Will Christine Lagarde shovel BNP Greek Debt onto taxpayers

The following extract from a Financial Times report of 6th May, 2010, linked here.

§§§

BNP Paribas reveals €5bn Greek debt exposure

By Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Paris
Published: May 6 2010 07:55 | Last updated: May 6 2010 13:24

BNP Paribas revealed details of its exposure to Greece on Thursday when it announced that it held €5bn ($4.2bn) in sovereign debt and €3bn of company loans in the debt-burdened country.

BNP Paribas Q1 results

Revenues	Net profit	Earnings per share	Dividend
€11.5bn	€2.3bn	€1.87	-
↑22%	↑47%	↑20.6%	-

Baudouin Prot, chief executive, said France’s largest bank by revenues would hold on to the sovereign debt, in line with the request by Christine Lagarde, finance minister, on Wednesday that French banks maintain their Greek exposure.

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After the Greek Default

An interesting graphic is available from this link to Seeking Alpha, it shows which banks have the most exposure to Greek debt with BNP Parisbas seeming to lead the way, the article describes the process over the coming days and weeks:

Privatisation EU Style - a "criminal political act"

Greek port workers were on strike today in Piraeus and Thessaloniki, read here:

“The total sell-off of all profitable public companies is an incomprehensible and criminal political act,” the Union of Port Workers said in an statement when the sell-off plans were announced.

More reading on rising (and thoroughly predictable) Greek anger is here.

EU Commission Gets IT Right! Hope springs eternal.

Rarely has this blog, nor even its forerunner, been able to consider, let alone proclaim, that the EU Commission has been absolutely correct. Personally speaking, I doubted that day would ever come, let alone under the Commission Presidency of Barroso. Yet read the following from the EU Observer of today, linked here.

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30.05.2011 @ 17:42 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has warned that an international body taking charge of Greece's €50 billion privatisation programme - an idea that is being pushed by the Netherlands and Luxembourg - would threaten the country's sovereignty.

§§§

BRAVO

Fukushima Radiation Risks and German Infantilism!

In early April I alerted my blog readers to the radiation risks in Europe from the Fukushima catastrophe, by a link to this report. The absence of further news since then has been deeply suspicious, now we have been informed that the dangers have been concealed and that the EU Ombudsman is to investigate, read here.

Alerting adults to existing dangers and comparative levels of risk, should be a prime responsibility of any democratic state! No wonder it is missing in the EU!

Germany's early  kneejerk reactions to shutdown certain old nuclear power plants were hardly the sign of a mature democracy at work. If the day before the shutdown the national regulatory agencies were functioning properly and the safety environment imposed by the state had previously been adequate, the events brought on by a Pacific Ocean tsunami, hardly seemed a proper reason for such an alarmist government decision. After all, the day after Fukushima, nothing had changed in the operating environment for German nuclear plants. Had France followed the German lead I imagine, this blog would have been largely silent over the past month or so.

Similarly the announcement by the German Coalition Government yesterday to shut all its nuclear power plants from 2022, linked here is similarly alarming.

This is the nation that presumes to run Europe. German electors, through the ruthless use of their economic power, will in the very near future, if the EU is not soon abandoned, be the only voters in Europe who have any say in how our Continent is run, yet their own elected politicians increasingly treat them as though they were unreasoning children!

Bundesbank sabre rattling towards the ECB.

There was a fascinating article in Der Spiegel last week, dateline originally 24th May, then to this article of 27th May linked here, which revealed some truly startling facts on the nature of the debts taken up by the ECB from other European National Central Banks.

Much of that article and its various links has now been reproduced and re-issued   with a dateline for today, see here. The conclusion hints at a clear dispute as to the division of power, I quote:

An Extremely Dangerous Development

Economists agree that Greece will not emerge from its crisis without a debt restructuring. "To become competitive again, the country would have to reduce prices and wages by 20 to 30 percent," says Ifo President Sinn. This would correspond to the devaluation that occurred in Germany in the early 1930s as a result of the emergency decrees of then Chancellor Heinrich Brüning. "This sort of thing works in theory, but in practice it leads to the brink of civil war."

The development is extremely dangerous for the ECB. If it hopes to keep faltering Greece afloat with new government loans, it will need the consent of Germany, the biggest financial contributor to the community. But how does it expect to get it if no one in Germany has any faith in its strategy anymore?

As a result, a rethinking of the ECB's approach seems to be taking shape -- not in the bank's Frankfurt directorate, which is stubbornly adhering to the anti-restructuring doctrine, but at its most important branch, the Bundesbank, only a few kilometers farther north.

Last week Jens Weidmann, the new president of Germany's central bank, expressed his views on the subject in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. And to ensure that no one would overlook it, Weidmann uttered a sentence at the beginning of the interview that Trichet would delete from any document: "The Bundesbank is not opposed to a debt restructuring per se."

The problem I now see possibly looming, is that Germany seems about to disown some of the lending practises undertaken by the ECB whilst under Trichet's management. If this extends to a disavowal of some of the detail of the loan structures between the various mechanisms of the EU and those of the IMF, following the May 2010 illegal decision to trash the EU Treaties, taken in Wolfgagng Schauble's absence, then things really are about to get very rocky!

N.B., this quote from the first link in the first paragraph of this posting:

Does The ECB Know How Safe Its Collateral Is?

The ECB maintains a list of "eligible assets," a sort of seal of approval for securities. Every major bank in the euro zone must have such securities, such as bonds or government bonds, or it would be excluded from the money market. There are currently 28,708 securities on the ECB list, with a total value €14 trillion at the end of 2010.(Blog editor's emphasis)

The national central banks determine which securities are placed on the list and under what conditions. "The ECB has no obligation to supervise the central banks, nor does it have the ability to monitor individual central banks," explains an ECB spokesman.

In other words, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet doesn't even know exactly what kinds of risks he is taking on.

Lagarde heads for Brazil, can the Greek Crisis be contained to 10th June?

Nomination papers for the next IMF chief may be submitted up to 10th June. Interesting further reading on the "so far" non-contest is here. Read The Washington Post on Lagarde's trip from here.

I was at a lunch on Saturday which was briefly addressed by a French Professor of finance, Philippe Dessertine, whose latest book predicts the world as heading towards war, as a result of the present economic crisis. Around my lunch table there were mutterings of "pessimist", as he warned of the likely horrors ahead, but to my mind he seemed to make a very clear and well thought through argument. This is unusual in France where there seems little day to day recognition of the impact the eurozone crisis is likely soon to exact.

