Empty words and complete inaction are EU leaders' response to crisis! Redwood's blog.

A report, from a capital within the Euro Group, gives these remarks to yesterday's moves within the EMU currency zone, designed to counter the ever growing market turmoil:

Speaking during a parliamentary debate in Rome, Mr Berlusconi said “the government and parliament will act, I hope, with a large political and social consensus to fight every threat to our financial stability. Today more than ever, we need to act all together”.

He did not announce any new policy measures.

The moments when the television cameras were diverted to Berlusconi's listener among the Italian lawmakers spoke volumes. The Irish Times article continues:

Earlier in the day his finance minister, Giulio Tremonti, travelled to Luxembourg to meet euro group president, Jean-Claude Juncker. He also spoke to European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs Olli Rehn.

Details of the talks were not disclosed. No new measures were announced following either discussion.

The same report later continues:

The loss of investor confidence in Spain in recent weeks has triggered the sell-off of its government bonds, which pushes up the yield (the effective interest rate) on these bonds.

No new policy initiatives were announced in Madrid, but Mr Zapatero said his cabinet would meet in three weeks to discuss additional measures.

An auction of €3.5 billion of Spanish government bonds is scheduled to take place this morning.

Meantime in Britain, the specially created Office of Budget Responsibility has effectively committed patricide by pointing out that George Osborne's growth projections are products from fantasy land.

John Redwood, on his blog this morning, sets out some common sense steps that should now be taken by the Coalition Governement, to rectify this looming disaster for Britain's economy. These will of course be ignored, as likely to upset the Conservative's coalition partners, as I point out in my own comment to Mr Redwood's post which is still waiting moderation on that website:

Posted August 4, 2011 at 7:15 am | Permalink
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

(You write)"That requires more to go right, both in controlling spending and in faster growth of revenues".

Quite so, yet you yourself, and several others on your party’s backbenches continue to prop up this clearly left-leaning Coalition Government. I agree UKIP has no parliamentary voice as you pointed out in reply to my comment of yesterday, that is all the more reason that the tens of thousands of thoughtful and rational people in the country, who therefore eschew the frequent childishness of Farage & Co, are looking to you Mr Redwood, and similar Conservative colleagues, to push your own party the right way.

As with the EU, concessions will only be achieved when Westminster shows the resolve to contemplate withdrawal, similarly in the Coalition, your sane views, which offer the sole hope for economic survival, will only receive attention when you gather sufficient support to threaten the very survival of the coalition itself. Lib/Dem MPs have grasped this simple fact, hence, IMO, their undue influence on policy, taxation and spending.