Greece gets referendum on EU Bailout

Greek PM Papandreou seems to have capitulated to local pressure and will hold a national referendum on the EU package!

Is this the EU plot halted in its tracks?

STOP the ESM - the EU's worst Halloween Nightmare So Far

Nigel Farage MEP details the latest EU waste for Americans

Saving the Euro

H/T Samizdata and Small Dead Animals

Der Spiegel crows over Germany's New Europe

The article, just released in English,

The Division of Europe

EU Summit Paves the Way for a Split Continent

may be read from here.

Sun's Trevor Kavanagh spells it out for The Sun readers

There are too many choice quotes to pick from this one column for quoting here on the everongoing EU disaster. Let's hope more notice is taken of this by the EU serf Vapid Cameron, than the indifference he shows to his own party members and backbench MPs.

Read it from here!

MF Global Bankruptcy

A company run by a former Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs has file for bankruptcy in New York this morning. Read here.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that this will likely be one of the biggest bankruptcies of all time, read here.

The same paper reports that J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank are listed in the court filing as among MF Global’s largest unsecured creditors. Read here.

Italian and German interest rate spreads - upwards to the EU Stars?

H/T Acting Man

The EU conspiracy continues and is winning!

A brief and succinct quote from a Daily Mail Blog, linked here, on last week's supposed Euro deal:

Here in one line is what is going on, from Bloomberg financial news earlier this week: ‘Central bank officials may be hoping that by keeping the threat of financial Armageddon alive, they can coerce the region’s people and governments into moving toward the deeper union that the euro’s creators envisioned.

Was 'Call me Dave' - conned or duped into his Global Governance Gaffe?

President Sarkozy of France, EU Council and Euro Group President Von Rompuy and EU Commission President Barroso presumably all have separate and  different reasons to dislike the admittedly thoroughly obnoxious British Prime Minister, David Cameron, but the humiliation they have delivered upon him as leader of the British Conservative Party, contriving to get him to present a paper on Global Governance, as revealed on this blog yesterday morning, is a truly spectacular humiliation for all his party members.

The journey back from Perth in Western Australia is an ordeal for even very fit individuals, as I have recently been made fully aware, so how quickly the high-living Prime Minister and his Damascene convert and high-living Foreign Secretary will cope with that journey sufficiently well to then be able to sit down before departing to Cannes, and ready a paper on the totally Conservative-alien and anti-individualistic concept of global governance, will be interesting indeed to observe.

It will be a week tomorrow since David Cameron went before the TV Cameras, flanked by soldiers to either side, to snarl his contempt for his party rebels who had acted honourably the night before in calling for a referendum on the EU, ludicrously claiming he bore no rancour nor ill will towards such rebels, when the absolute opposite was clearly the case for the rest of the country concerning Cameron himself!

Now in similar Flashman fashion, we see this former Bullingdon Bully-boy, preparing to fly off to the South of France and deliver a paper to the nineteen other significant leaders of the world's nations, on how the democracy he has sought to finally kill off in his own country, can now be further demeaned and destroyed across the entire world!

What then is my own answer to my own question in this posting's heading - to have been conned, Cameron's confidence would have to have been won by swindlers, to be duped, however, is to unwittingly serve as the tool of another person. I therefore suggest he was duped, a further fact indicating that under Cameron there can never be any meaningful repatriation of powers from the EU to the UK. Cameron, or perhaps 'call me Dick' would nowadays be more fitting, is quite simply too self-opinionated and downright naive to achieve such a delicate task, or as I first dubbed him on our sister blog, (many years ago when the stupid Tories, first appeared likely to choose him as their leader) on Teetering Tories - 'Vapid'!

The next European War

A posting well worth reading from Autonomous Mind, linked here.

President Sarkozy has invited Cameron to present Global Governance paper at Cannes G20

Any comment on my part to the headline above would be superfluous! I therefore offer the link in proof of the truth of the quote and thereafter the quote itself which contains this unsurprising news, proof positive of Cameron's International Socialist credentials and full integration into the Global Civil Society.

8) Improving global governance. Finally, we look forward to discussing the proposals contained in the report by Prime Minister David Cameron on global governance which he will present at the summit following an invitation by President Sarkozy.

Link to "Joint letter of President Van Rompuy and President Barroso on the G20 Summit in Cannes"

Nick Clegg defends his manufacturer!