The role played by Christine Lagarde, the French Finance Minister, and presently favourite for the position at the top of the IMF, in the original bail out of Greece, seems little understood. France's exposure to the consequences of the debts accrued by the French led ECB, following the agreements made at the Euro Group Ecofin in May, 2010, where Lagarde became the effective senior national representative under Juncker's chairmanship, in the absence of the German Economics Minister, who was hospitaised as described on this blog at the time, seem yet to have been fully absorbed by the French population at large.

The non-eurocurrency nations of the world should take great care, that when the euro crisis finally explodes, and these facts and huge, unquantified debt exposures are brought to the attention of the French by the wily Germans, it may be best if the IMF had a non-involved leader to try to extricate the IMF at minimum costs to their contributing countries own Treasuries.

If Greece self-destructs after the deadline of 10th June for IMF nomination papers to be lodged, Christine Lagarde may win through. But can Greece continue to totter on for another twelve days, we shall see, so far the USA is giving no clue as to their intentions, one must wonder what concessions they are presently trying to extract?

The true face of the EU revealed

This video comes from a report from EU Observer, linked here. Watching the baton wielding agents of the EU, clearing Madrid's Plaça Catalunya, note the absolute absence of any individual markings allowing any identification, one from another. They seem comparatively harmless (given the real nature of the organisation on whose behalf they act,) being filmed as they are. Why then, the oh so deliberate anonymity?

Greece Update

Der Spigel has a story that the economic inspection team in Greece has declared that the country has failed to meet all the targets set by the Troika. In what must be seen as full panic mode on a Sunday, particularly one ahead of the Memorial Day holiday, the Wall Street Journal, has issued a prompt denial, presumably with an eye on the soon to open Asian markets. Link.

A more revealing explanation of the present state of play from Greece, can be gleaned from this New Europe editorial, just out on the internet, which states:

....this brings us to the other crucial question, which is how much will Deutsche Bank be obliged to pay to holders of Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) it has sold on Greek debt, if Athens defaults or is declared in default by the Swaps and Derivatives Association? The procedure for the default to be officially acknowledged is a rather complex business but a good start towards this direction is a “reprofiling”. That is why the European Central Bank governor Jean Claude Trichet is strongly opposing any such proposals. It is not only that the ECB has amassed a wealth of around €80 billion of Greek state bonds. The ECB governor worries more for the uncharted side effects a Greek default may have. Not accidentally, Trichet was joined in this position by the newly appointed head of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Dr Jens Weidmann and the EU Commissioner Ollie Rehn.

This must be the moment for complete despair!

One year ago, I blogged at length of the disaster that had overtaken Britain and France, on the 70th anniversary of the Dunkirk evacuations. It may be read in full from this link, but certain passages bear repeating now, one totally dreadful year on:

"We must first consider a little historical fact. The Battle of France only began in earnest on 10 May 1940, thus it was in a short period of under three weeks that the pattern for five years of world war was established. On the same day seventy years later, the 10 May 2010, an agreement was reached in Brussels which, in the words of the French Minister for Europe, Pierre Lellouche....."De facto ... changed the treaty" .... thus the legal basis for Britain being within the EU has been annulled. Yet in the intervening days, the same period as Britain's Expeditionary force was beaten and then mercifully rescued from Dunkirk in 1940, the British Prime Ministe, Foreign Office and mainstream media have been largely silent while a similar defeat for the nation's interests took place.

"Are fuzzy or broken treaties a matter of great import? Can matters that appear to only affect eurozone members really be that crucial to Britain's sovereign interests?.....

"Why then have the new British Coalition Government in the shape of the Prime Minister, David Cameron, (who waffled on this topic when questioned on Radio 4 this week), the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, whose own background and position is based upon his EU employment and activities and the Foreign Office (supposedly under the control of a new Foreign Secretary, William Hague, with his own reported doubts on the EU) all remained silent as the storm clouds gather?

"Everything in Europe has changed since shortly after the day of the General Election on 6th May. When the Treaties were being trampled underfoot in a forum of only "informal status" restricted to Eurogroup members alone, on the weekend of 9th/10th May the new Coalition partners were busily drawing up their own agreement on how to govern. Inaction at that time may thus be understood.

"In the intervening period, however, the EU is visibly falling apart at the seams. The President of the European Council has been appointed to establish the method of "EU economic governance" in contradiction of all EU Treaties since Rome. He himself has admitted that the citizens of Europe have been deliberately deceived, in my view "lied to" down the years on the question of the euro currency (much else could also be included among such lies). The French Europe Minister crows at the irrelevance of the Treaties, designed to protect national sovereignty and painstakingly negotiated over many years as now 'de facto' defunct.

"The Coalition Government appears asleep on the job. Britain needs a new withdrawal from this law defying and despot creating Europe of the EU. If Cameron and Clegg had been in charge seventy years ago today, 300,000 extra British servicemen would likely be lying dead on the beaches of Dunkirk!

The very next morning, a Sunday, just as today, one year on, the headline for my daily early morning blog, linked here, was the following:

"Greece must exit Euro and Default"

If , dear reader, you have the fortitude and determination, read my postings on this blog,for the last three week period of May, last year, the same three weeks that led to the Dunkirk evacuation, seventy years before, from here.

Read the scores of posts during the twelve months in between, all urging some courage and sanity in facing up to the economic disaster which the entire world today faces, worsened by the complete negligence and incompetence of its leaders over many years, several times compounded by their complete cowardice of the past twelve months.

Perhaps then, like this blogger, you will begin to feel something akin to complete despair, as indicated in this posting's headline.

Due to lack of interest, tomorrow's blogging is cancelled!

Truly, no use coming back!

Try again on Sunday!

Tip for the weekend & Mme Lagarde on 'Today'

The following quote comes from a rather scary report from the Market Oracle site, linked here, now almost ten days old but still valid:

The closer Greece gets towards defaulting on its debts (restructuring) then the greater will be the pressure Greek and other European Banks are put under as investors flee in the face of another series of investor wipeout bailouts as have occurred during the past 3 years. As ever the risk of banks going bankrupt and taking savers depositors down with them remains which still means that UK savers need to ensure that they do not deposit more than £85k (compensation limit) with any one banking group as I covered at length in a November 2010 article - Protect Savings & Deposits From Banks Going Bankrupt!

Meanwhile panicking eurozone politicians continue with the propaganda of no default under any circumstance for Greece  as illustrated by comments from the French Finance Minister Christine Lagaard -

We are ruling out default in any form, There's no question either of Greece leaving the European Area. I want to reassure investors.

