Ireland grows restless!

The Irish Independent newspaper, here, gives voice this Sunday to the clear nonsense being thrust upon the bailed out nations by the ECB, read here. The following quotes are noteworthy:

But hasty entry into an unfavourable and unimplementable deal is a different matter and the behaviour of the ECB has created resentment in Ireland.
It appears that policy is being dictated to an elected government by a remote and unaccountable financial authority and that the policy is not self-evidently a good one....

The verdict of the sovereign credit markets on all of this is clear and unsurprising. They will not lend a cent to Greece, Ireland or Portugal for the foreseeable future and do not believe that fiscal tightening alone will do the trick. As a consequence, there is no visible exit strategy for these countries.

The absence of a visible exit strategy places their governments in an impossible position. They cannot fashion a credible political message for their electorates, offering a credible probability of success in exchange for more fiscal pain.

It is not politically viable to tell people that further large tax increases are coming, along with more big cuts in expenditure and no bank credit, with no prospect of economic recovery and no end in sight. The 'rescue' package cannot be sold as a kind of economic black hole from which there is no escape.

The additional perception that this formula is being imposed by a central bank that most citizens had never heard of prior to the crisis does not help public acceptability, nor does the incessant sermonising from EU and ECB officials.

The likely result is political instability in these countries, with increasing support for anti-European political parties.