Last evening, little knowing the construct that is Clegg was about to launch a Sunday newspaper attack against those who still believe in their own country and integrity in politics, I posted about one sole honourable LibDem councillor and the shameful positions taken by the present and most recent leader of the Liberal Democrat Party, see here or scroll down the page.

The first thing to be said about Nick Clegg, is that he looks as if he is worthy of the handle "Right honourable" which he now proudly sports. Looking at the background, career, conflicting positions and sheer naked ambition of the man it immediately becomes clear that no name tag could be further from the truth. Putting aside his curious gene pool, for which no man may be made accountable but all others must be certain to take into account, his upbringing has shades of that of an aristocrat of the ancien regime being groomed for a long lifetime of autocratic governance.

Other than politics his career, according to Wikipedia, involved some lobbying for Gadaffi's Libya and working for the pro-EU propaganda business sheet the FT.  Yet it was the EU that finally and fully shaped him, as may be read in detail from this link.

If Clegg seeks to attack those merely trying to defend their country against the assaults from the EU, as he does in The Observer, this morning, then he should list at the head of each such article, details of his EU pension pot and other accrued EU perks and his regular EU contacts, which all depend upon the continued existence of that organisation, which today requires total suppression of national self-governance and democracy, as is finally now everywhere admitted, in order for its corrupt rule and sick currency to survive.

The televised destruction of the inegrity and career of IDS!

There will be an opportunity to witness the self-destruction of former Conservative Party  leader Iain Duncan Smith MP on television, on the Parliament Programme, this Sunday evening, during the re-screening of the programme Question Time, recorded in our historic Winchester Cathedral, last Thursday.

Monday saw the first step on the slippery descent to destruction of this politician, once chiefly known for his integrity as a stalwart Maastricht Treaty rebel and steadfast opponent of the degradation of his party that occurred under the Premiership of John Major. That evening's inexplicable decision to vote with the Government, against granting a referendum on the EU to ordinary people, especially given this man's career, must in future become a prime example of the degradation of our parliamentary politics as delivered to us by the EU.

At least three times Iain Duncan Smith here denies his party leader, David Cameron had broken his cast iron guarantee that he would give the British people a referendum on any EU Constitutional Treaty.

Where was the crowing cock?

LibDem Leader in Bournemouth quits over her Party's EU Hypocrisy

The report from this afternoon's Daily Echo is linked here.  Former LibDem Party Leader Ming Campbell was this morning, on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, lying through his teeth over his party's record over the EU and his desire for Britain to join the Euro Currency!.

Remember the following article in The Sun, from 25th February 2008, also linked here, when Party Leader, alongside a huge picture, complained as follows:

"We've all gone crazy. Pro and anti, Europhile and Eurosceptic, trading blows about the Lisbon treaty in grand rhetoric that obscures the facts.

"It is time for a debate politicians have been too cowardly to hold for 30 years - time for a referendum on the big question. Do we want to be in or out?

"Nobody in this country under the age of 51 has ever been asked that simple question. That includes half of all MPs. We've been signed up to Europe by default: two generations who have never had their say."

At least Cllr Sue Levell in Bournemouth has finally seen through the double-dealing and dual standards that hangs around the party of the Deputy Prime Minister and by willing association all his colleagues in Westminster!

How the EU has made scoundrels of them all!

Slovakian EFSF exemption could drive Czechs to Euro referendum

Looking at the wreckage across almost the entire European Continent as a result of the brazen duplicity of the underhand and crooked dealings of Wednesday's Euro Group Summit, my eye has been caught this morning, by the complications that will soon arrive in the Czech and Slovakian Republics, where even last weekend, the Czech Governing ODS Party had begun to make noises at its annual conference about a re-run of the 2003 referendum where the country had decided to one day join the euro, read here.

Neighbouring Slovakia, to its cost, pain and future long-term misery, has already joined the doomed currency and faced the ridiculous prospect of its comparatively ill-rewarded citizens having to yet further subsidise more substantially cossetted Greeks. An exemption was therefore made, read here.

Now that will really set the cat among the pigeons. Remember it was not that long ago that these two countries were united. How can an exemption for one in future be applied without including the other?  What of Hungary, they are suffering an economic crisis of their own, while still outside the Euro Group, but are their difficulties not similar to those of the Czechs, and if they are not, who is to determine that such is the case?