Which translates into that there WILL be another bailout for Greece, and then possibly another one after that, but a Greek default is CERTAIN, why ? because the alternative is that the whole country will be owned by foreigners ! A stealth conquest of Greece by predominantly German and French banks. Which appears to be the consequences of the single European currency, that all assets each Eurozone country owns are slowly gravitating towards being owned by mainly Germany.

The even scarier interview with Europe's candidate as next head of the IMF, Mme Christine Lagarde, on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, this morning may be listened to from this link. Note the long hesitation and rather absurd first response as to why she is qualified for the post..... because she wants it, hardly seems adequate.

Perhaps Osborne and Cameron have fallen behind her candidacy, both because the EU told them to, of course, BUT also, as once in position, she may make them appear competent? As I posted earlier today, the process being what it is, any appointee may well arrive too late to prevent the IMF from following its own rules and refusing the funds due to be paid to Greece at the end of next month!

Dutch will join IMF in refusing next Greek funding tranche. Time for a complete New Start for the EU!

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte said in a web-based video: ""We are looking very carefully at what the IMF does ... and if they don't say a new tranche in loans should go the Greeks, then we won't either."

The above quote is in a report from the Daily Telegraph this morning, linked here.

Interestingly the sequence of unfolding events seems to have been twisted in the Telegraph coverage, for last night the IMF was warning Juncker of what was the situation, here we apparently have Juncker issuing the warning to his Euro Group, nothing, as ever can be really believed when it arrives from a source connected with the EU.

The report of Mark Rutte's statement happily is confirmed by CNBC, linked here, a source clearly mostly beyond EU influence.

A fuller report with all the various statements and suggestions that this may be more Juncker brinkmanship with the Greek Government as the target is in the Baltimore Sun (also beyond EU control) linked here.

As events are now unfolding, it appears to me that the EU position is becoming increasingly desperate. It is daily ever clearer that the politicians in Germany and France, who ultimately control the direction of events, are scared witless at the very idea of a Greek defailt, the one means these two nations can defer it is by providing an open cheque to all the countries now at risk. Greece, Ireland and Portugal could thus benefit from such a guarantee if they play their cards cleverly, they now appear to hold both the Ace and King of trumps.

In the longer run, such guarantees, will not be acceptable to the electorates of Germany and France, indeed France itself, will likely be in the line behind Belgium, Spain and Italy!

The EU could look at wholesale reform, starting by suspension of the Commission and Parliament, as long suggested by this Blog. Nothing less than a completely fresh start now seems likely to have any impact.

If the EU is a full G8 member, why isn't it the G9?

"The European Union, as a full member of the G8, will push for ambitious answers to common challenges at the G8 summit in Deauville from 26-27 May, the EC press service announced" thus raves Focus Information Agency, linked here. ...... But hang on a minute, I count 8 members not including the EU, so if it really were the case that the evil empire was now a full member, would it not then be the G9?

More pointless lies, as ever with the EU! Even its own publication on the matter admits "The EU has the privileges and obligations of membership but does not host/chair summits. It is represented by the Commission and Council Presidents"

"Full Member" Focus Information Agency? A little more focus on the facts, next time please!

IMF seeks EU Guarantees to make next Greek lending available.

Slowly but surely reality must seep into the consciousness of the self-deluded bunch who have delivered Europe into bankruptcy and despair. Here I mean the likes of Trichet, Juncker, Schauble, Sarkozy, Markel et al! Reuters has the report on the IMF volte face which this blog has been awaiting all week!

That goes double for the manipulating, malevolent leaders of Britain's three political parties, who have thrown good money after bad throughout this growing crisis, with no proper guarantee it will ever be returned, no hope that it would have the desired effect and with no thought for the certain to be dire consequences, all the while having been outside the always doomed Euro Group!

This cloud cuckooland attitude to the handling of the nation's finances, was again in evidence in Parliament as recently as this very Tuesday, as I reported here.

Cameron, Clegg and the abstention ordering Miliband Minor, are now equally culpable. No doubt they gain comfort from the fact that the country has so far allowed their immediate predecessors, (guilty of similar horrendous outrageous negligence over the economy and treason over the Lisbon Treaty,) to continue to walk free! How long may that last?

Court Jesters to G8, Van Rompuy and Barroso hold Deauville press conference

Reuters has a small item from the EU Presidenbtial Comedy teams' twosome at Deauville this morning, linked here.

No doubt the thoroughly subservient and brainwashed mainstream media of the EU ex-nation states, will be providing fuller coverage of this complete and unbelievable  B***S*** later.

The Greek EU Commissioner in the meantime  was openly talking of Greece leaving the eurozone and mass demonstrations across the country reflect the rift between the political parties indicating no new bail out pretence will be possible.

Is the EU Parliament covering up for Chris Huhne MP?

Any person who at anytime is occupied (I will not say works, for that implies something useful or productive is being achieved), in and around the European Union, is then compelled to become an agent for that organisation on pain of losing the effectively tax free and obscenely high pension rights they have accrued.

It follows that the EU, thus having their money grubbing agents installed in all the national institutions of governance and power all across the Continent, becomes reluctant to see such agents fall from grace or lose their posts, particularly if they carry such importance as UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The present holder of that office, Chris Huhne, was interviewed by the police yesterday, regarding his location at a particular time and place. A report is in the Daily Mail this morning, linked here.

Step forward the EU to protect their agent! According to the blog England Expects, linked here, the attendance records covering the period concerned have been removed for Chris Huhne MEP, but remain available for other years. Well, well! All agents are in a position to obtain extra favours, once their controlling power sees them established in a position of power, how else will they continue to function to fulfil their main purpose of overthrowing the status quo to replace it with foreign control?

One must wonder what Huhne's Party Leader, fellow MEP from those days and now Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg can be receiving for delivering the Conservative side of the Coalition Government, gagged and bound for the EU to do with as it wishes?

True Finns confirm their title!

Portugal Bail Out approved in Finland's Parliament!

* True Finns and the Leftist Alliance opposed plan
* 137 vote in favour, 49 vote against

From Reuters, linked here.

Introducing Baroness HAMAShton!

The HIGHly expensive Representative of the yEUrallinlalaland, Baroness Catherine HamAshton, not content with splurging zillions on EU Ambassadors all around the world to promote a common EU Foreign Policy, that can never exist, is now set to support the known terrorist organisation,already well funded by Iran, HAMAS, read here.

Not only that, while the rest of the world prepares for stagflation, with the only stop thereafter Depression, HAMAShton is planning to increase her spending by 5.9% next year, as may be read here.

What will we get for all that wasted money? Why Cultural Attachées, watch this video and weep:




Seems to me this Lady and Baroness HAMAShton herself, should both be embedded with Hamas!

