently leading the polls, is walking a tightrope as can be seen from this video:
Click here, to see the details of the nine parties in contention in the Finnish elections to guage the impossibility of predicting whether, following the results, there will be a necessary majority in the Finnish Parliament to approve the Portugal package, let alone the earlier reforms to the EFSF and EFSM already supposedly agreed, read here.
Should Finland prove a stumbling block, following their election, then their parliament will likely prove the next victim of the bullying, anti-democratic actions of Ecofin. Portugal will then most likely gain a reprieve and temporary support pending a new Government taking power, which must surely have been all nation's expectation when signing up to the common currency?
As it is a Sunday morning, I cannot leave my weekend readers on such a gloomy note, so here is the new anthem I propose for the poor Finn (but like all EU Commissioners, thoroughly greedy and therefore fully deserving of his fate) in the middle, Olli Rehn, and the pathetic bunch of Finance Ministers from across the EU, who form the horror that is Ecofin:
The Sunday Telegraph does little better with one short item under 'Gilts' and another similar under 'Economics', both posted early on yesterday. None care what the Sunday Times reports, cowering as it is behind the Murdoch pay wall, the political influence of which man (in our now fully corrupted democracy) is the subject of the Observer's main story, linked here.
Britain, it appears has ceased to be interested in democracy.
We must therefore rely on other news sources to discern the detail of the disaster for pan-European democracy that is rapidly gathering momentum across the EU. RTT News, linked here reports as follows:
EU ministers agreed to prepare the financial assistance package to Portugal immediately and to reach an agreement by mid-May.
The package will be provided on the basis of a policy programme which will be supported by strict conditionality and negotiated with the Portuguese authorities, duly involving the main political parties, according to a statement released after the European Union finance ministers meeting on Friday.
In considering the full nonsense contained in this statement, the following facts are crucial:
1. There are no Portuguese authorities with any constitutional legitimacy with whom to negotiate until after the General Election in June.
2. The Portuguese political parties who might be coerced into negotiations, as a result of such negotiations will be unlikely to be elected in the General Election, given the collapse of the previous government following its failure to push a similar austerity package through Parliament.
The General Election to be held in Finland on 17th April, will be the first hurdle in the evolving situation. Jyrki Katainen, the Finnish Finance Minister, who leads the party presently leading the polls, is walking a tightrope as can be seen from this video:
Click here, to see the details of the nine parties in contention in the Finnish elections to guage the impossibility of predicting whether, following the results, there will be a necessary majority in the Finnish Parliament to approve the Portugal package, let alone the earlier reforms to the EFSF and EFSM already supposedly agreed, read here.
Should Finland prove a stumbling block, following their election, then their parliament will likely prove the next victim of the bullying, anti-democratic actions of Ecofin. Portugal will then most likely gain a reprieve and temporary support pending a new Government taking power, which must surely have been all nation's expectation when signing up to the common currency?
As it is a Sunday morning, I cannot leave my weekend readers on such a gloomy note, so here is the new anthem I propose for the poor Finn (but like all EU Commissioners, thoroughly greedy and therefore fully deserving of his fate) in the middle, Olli Rehn, and the pathetic bunch of Finance Ministers from across the EU, who form the horror that is Ecofin:
posted by Martin at 8:09 AM
1 Comments:
How about this from todays Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8440938/Iceland-rejects-UK-repayment-deal.html
'A refusal to pay back the money could threaten the plans of Iceland, which has a population of 320,000, to seek membership of the European Union and lead to litigation through the European Free Trade Association.'
As the Icelanders (as opposed to their politicians) do not seem to want to join the EU, it looks like they won't be too worried about that threat.
It is amazing what real democracy can do.
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