EU powers review MUST consider the powers Mandarins have kept to themselves!

A report in this morning's Daily Telegraph, linked here, contains the following quite incredible revelation:

Sources said that the review draws on previously secret Whitehall reports drawn up before the last election as Civil Service “scenario-planning” for a possible Conservative government.
Because the Conservatives failed to win an outright majority those papers have not been shown to Coalition ministers but they will inform the current urgent review.

Under what right and with what or whose authority are ministers of an elected government deemed unfit to receive certain facts as available to civil servants. The abuse of powers by the EU has been a fact of life for decades, this news indicates it has been continued under the authority of civil servants, if so they should be arrested and placed on trial.

This week has been a truly gruelling ordeal for ordinary but informed members of the public. The drama of the referendum debate in the Commons on Monday, when all but one hundred and eleven of our MPs were shown to be deeply treacherous, followed by the EU Summit on Wednesday where 27 European Leaders proved themselves capable of serial confidence tricks, trashing of financial intstruments, blatant manipulation of the truth and often a cockiness and disregard for the consequences of their venality which was completely breathtaking and shaming for all Europeans.

To now learn on this Saturday morning, as a restful weekend beckoned, that an extensive veil of secrecy has been operating across the upper reaches of Britain's governing procedures quite simply absolutely beggars beilef!

EFSF Secondary Bond Purchases impossible until Christmas

Budget expert for the junior coalition partners the Free Democrats (FDP) Otto Fricke said this was because secondary bond market purchases had to be confidential, yet the Bundestag lower house of parliament could not meet in secret. Read here

Earlier Reuters had also reported that the Constitutional Court would not rule on the complaint until Christmas, read here. 

Politicians booed off Ohi Day celebration parades across Greece

The best report I have found on today's protests is from Monsters and Critics, linked here.  The President was among those forced to abandon this hugely important day to Greeks, commemorating as it does their country's brave refusal to be cowed by the Italian and German Fascists in 1940.

The trashing of Credit Default Swaps

Acting Man blog will be reporting more fully later today on what has occurred in the Greek CDS market, since the non-credit-event 50% haircut for banks on their Greek Bonds, read here with a chart. A quote:

Due to time constraints we will only be able to post a more elaborate update after the NY market closes today, but we wanted to quickly make a note on the 'Greek haircut' situation. As we pointed out yesterday, an amazing feat was accomplished by the negotiators: they got the banks to accept a 50% haircut on the Greek government debt they hold, and yet, it is officially not a 'default' – it isn't even a 'credit event'. This has had a massive effect on sovereign credit default swaps, which as of now can no longer be trusted as hedging instruments.

Update 1515 BST More reading and video.

German court blocks parliamentary committee from approving EFSF disbursements

Der Spiegel has a rather shattering report which may be read in full from here.

There were mixed versions of what authority the German parliamentary lower house had in fact given Merkel even before Wednesday's meeting, this latest news must sew even more confusion into already heavily muddied waters.

The article concludes with these very worrying paragraphs seen from a democratic standpoint:

'The Bundestag Cannot Be Replaced'

But the SPD members are contesting the law. "The Bundestag cannot be replaced by a nine-member committee on such important issues," Schulz told SPIEGEL ONLINE. Schulz argues that, at a minimum, the Bundestag's budget committee should be included in all decisions.

The politicians have based their complaint on expertise provided by the Bundestag's own research service, which advised that the special panel transfers responsibility to a few and hinders the participation and shaping of policy by all members of parliament.

On Wednesday, the Bundestag tasked the committee, whose meetings are closed to the public and confidential, with a supervisory role for the billions of euros in German taxpayer money that are being deployed by the EFSF. It includes members of all of the German political parties represented in parliament and includes an equal number of politicians representing the parties in government and those in the opposition.

71 years today since the Great Greek NO to the Fascists

Europe is stuffed full of anniversaries to heroic stands against tyrannies. It is Europe's tragedy that we seem condemned again and again to have to repeat such often bloody sacrifices.

The anniversary today of the Great Greek NO to the ruthless tyrants Mussolini and Hitler in 1940, read also here, cannot but fail to prove far more poignant than usual, given the deliberate oppression of recent months and the entirely pointless outcome of the Brussels' meeting that the seventeen heads of the eurozone states fittingly concluded in the mid-week middle of the night!