Mark Haines RIP Business TV Anchor par excellance

Squawk on the Street or elsewhere, this blog pays its tribute to a great and humourous TV anchorman, Mark Haines, who died last night. He will be missed.

Spineless Worm taunt in Finnish debate on latest EU Bail Out

 A good description of most of Britain's Parliamentarians (see our earlier posts on events in Westminster yesterday) was used in Finland's Parliament as the EU trampled upon another once Sovereign Parliament thanks to the treachery of the elected "so-called" representatives. I quote, from here:


“Spineless worm”
The True Finns Party chair Timo Soini sharply criticised the Portugal package during Tuesday’s debates.
He suggested that the parliament should not approve the package, but instead allocate the funds to help Finns in financial difficulties. According to Soini, the rescue packages for Greece, Ireland and Portugal do not help those countries’ people.
Soini lashed out both at the parties that had handled the issue and the ones who supported the bailout. He aimed particular criticism at the Green League and the Left Alliance.
Soini called the Left Alliance a spineless worm, among other things, and reminded the party that a negative position would not be possible for them as a government party once another bailout request rolled around.
The Left Alliance’s chair Paavo Arhinmäki countered that the party stands staunchly by its election promises.
“We are trying. We’re not that spineless worm that burrows into the ground at the first sight of difficulty and tries to hide from the situation,” Arhinmäki said. 

The package is voted upon today, and will probably pass following the various manipulations over whether it is a matter for the last Parliament or the next.

What a shameful state Europe is in! Meantime Mme Christine Lagarde has launched her attempt to be next IMF Managing Director, it would be a shameless world that appointed her!

It comes to something when even the BBC notices something is wrong, read from here. Although the comment titled "The people versus a European elite" seems prompted by two US commentators as quoted below:

Writing in the New York Times, Ross Douthat notes the "crisis of the European dream - the vision of a continent without borders or divisions, supervised by a benevolent and cosmopolitan elite".

But perhaps the most serious criticism of Europe's elite relates to their handling of the crisis in the eurozone.
They have insisted that the only way forward is slashing spending and reducing deficits. But the strategy divides opinion. The economist Paul Krugman notes that "objections that these programs would be self-defeating - not only would they impose large direct pain, but they also would, by worsening the economic slump, reduce revenues - were waved away."

Bloody odd, is it not that the BBC Europe Editor, has to rely on US sources to report on the real events and popular feeling in the area which he supposedly covers? The BBC should repay the supposed "loans" received from the EU and begin putting some proper reporters on the job. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard seems to have gone missing from the Telegraph stable of late, how about him?

Britain's Press Silent on Whip's Parliamentary Putsch!

Nothing happened in Westminster of any consequence at all, one would assume by reading the morning press from the UK. I have scoured the news pages, entered every combination of search words and terms that could in any way be applied to yesterday's debate on our financial assistance to the EU Bail Outs, the result zero, except for this item on the BBC web site.



I have embedded the code for that video above, whether or not it will work in the UK I cannot tell. Please use this link to go directly to the BBC page to view the debate.

If you wish to see the individual who finally sunk Parliament's long historical ability to hold the executive to account for their expenditures, you can see him without dipping into and out of the debate, he is in the lower left hand corner of the screen as Mark Reckless MP, makes his opening remarks. Shamefully, as reported in much more detail in the posting before this, only 46 MPs were prepared to vote to uphold the traditional role of MPs. Who would have thought that the remainder could sink to such depths in one short year since their election?

Our Parliament. Whipped into whingeing worthlessness!

The debate in the House of Commons this afternoon was not distinguished by any great speeches, riveting repartee nor apt argument. It was pedantic and predictable to those of us who have made a point, down the years, of watching these occasions, when Parliament is steadily ground into irrelevance, by the corrupted payroll vote of those who support the evil european project.

The initial Hansard record is linked here.

Mark Reckless MP who proposed the motion, hit the right note on the importance of the matter, with this middle portion of his introduction:

Ever since the civil war, and perhaps back to the Plantagenet era, the primary duty of this House has been to control supply, to hold the purse strings and to decide what the Executive may or may not spend on behalf of our constituents. It is not for Her Majesty’s Treasury to decide what unknowable liabilities to sign our constituents up for. It is for us, as their elected representatives, to make that decision. I ask every Member to consider that point when they cast their vote later. It is our decision, and only we stand between our constituents and the ability of others to spend their money on their behalf.

There were several worthy, but predictable contributions from the usual culprits of the Conservative anti-Maastricht wing, as one of their female colleagues described them, but for me, Kate Hoey from the Labour benches put the pointlessness of it all most succinctly:

Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab): I want to contribute to the debate because it is often implied in the media and elsewhere that very few Labour Members are against what is happening in Europe. It is important to point out that millions of Labour voters would support the motion, and would like to see my party take an even stronger view on this issue.

I do not know the details of who signed up to what and when, but I am clear that if it was our Chancellor who did so, we should not have signed up to these arrangements. The new Government coming in should certainly have made it clear that they were a new Government and that they would look at the matter again. I appreciate that they are a coalition, but this should have had a high priority in the coalition agreement.

Even in the House today, we are going to end up being unable to have a clear vote on this issue because of the way in which the procedure works and because of the way in which the Government—like previous Governments—are in a nice, cosy little group with all the pro-Europeans to ensure that we never have a real vote on these matters. I am not sure whether all those Members who have signed up to the Government’s amendment knew what they were signing up to. I cannot believe that they do not support the motion tabled by the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Mark Reckless). Looking at the amendment, we see that they accept the motion up to and including the point that the EFSM is “legally unsound”. If something is legally unsound, the Government should automatically oppose it. I am sure that the European Union will be quivering when it hears that the Government’s amendment proposes that the Government

“raise the issue of the EFSM at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers or the European Council; and supports any measures which would lead to an agreement for a Eurozone-only arrangement.” 

Douglas Carswell made a strong contribution, but I do not wish to give too many long quotes as the true victor of the day was the Shadow Treasury Spokesman, whom I have not seen in action before, who stole the day in my mind. He hit on the key to the issue which goes back to how Britain got sucked into the obligation of Britain contributing to save a currency we always knew was doomed. His name Chris Leslie representing Nottingham East and sponsored by Labour Co-op, some quotes:

We need to clarify some of the history to this issue because I get the impression that certain hon. Members are labouring under a false set of impressions about the European financial stabilisation mechanism. Of course there were the ECOFIN meetings of 9 and 10 May at which the EFSM was agreed to as part of the package of measures to maintain financial stability across Europe. It was against that backdrop that my right hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling), the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, consulted both the current Chancellor and the Business Secretary, and cross-party consensus had been gained. Those are not my words but those of the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. The explanatory memorandum that she signed on 15 July 2010 in her own fair hand—Justine Greening, Economic Secretary—says those words:

“cross-party consensus had been gained.”

I know it is convenient for Ministers and some hon. Members to rewrite history and to give a partial account of what happened and about these important facts, but there it is in writing. [ Interruption. ] If hon. Members want to dispute the words of their honourable colleague on the Front Bench I am happy to give way to them.....

...In a letter of 18 July 2010 to the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, to whom I shall give way in a moment, the Economic Secretary also said, very helpfully, that

“this Government judges”

the EFSM

“to be an appropriate response to the crisis.”

So the official voice of the Government, according to what the Economic Secretary has written in her own fair hand, was that there was a consensus approach during the transitional period following the general election and that the current Government judged the EFSM to be an appropriate response to the crisis.

Mr Cash: Does the shadow Minister accept that the date on which that particular statement was made, 15 July 2010, was four days after the expiry of the date on which a challenge to the European Court could have been made? Furthermore, does he accept that since then the Government have insisted that they oppose the proposal of the former Chancellor of the Exchequer?

Chris Leslie: That is an extremely illuminating fact and it would be perfectly legitimate for Members on the Government side, perhaps in private meetings elsewhere, to ask a few more searching questions about what exactly their Front Benchers have been doing in their name. Either the Minister who signed the memorandum was wrong—perhaps she was misled in her understanding or she and her officials were ignorant of the facts—or perhaps she was actually speaking the truth but was subsequently slapped down by the Chancellor.

The situation has changed markedly since last May. The circumstances under which the EFSM was then agreed have altered, casting doubt on whether it is being used appropriately, as many hon. Members have said. Because of the various weaknesses shown by the current Administration in Europe, we have ended up increasingly paying more than our fair share in relation to the EFSM facility, especially as time and again the junior EFSM fund in the bail-out package has ended up shouldering up to a third of the bail-out costs, as some hon. Members have pointed out. We have found that the agreement in May regarding the EFSM sum of €60 billion would represent only 12% of the non-IMF contribution, with the remaining €440 billion being borne by the wider eurozone fund. The British liability for that was going to be only 12.5%, but the proportion contributed from the EU-wide EFSM to the Irish bail-out was greater than the eurozone proportion. The Portuguese bail-out was hardly an improvement, with one third coming from the EFSF, one third from the EFSM and another third from the IMF.

The Minister must explain to the House why the EFSM, which makes up only 12% of the non-IMF contribution, is being drawn upon to the same extent as or more than the EFSF. That forms a crucial part of the motion tabled by Back Benchers. The Minister is under an obligation at least to say why we are using the EFSM to such a high degree. That is incredibly important. It has been in the gift of Ministers to answer that question, but so far they have neglected to do so.

(Blog editor's highlighting throughout.)

Needless to say, the Minister (Mark Hoban, useless,waffling and evasive nonentity as he he quickly proved to be,) completely failed to address these points and stumbled his way to the time limit for his speech, offering nothing for either his listeners, that this neutered Parliament still presumes to pay a salary, nor any enlightenment or comfort for the taxpayers that they daily fleece.

Only 46 MPs in Parliament today, now seem worthy of their posts and the salary, pension and perks that go with it? A sad event, and pitiful spectacle indeed.

I will return to the balance beween payments from the EFSM versus the EFSF at a later date. It is clearly exactly as this blog has been suggesting for the past year!

 

Finagling Finns Dirty their own Democracy!

An English language report on the unusual nature of events, scheduled to take place this afternoon in the Finnish Parliament, from Helsinki, may be read from here.

Note some of the grotesque gyrations the Finns are now going through, in order to provide Portugal with an EU bail out, which will assuredly prove as useless as that given to Greece one year ago. All quotes come from the linked article:

Soini, whose party opposes the bailout package, promised that his ten-minute speech “will not disappoint”.

One of the issues that Soini planned to touch upon is the morality of the process.
A decision on the bailout question will be made by the new Parliament, but it is being presented to Parliament by the old government, which is still in office in a caretaker capacity as negotiations on the formation of a new coalition are going on.....

An unusual aspect of the process is that the it includes a Parliamentary vote of confidence in a government that will soon leave office....

The Social Democratic Party, which previously opposed EU subsidies for Portugal, now supports the package.

Asset Stripping Greece could lead to a return of the Colonels!

I do not often find myself in disagreement with John Redwood MP, and on matters economic, If I do, I generally hold my silence, bowing to his greater experience and formidable analytical abilities. His Diary Entry discussing the debate for this afternoon in the House of Commons, on UK money for the EU bail outs, proffers three steps to remove ourselves from the present mess. I could not be in greater disagreement when he comes to support the next best step as being the privatisation of the assets of the periperal countries, which is presently being everywhere proposed as a cure-all for the eurozone debtor countries.

Were we only setting out to help Greece as if we had no part in causing the predicament in which that country now finds itself, Mr Redwood's proposals might make sense, especially in an environment where the present EU status quo might conceivably feasibly be foreseen as continuing. Unhappily it cannot!

We are far from being in such a happy position, however, although more correctly speaking it is the Euro Group of countries that are not, Britain being outside the Eurozone, and in a roughly similar situation to Greece itself ( that matter being best left for another posting on another day) is somewhat slightly less culpable over Greece.

The ECB and the Euro Group are directly responsible for the mess and asset stripping as now proposed, thereby rewarding the guiltiest, can only result in a return of something like the former government of the  Greek Colonels, also risking moving on to a Franco replacement in Spain and perhaps even a Salazar in Portugal.

The steps towards the economic ruination of the peripheral states in the EU, when viewed against the recent history of the common currency, can only be seen as both inevitable and therefore deliberate. If the assets of these states are sequestered and end up in the hands of the stronger Euro Zone nations, the people of such robbed nations will hardly be likely to allow that situation to continue for very long.

Privatisation, as it is now being euphemistically phrased, is a means whereby worthless paper, which should never have been issued in the first place, can be used to aquire assets of substance. The people of any nation, under new governments outside of the EU, would be entirely correct to regain title to such privatised assets without offering any compensation, given the means by which they had been stolen in the first place! The ECB and the EU Banks aquiring these distressed properties will thereby end up no better off, merely have returned a worse fascism even than their own to our Continent.

Irish Times report on Greek Asset sales is here.

Populism = Democracy - hence the growing fear of the EU elitists!

Robbing Cameron!

Watch the two young people at either elbow of the man who today stole £400 million of ordinary people's money for ludicrous schemes which you may read about on this posting "Robin Hood has no place in Government" linked here.