More austerity for France - Portugal tumbling towards purgatory

President Sarkozy addressed the French nation on TV last evening and warned that growth would fall below one per cent and that new austerity measures would be announced within days. In Italy there seems much doubt as to whether even PM Berlusconi himself is fully persuaded as to the viability of the terms he set out in the letter for the EU, never mind whether his own party and coallition partners could be brought along.

The true horror story, disregarded in the Brussels EU midnight meetings was Portugal. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in his column this morning in the Daily Telegraph, spells out the entire horror story with a compelling graphic, linked here.

A shrinking money supply is dangerous for countries with a high debt stock. Portugal’s public and private debt will reach 360pc of GDP by next year, far higher than in Greece.

Premier Pedro Passos Coelho has been praised by EU leaders for sticking to austerity pledges under Portugal’s EU-IMF rescue, but the policy is pushing the country deeper into slump and playing havoc with debt dynamics.

The EU deal was not designed to deal with such a threat. The working assumption is that Greece alone is the essential problem, and that other troubles are under control or caused by jittery markets.

Portugal has a special position in the advancement of the tyranny that is now the EU, in that the package imposed by the EU on that nation was negotiated with its civil servants while elections were underway, and thereafter imposed upon the supposed politicians.

Reichsmarschall Rehn will presumably soon be giving urgent thought as to how ridiculous and unreasonable demands can eventually be imposed.

EU attacks against the City of London

The attack by PM Cameron, against the EU, made during his long flight to Perth for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, is surprising merely for the fact that it has been so long delayed. One report of Cameron's complaints is here.

Britain has been the subject of steady EU extortion and gradual bleeding to death for decades, facilitated by our self-serving politicians who saw such actions as beneficial to their own personal careers and finances together with those of their thoroughly corrupted parties.

It has been weeks since Von Rompuy was assigned to mainly represent the interests of the 17 member Euro Group, and months before even that when the trend in that direction had been more than clear. Yet not one squeal of protest has been forthcoming from the British Government who carry one of the largest burdens of the total EU's costs, for all the 27 EU members, including the ten not within the Euro, whose interests are daily disregarded, and whose economies are  increasingly trashed as a side effect of the lies, incompetencies and ignorance of those attempting (but clearly failing) to properly run the common currency.

Farage hints at group Tory MP defections to UKIP

The article is in this evening's Evening Standard in London, linked here, from which comes this quote:

"I'm not going to tell you they are on the verge of coming across," he said. "All I can tell you is that it's being discussed. I do know people in the Conservative Party - and I've spoken to some this morning - who are deeply depressed at the moment. Some of them have got to be asking themselves, 'What if a whole group of us went to Ukip?'"

Mr Farage's call to defectors comes amid mounting Tory tensions after Monday's record Commons rebellion by 81 MPs and demands for powers to be repatriated from Brussels, including reports that former leader Iain Duncan Smith threatened to quit the Cabinet.

Given the dreadful state of affairs across the EU and Britain's exposure to the full blast of the consequences due to the incompetence and subservience to the EU of the country's three main political parties, the one big question is why this has only now come into discussion!

Britain ready to waste more billions to save € via IMF - Osborne

The Guardian carries the predictable report, here!

Bloomberg states EU threatened Banks with Greece's "total insolvency"

Bloomberg has just now repeated what their report from very early this morning initially revealed.

A  depression the likes of which Euroland has never seen, is being forecast on an ongoing FT discussion thread, from a contributor from High Frequency Economics, with this later added for good measure:

"the euro package will divert €1,300bn worth of savings from private sector investment and spending. That must mean a reduction of Euroland’s €9400bn GDP by €1300bn, or 13.8 per cent over the period in which it is financed … if, indeed, all the monies can be raised. In our view, this is a reason to expect a double-digit drop in GDP if this latest scheme is funded over the next year."

Read all the exchanges on that forum, from here.

EU Commissioner Olli Rehn to get Reichmarschall powers from XII century

Olli Rehn to the fore again folks, read here. Everyone's least favourite Finn is back:

Are folk in Greece in line to deposit their cash?

If ordinary Greeks were as completely stupid as those who earn their living on the world's financial markets, they would this morning be queuing on the streets of Athens to deposit their cash back into Greek banks, from whence much has been sensibly removed over recent months, not as is apparently being reported by German newspaper Bild, on which is a report linked here.

Blatant deceptions in the Euro Summit Statement 26/10/11

The document referred to in this commentary is linked here.