Motion on the illegaility of Eurozone Financial Assistance for Tomorrow in Parliament

EUROZONE FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE

Mark Reckless Zac Goldsmith Mr John Redwood Mr Douglas Carswell Mr Bernard Jenkin Henry Smith

Mr William Cash    Mr David Ruffley    Mr Peter Bone Steve Baker    Mr David Nuttall    Gordon Henderson Mr Philip Hollobone    Philip Davies    Mr John Whittingdale Mr Edward Leigh    Mr Christopher Chope    Mr James Clappison Mr Richard Shepherd

That this House notes with concern that UK taxpayers are potentially being made liable for bail-outs of Eurozone countries when the UK opted to remain outside the Euro and, despite agreement in May 2010 that the EU-wide European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) of €60 billion would represent only 12 per cent. of the non-IMF contribution with the remaining €440 billion being borne by the Eurozone through the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), that the EFSM for which the UK may be held liable is in fact being drawn upon to the same or greater extent than the EFSF; notes that the European Scrutiny Committee has stated its view that the EFSM is legally unsound; and requires the Government to place the EFSM on the agenda of the next meeting of the Council of Ministers or the European Council and to vote against continued use of the EFSM unless a Eurozone only arrangement which relieves the UK of liability under the EFSM has by then been agreed.

Treasures from the threads - Number 63

In response to an article arguing for the motion, against the EU bail outs from the UK, to be put in the House of Commons tomorrow by Mark Reckless MP, linked here, comes this wonderful analogy:

Dawn Carpenter said...

When you train to be a lifeguard, the most important lesson you learn is how to swim up to a drowning man: how to approach him, what to say to him, how to take hold of him -- how to avoid letting him grab hold of you. A man who is drowning is frequently in a state of irrational panic, and he can pull his would-be rescuer under so that both of them drown. That is the state the EU has reached: going under, seizing whatever it can clutch with increasing desperation. We are in financial crisis ourselves, a weak swimmer. The EU will pull us under if we swim up to it. And as it is not a human being but a dirigiste monster that has run amuck, a Frankenstein monster that has turned on its creators, we should not swim out to it. We should stand safe on shore and watch it drown.

Reply May 23, 2011 at 07:52

Where will the disgrace of defaulting be laid in Euroland?

In the past, countries defaulting on their debt obligations have tended to bear the brunt of the blame in increased borrowing costs in the decades that follow the default.

The assumption during the present crisis seems to have mainly been that this will be true for the ex-nations that may be forced to default due to their inappropriate membership of the Euro Group. I wonder if that will be true? As it is the ECB and the triple 'A' rated Euro Group members who are driving the brutal and dreadfully misplaced policies that are clearly only worsening the plight of the periphery members, surely the eventual consequences will fall most heavily upon them?

As Default is now a matter of how rather than when, read this analysis from September last year, which appeared on the site of SafeHaven.com titled "Ask not Whether Governments will Default, but How", linked here, from which I quote the following:

It is not whether to default, but how, and vis-à-vis whom. What this means is that - as indicated above - governments will impose a loss on some of their stakeholders and have in fact started to do so (across Europe at least). The question is not whether they will renege on their promises, but rather upon which of their promises they will renege, and what form this default will take. From the perspective of sovereign debt holders, this translates in two questions:

• Does their claim on governments rank senior enough relative to other claims to fully shelter them from losses?
• If it does not, what form will this loss take?

Bonds remain the most senior government liability. There are good reasons why government bonds should rank senior to most other liabilities. To mention one: governments need to be able to raise finance to fund public investment as well as to perform their macroeconomic stabilisation role. They cannot issue equity, and cannot credibly issue secured debt. Unrestricted access to unsecured, confidence-based funding is core to their 'business model', as it is for banks. This was, historically at least, the main argument for honouring sovereign debt. There are others, not least the consequences of a government default for output and for financial stability when banks own substantial exposure to the sovereign.

In the Eurozone, it is now the ECB and the still liquid taxpayers who will be stuck with the costs of the imminent peripheral defaults.

In the UK other stakeholders will have to be found to take the hit. My posting on "Orphans of Liberty" over the weekend, titled 'The NHS can cure the country' sparked some debate, but charging for health care seems an obvious next step given the dire straits and deep incompetence of our country's rulers. The stakeholders in the UK are the taxpayers, and while banks and bondholders are to be protected it has to be at the expense of taxpayers or beneficiaries of Government spending, namely public pensions, health, welfare etc., defence by now having already been cut almost to the bone.

Huge and real cost savings can better be made, were our Government not scared witless at taking the role of the small boy in the crowd in Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, and pointing out to the EU, its increasingly obscene nakedness.

Refusing further money transfers until the EU ceases to operate beyond the intent and legality of the EU Treaties, would seem a perfectly reasonable and legally justified attitude to take.  Worse, given the French Finance Minister's admission that Ecofin has been acting illegally over the EFSF, backing that same lady, Mme Christine Lagarde, for the post of Managing Director of the IMF, as George Osborne did at the weekend, shows not merely our complete insanity, but also our groveling subservience to the deeply flawed and clearly failing EU!

When National Courts are Defied - The EU gains again. Plus Barnier's plea for World Governance!

Spain's Constitutional Court ruled there were to be no demonstrations in Spain this weekend. At 2400 hours, midnight last Friday, thousands of silent protesters with sticky tape over their mouths and bare hands held high, silently greeted the new day, watched over by occasional policeman, their riot gear for now laid aside. As Saturday arrived and the illegality of their presence took effect a huge cheer swept across the thousands there assembled to celebrate their protest. If my words do not convey the feeling and seriousness of this moment, I posted a video of the scene from Madrid as the clock struck, which may be viewed from the post below this. The Irish Times also has a good report from Spain, linked here, from which I quote this significant passage:

"Protesters were also gathered in Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Bilbao and other cities, as they have been all week, urging people not to vote for Spain's two main parties, the ruling Socialists or the centre-right opposition Popular Party in tomorrow's local elections."

Here is the new theme for Europe, seen recently in Finland! Most main political parties across Europe do indeed deserve electoral annihilation, but we must retain the authority of our national courts, or our streets will become the sole property of the riot-gear clad goons of Europol!

In England, in an action that appears to be deliberately designed to destroy the respect for our judiciary and legal system, super injunctions have become the norm, ludicrously forbidding, under penalty of fines or imprisonment, the very reporting of their existence. If judicial greed is not the motive for such an outrage against all norms of justice, where secret courts are surely one of the most fundamental outrages against all our historical liberties, then the only realistic alternative I can divine is that our senior justices are determined upon undermining the authority of our national courts, if so I presume, this can only be to enhance the authority of courts from the EU, thus aiding our newly subversive legal establishment in the near open state of warfare that now exists between them and our Parliament.

In Britain, the open defiance by thousands of tweeters, and also on the internet, of one such super injunction (comically involving a mere footballer) has turned the intent of the secret gagging order into farce, spreading information far beyond the litigant's zone of celebrity, while another, far more serious, was exposed in Parliament, as I posted on this blog earlier this week.

The danger in all this is that it advances the power and control of the non-democratic and increasingly fascist EU at the expense of the authority of our national legal systems, which with our parliaments neutered, have now become the last bastion for the protection of our few remaining liberties. Therefore this is an ominous development indeed.

Yesterday I Fisked the Humboldt University, Europe Day speech of Michel Barnier delivered 9th May which ended with the following demand, regarding world governance:

"For world governance, the table around which today’s G20 gather will not be enough. Europeans need to be active partners, not mere spectators That is why the unity of Europe remains a new and just idea."

The entire terrifying but predictable speech, heralding a new dawn for planned Franco-German Imperialism giving new life to the ideas expounded by Napoleon and Kaiser Wilhelm II, may be read in French, German and English from this link.

My Fisking of the speech has been posted to the "Orphans of Liberty" web site, linked here, including far superior and better informed comment from Anne Palmer. 

Posts to the Orphans of Liberty site, however, appear only after some considerable time delay, so in view of the rapidity with which events now seem to be unfolding  falling apart, and as it is a Sunday morning, and many of my readers will have plenty of reading time available, given the quantity of pure garbage in the UK Sunday press, I post Anne Palmer's comments on the speech herewith:

My thoughts-at least a few of them- on Michael Barnier’s Speech at Humboldt University 9^th May 2011.

From the Speech, “In my heart, I am convinced that Churchill, De Gaulle and Adenauer - who I deeply admired because they were passionately patriotic while also being pragmatic and clear-sighted, would today say that defending one’s national interest can no longer be a purely national matter¹.”

I doubt very much Churchill would have agreed with that, for.   “When I warned them [the French Government] that Britain would fight on alone whatever they did, their generals told their Prime Minister and his divided Cabinet, "In three weeks England will have her neck wrung like a chicken." Some chicken! Some neck! Winston Churchill.”

Speech: “For 60 years we have been building Europe for its citizens and in their name; but too often we have been doing it without them”.  EXACTLY! A rather foolish thing to do when what they wanted was to be permanent.

Speech: “With hindsight, I think that it was a mistake to talk so much of the engine and mechanics of Europe instead of talking about the road we are travelling on together, the stages along the way, and its destination”.   The real destination was always hidden from the people, and it is my belief it always will be.   Quite Simply, MP’s want their jobs and their pay still, and here in the UK, to do what they have done, hidden, stealthily was and is, I believe, treason, according to their Oaths of Allegiance and Common Law Constitution.

Speech: “And today's world is not easy. It is a period of uncertainty and of an unclear future, a time of shrinking room for manoeuvre. But one thing that I am absolutely sure of, is that this period will be even more difficult if every European tries to go it alone, fighting his own corner, rather than working together”.  We have fought two World Wars-alone in that no one was tied by Treaties but true friends came and fought along side of us.  They lent us money which may have taken 60 years to pay off, but that was true friendship. 

Speech: “As President Obama told the American people: “The rules have changed. The world has changed”².  They have indeed.  Certain people want full power over-all.  It is a move backwards when people were slaves and had to do as they are told in everything.  We elect politicians only to realise that our Country gets fined by the EU, millions of pounds if they do not quite “get things right”,  soon also there are to be changes, for our Country and Nation of ENGLAND is to be divided up into local Regions and then, the EU fines will have to be paid by those in the now EU Regions.

Speech: “If we do not create now a society which chooses moderation, we will be forced into a society which faces deprivation”.   Sheer Rubbish and a desire to becoming a control freak.

Speech:  “This cannot be done in a day, but Europe must forge ahead. Putting into place a European ecological taxation system and making the European greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (ETS) set up in 2005 work are urgent challenges”.   This as we all know is a “Con” and a way of taking money off vulnerable people.   The planet is NOT saved by the Emission’s Trading Scheme, at all, for all its does is one Country pays for “nothingness” in return.  It allows the one country to give money to another Country for “points” for the once rich Country to cover their emission’s target set by foreigners in the EU.   Emissions continue to go up, but in another part of the World.

Speech:  “But the return to growth presupposes rediscovering trust, trust which was severely undermined by the economic crisis. And rightly so, since taxpayers have been called upon repeatedly to pay for the consequences of irresponsible behaviour or a lack of collective oversight”.   The question must be asked here, ‘just how much longer are they people going to pay’?    The people are getting at tad fed up of continually ‘paying’ when their money is being wasted, or they are losing their jobs and some, sadly, their homes yet still the EU gets paid billions.  Mad schemes like the (EU’S) Localism Bill and HS2, (from the EU’s TEN-T Policy), goes ahead, costing even more billions, but what will they do when the “penny” drops and the people no longer pay their taxes on anything?

Speech: “Even more seriously, the crisis revealed that the rules which we thought provided a solid basis for our currency were not sufficient. And I am fully aware of what monetary and financial stability represents for a country such as Germany, and rightly so”.   It could never withstand what has taken place, and because this Country has to also contribute to the EURO’s failure, the British might also go down-who will them help the Brits out then?

Speech:  “At the heart of everything that is at stake with governance, it would appear logical that the positions of President of the Euro-Group and Commission Vice-President for economic affairs should be held by the same individual, as was done for foreign policy with the High Representative.”   Ah!  So we are talking of some-one like the President of the United States of America eh?

Speech:  “In 1960, we had the will to create a common food and agriculture policy which today generates more jobs than the automobile sector.

We now need this same political will to promote our strategic industrial sectors”.  So, the EU did not learn with the destruction of our farming and fishing industries, it want to finish off the rest? Alleged leaders of the once sovereign Country’s may want this, but the people do not.  However, if it comes into being, there is absolutely no point in having any NATIONAL Parliaments at all.  The people simply cannot afford all the EU Regions and for Government to go on as they are at present, pretending to Govern.

Speech:  “I believe that Europe needs to be united to be strong, and that to be respected, we need a political Europe.”  I doubt you will even get one-at least, not with the UK in it.

Speech”  “The consequences of a failure of the EU to take control of its own security and defence would be heavy with consequences.