Paragraph 1 states that the strategy in place has "an ambitious agenda for growth" it does not. It concludes "The euro continues to rest on solid fundamentals."

Paragraph 2 concludes "We fully support the ECB in its action to maintain price stability in the euro area. Non-standard ECB measures introduced by Jean-Claude Trichet will destroy EU price stability, even if they are terminated by Mario Draghi with immediate effect.

Paragraph 3 states the intention is in country specific areas of focussing public spending on growth areas. My experience in France is that this is not the case, is it even possible, in an ongoing recession that is now clearly developing into an economic depression? See the link regarding the Tours/Bordeaux TGV here - in which respect remember fonctionaires and politicians are genetically incapapable of selecting productive investments!

Paragraphs 5 and 6, relate to Spain and Italy, neither of which have yet shown the slightest sign of taking the steps so clearly necessary for any economic growth. The statement that Italy will introduce a balanced budget rule, once known as Sarkozy's Golden Rule in France, has tellingly already abandoned in that country following his UMP party's recent loss of control of the upper parliamentary house, why should any therefore expect Italy to carry it through?

Paragraph 7 commits Euro Group members to continue aid to all those countries now receiving it "until they have regained market access" given the programmes under which they are supposed to achieve that cannot possibly give that end result - is this statement not completely absurd.

Given the above flaws in the most important areas under consideration by the Euro Group in the early hours of this morning, the lack of specifics regarding sources for extra funding and the vagueness over the method of handling the long delayed Greek haircut, it would be completely pointless to consider the other woolly objectives set out in the remainder of the summit statement. Should I find an element of surprise in the other paragraphs I will note the fact in another later posting.

After one and a half years, is half a Greek default better than none?

The full text of the latest Euro Group mish-mash of measures may be read from this link in pdf.

Such a massive failure should come as no surprise. The ill-informed and entirely misplaced comments of the likes of the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and sadly also those of our country's overbearing and clearly pig-ignorant Prime Minister, David Cameron, show no grasp of history nor of the massive leap it would have taken for seventeen former sovereign European nations, all with their own cultures and many their own languages, to join togather under some form of ill-defined economic governance and thus effectively merge themselves together into an economic whole.

True progress, might have been able this morning to have been claimed to have been made, if at the very least the seventeen countries involved, had they been given different leaders, with some courage so as to have been able, for once and for all, to reject such an absurd and clearly completely non-feasible concept!

My own reply to the question raised in the headline to this post, is as it has been since the Greece crisis began - namely a full default is a pre-requisite, and that such a thing cannot be managed, with a default it is every bank for itself and citizen for themselves, with the devil taking the hindmost.

Once such a process is over, then perhaps the EU can make a new start.

EU Banks to re-capitalise to 9% by June 2012 - Maybe!

The meeting of meetings ( supposed to occur tonight) will instead deliver worse even than a mere damp squib.

On top of this quite amazing and nowhere guaranteed bank recapitalisation (see my posting's headline above,) will come a leveraging up of the EFSF to 1 trillion, with the funds supposedly coming from somewhere (such as the IMF - watch out the UK and USA) and at a date yet to be determined.

Yet still no news of the haircuts on Greek Bonds, except that Merkel and Sarkozy will now take over these negotiations with the banks personally!

This deal is even more absurd and laughable than that rushed through before all the EU Leaders departed for their summer holidays on 21st July of this year.

Here is a memory or two from the early days of the crisis, if only we could have clarity such as this and this, although, of course, it was crass statements such as those that got us here!

New EU Referendum Petition for the UK

 Click Here or go to the following URL:

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/signatures/2157293/verify/7TebY2fRXEXHNCvcA2rZ

EFSF Bundestag package may take weeks to fund

The Irish Times, always a good source for news from within the Euro Group of countries has the following points on the package just passed in the German Lower Parliament:

EURO ZONE governments have warned it could take weeks to finalise the means to give their debt-crisis rescue fund the firepower it needs to protect countries such as Italy and Spain from speculative attacks.

The draft of the terms for the “optimisation” of the European financial stability facility (EFSF) submitted to the German parliament states that the fund would choose between two tools on a case-by-case basis.

To multiply the impact of remaining resources – €250 billion out of the original €440 billion, following bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal – the EFSF could insure portions of new sovereign bond issues. It could also tap a special fund fed by global private and public investors.