The EU has legitimacy in the area of defence, as it does in other areas. This is the belief that has led France, under President Sarkozy, to take up its full role within NATO”.    I have already written a great deal on Defence and what is happening in that area by the EU already. I make no further comments on here expect to say, it is and must remain the responsibility for their own National Security perhaps with the help of their true friends, and never, never allow other Country to know what their own Country has in man power or equipment, and our Nation in particular should always be “at the ready”.

Speech: intertwined with my comments: “There is one last challenge that needs to be taken up, one that is the keystone of all the others. That is the challenge of European democracy.

That of the trust of the people!” I comment only on matters here in the UK.  Most people in the UK no longer TRUST any British Politician, because right from the very first EU Treaty, they have been told lie after lie. ‘There will be no loss of essential sovereignty’. “Like the Beano Comic” etc    is ingrained in everyone’s mind. Every British Government has been “economical with the truth” where the EU is concerned. They pass all EU legislation as if it is their own idea.  (Such as the present Localism Bill and HS2).

Basically because continental Countries have been over-run in the war, they now have written constitution which can be changed quite easily.  The UK cannot just ‘change’ their Common Law Constitution easily or if at all, because each section of it-usually bound by Treaties, cannot be done.  If the Treaty and Act of Union 1688/9 is altered for instance, should Mr Salmond decide Scotland should break away from the United Kingdom, that would also affect the Act of Settlement which ‘nudges’ the Commonwealth., and so on.  Although Governments have simply ignored them, they obviously should not have done so.  The changes made to the House of Lords  may one day come back to haunt them, yet STILL they want to change the Lords yet again-it is like cutting off your own legs because you prefer artificial ones.

 “That of the “desire to be together” that I mentioned at the beginning of my speech”.  The desire is to go for holidays on those beautiful places, but not to be ‘together’ for always.  Even then, they are not “together” because the British people do not usually understand the language.  

“Citizens need to be told the truth. The truth about where we are headed. The truth about what we are within this union. And about what we are not.”   Without doubt the people do need to be told the truth, so why on earth didn’t you say exactly where the EU is going while you have our attention Commissioner Barnier?  A missed opportunity.  A golden opportunity.   What do you think the reaction to the truth would have been?  You may never know now because the truth has never been told, has it?

“We are a continent where every people, every religion and every opinion is respectable and respected”.  And we are an Island Nation, yet any opinion the people might have here in the once free Country of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is ignored.  However, without our once sovereign Government having the ability to close our borders any longer, we are getting a tad full up and certainly the pockets are getting empty, so soon, we may not be able to afford to pay our Contributions to the EU, and soon, ‘er long, we will have to leave.

“And yet, we are not a single European people. We cannot be a European nation. There is no question of a federal state which would take the place of the nation states or the regions”.   YET!  Leave all that until we are out of the EU and FREE.

“Today, we include 27 peoples who express themselves in 23 official languages. We are 27 nations and 27 countries, all of which hold their differences, traditions and cultures close to their respective hearts”.  Instead of “embracing” that, our Government has dumbed down our children and instead of learning foreign languages, they can hardly speak properly in their own English Language

“And yet, these 27 nations have chosen to live and act together rather than to simply coexist beside each other. They have chosen to share many of their policies and voluntarily pool their sovereignty, simply to create European sovereignty”.  The people of this nation have certainly NOT chosen to ‘live and act together’, they never had the chance to.  Would perhaps you Sir, like to ask them now?  They most certainly have not chosen to share their policies and most certainly never would “pool their Sovereignty” whether temporarily of permanently.  The people have never been asked.  It is far too late to ask them now because according to their loyal and true Oaths of Allegiance to the British Crown and through the Crown to all the people in this land and further a field to all the Commonwealth, to violate that Oath of Allegiance is the greatest betrayal of all.  It must also be remembered that when a person is born here in the United Kingdom, from the moment anyone is born here, it is as if they have already said that Oath, for they have the protection of the Crown from that moment.  We can never be European citizens for we are an Island race, we fought to be free from foreign rule as did the proud nations before us, on the Continent.  If they chose to give up that freedom, that is up to them.  The British people have never given their consent to be ruled by foreigners-which is also contrary to their constitution- and they never will. 

Speech :  “We have five years before us. We do not have much more time to choose our destiny. Over the next five years, there will be presidential or legislative elections in almost all of the 27 EU countries. A new European Parliament will be elected in 2014. We will decide on the EU budgets and the common policies that this budget will have to fund for seven years”.   And we have a government that at this moment in time is putting EU legislation through Parliament, The Localism Bill which will try its best to divide-PERMANENTLY- the Nation and Country of ENGLAND into the 12 EU’s Regions.  Why exactly is a British Government doing that?  Why would they set about destroying their own Country?  Why another layer of Governance?  Is this the last Government we shall have in our Houses of Parliament?  With elected Mayors and a Cabinet in each Region plus everything that goes with that, we certainly will not require TWO FULL TO THE BRIM HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT. 

Speech:  “I appeal to the 27 Heads of State and Government and to President Herman van Rompuy. This unity is in their hands. There are valid reasons for making a new deal with the citizens of Europe for each of the challenges I mentioned”.  I do not think you will be asking us in the UK to fund anything for seven years.   Do you?   Unity is in the hands of the people, and the people are no longer going to remain “Spectators”. Anne Palmer 19.5.2011.

Thousands protest in Madrid as Midnight ban on demos passes!

Now reporters are stating that the unemployment rate for 18 to 25 year olds in Spain is 45%.

On Europe Day this week French EU Commissioner, Michel Barnier, stated the young people of Europe were indifferent to the EU, read here, (only in English, French and German I'm afraid, sorry Spaniards) I quote his opening paragraph:

"Only a few days ago, in Finland, and a few months ago, in France, over 20% of those countries’ citizens cast their votes for extremist and populist movements which are seeking to retreat behind their national borders. In other words, they are seeking to bring an end to the European project. And in addition to those voters, many others harbour doubts and worries, or are angry. On top of that, many young people are just indifferent."

Certainly doesn't appear as indifference to this blogger!

When Greece Defaults!

The Daily Telegraph has a column that may well prove useful, it is written by Andrew Lilico and titled "What happens when Greece defaults" it is linked here. The following seem the immediate consequences that he foresees:

-  Every bank in Greece will instantly go insolvent.
- The Greek government will nationalise every bank in Greece.
- The Greek government will forbid withdrawals from Greek banks.
- To prevent Greek depositors from rioting on the streets, Argentina-2002-style (when the Argentinian president had to flee by helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace to evade a mob of such depositors), the Greek government will declare a curfew, perhaps even general martial law.

The list continues taking in the consequences elsewhere. Best read in full with a pint perhaps!