But the governments warn that winning investors for the latter special purpose investment vehicle, or SPIV, could “require a period of some weeks”, should EU leaders give the proposal the green light at their summit today.

Italy still seems to be confused over the nature of the package they will present to their EU fellow-members later today, while reports now abound that the Netherlands will be unlikely to get its parliament to approve whatever package eventually emerges.

Germany sets course for conflict over a Financial Transaction Tax

A Tweet from Open Europe reports the following as being stated by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Bundestag this morning:

Merkel - We are committed to ensuring that Commission's proposal for Financial Transaction Tax will be a success and also push for it at G20

A financial transaction tax will eventually and very quickly yield nothing. If the Euro Group enacts it then the City of London wil grow ever faster. If the EU enacts it
then the worlds financial centres will not be based there. If the G20 enacts it then financial transactions will go elsewhere.

As with economic governance and Italy this morning - it sounds acceptable but at the end of the day it is somebody else telling you how to live. If Italians will not accept 67 as a proper pensionable age before an election, are they likely to do so afterwards?

Portugal's bail out was agreed by civil servants before a general election - how democratic is that?

A financial transaction tax can only work with world government -is that really the path upon which Germany wishes to embark today?

BBC reports Berlusconi to quit - Italian Elections before year end.

Pressures in Italy were growing all day yesterday, as reported on this blog. Elections are already due to be held in Spain. Any prospect of a EU led solution to Europe's crisis grows ever more remote by the moment.

Fixing the Euro with Sub-Prime Mark II

Today, the problems of the EU are set to be solved in a complex package, jointly agreed, between France and Germany! Fat chance!


Der Spiegel highlights some of the huge flaws in the presently planned EU rescue package, linked here. Yet those difficulties merely scratch the surface of the real problems. Effectively it argues the leverage is nothing more than a new sub-prime crisis in waiting!

The EFSF has quite astoundingly been made the centrepiece of saving Italy and possibly later Spain. That too, when it has not, alongside the IMF, the ECB, the EFSM AND loans from the EU budget itself, even been able to stave off or treat the problems of Greece, Portugal or the coming housing crunch for Ireland!

The EFSF cannot fill any useful role as it is a self-assurance scheme! Can Italy and Spain now lend themselves sufficient funds to finance a return to growth in economies where all the wealth must go against interest payments on earlier loans that also did not stimulate growth!

Even were the new EFSF able to do so, who will thereafter then be left to lend to France?

Everything that the men and women meeting in Brussels today, the 27 neutered leaders of the EU's former member states, hav done, while acting in concert regarding the euro crisis, since their disastrous meetings in May 2010, has failed.

ALL THE MONEY SPENT SINCE MAY 2010 HAS BEEN WASTED!

New Italian ECB Chief could prove fox in the Chicken Run?

Fittingly Fox News has this latest report on the high comedy drama now coming out of the euro zone, on the latest Eurozone EU Ecofin Summit! Link here.

Will tomorrow's supposed grand(e) final finale be anything more than a Dragh(i)

More detail on Acting Man in a post fittingly titled "The Latest from the Socialist Commonwealth of Europe"

IMF wobble on new EU package

Reuters reports the following: They are considering a special investment vehicle for the EU!

"The IMF has indicated that they are considering it -- they have not taken a position," one euro zone official said. "It will all depend on the whole package."

Well that's all clear then! At least the EU itself is well covered, more Reuters muddle from here.

Bill Cash has introduced European Union Act Bill 2011 (Amendment No2 Bill)

The Bill will receive its first consideration on 27th January 2012. Further detail will be provided from this post shortly!

The Bill will require a UK legislation before any approval of an EU Fiscal Governance arrangement being entered into by the existing (17) members of the Euro Group.

The web site to follow progress on the Bill is linked here. The description from Hansard is as follows:

A Bill to apply the terms of the European Union Act 2011 such as to require approval by Act of Parliament and by referendum of provisions for creating a fiscal union or economic governance within the Eurozone

Umberto Bossi of the Lega Nord, refuses Berlusconi pension negotiating authority!

Not only does any EU rescue passage now have to negotiate the German Bundestag before tomorrow's meeting, but Umberto Bossi, the Italian Governing coaltion partner for Berlusconis, is also reported causing problems, read from here.

The IMF is still being reported as having difficulties with the second Greek Bail Out package, and no definitive press statements seem forthcoming from that source, although business stateside should now be well underway.

More comes on Italy, at the conclusion of an FT Alphaville blog, linked here:

...... there is a second stumbling block en route to more ECB involvement, and that is the ECB itself. According to the same article Trichet is dead set against it, but here's the thing, he is leaving and his successor, Mario Draghi is Italian.

With Italian debt very much in the epicenter of this it remains to be seen whether he will hold out if the EFSF as an insurance fund won't stem the crisis in the Italian bond market and the Germans soften their resolve against more ECB involvement if Italy delivers on reforms and austerity.

So it all boils down to Berlusconi in the end. He could gamble on this and not introduce vote costing reforms, but on the other hand, he's going out of politics anyway and could go down in history as the man who saved the euro, rather than as the epicenter of 'Rubygate'

111 reasons Cameron must consider again before further EU treachery in Brussels tomorrow!

One hundred and eleven MPs voted last evening, in Parliament, to give the British electorate a vote on the EU, at some time in the future, in a referendum.

This was mainly a massive rebellion by eighty plus members of Cameron's own Conservative Party! The debate was preceded by a Prime Ministerial statement by  the typically arrogant appearing Cameron, it was shallow and poisonous, like a slick of high sulphur fuel oil. The Foreign Secretary, William Hague proved his equal in glib self-assurance and flawed reasoning, well deserving the suggestion by one colleague later in the debate of having experienced a Damscene conversion, on the road from Richmond Yorkshire.

Singling out individual contributions to the debate, which had some true high points of drama, well fitting the buildings' past and heritage, one must first make mention of the two Conservative PPS, who sacrificed their posts to defy the unprincipled and sordid three line whip. (Note my links are to the initial Hansard report here) Stewart Jackson and Adam Holloway.

Before the debate got under way Sir Stuart Bell made an important and telling interjection to Cameron, on a crucial point upon which I commented on this blog yesterday, as follows:

Sir Stuart Bell (Middlesbrough) (Lab): The Prime Minister rightly said that the 27 nation states will make any decision on the single market. He has not told the House that the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has been elected president of the 17 nation states within the eurozone, with France on one shoulder and Germany on the other. The President has said that he will inform the British Government prior to any summit meetings and inform them of the results. Does the Prime Minister think that to be “informed” is the same as to be

David Nuttal Conservative Bury North (4:32pm page 46) made a convoincing case in opening the debate. Hague's inadequate six points against the motion were subsequently completely annihalated by Jacob Rees-Mogg. The Shadow Foreign Secretary, Alexander, has passed so long in close proximity to the likes of Blair and Brown, that he has ceased to convey reason with his words on the topic of Europe, presumably having suffered permanent  spritual damage from involvement with the deceits and treason undertaken by these former PMs over the EU Constitutional Treaty, EU Reform Treaty and Lisbon Treaty, all as ably aided and abetted by Margaret Beckett, David Miliband and Jim Murphy, all as fully detailed in the archives of this blog, recorded daily as the foul and deep plots were unfolded!

The highlight for me of Mr Nuttal's speech was this passage:

A staggering 84% of the current voting age population have never voted in favour of Britain’s continued membership of the EEC, never mind the European Union. Furthermore, if I were a betting man, I would wager that some of those who voted yes back in 1975 may well have since changed their minds. The Common Market has fundamentally changed in size and powers as it has been transformed into the European Union, and without the British people ever being consulted, of course.

Two Labour ladies made their normal outstanding contributions on European issues, these were Gisela Stewart (Birmingham Edgbaston) and Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) also with several well-chosen interjections. I select this passage for mention:

6.55 pm
Kate Hoey (Vauxhall) (Lab): I am not sure when the Foreign Secretary has to leave, but he is going to a very important conference, the Commonwealth conference in Australia. Many people in this country believe that the Commonwealth was sold out when we joined the Common Market, and I hope he remembers that by 2050 the 55 members of the Commonwealth will have 38% of the global labour force, while the European Union, with its 27 members, will have only 5%. I hope he goes with that figure in his head to the Commonwealth conference, because then we might actually see much more attention paid to the Commonwealth.

This could have been a wonderful day for Parliament, for democracy and for the new regime—on which the coalition have to be congratulated—of the Backbench Business Committee, with its many keen members. This debate was brought about by a process involving people outside, in the United Kingdom—and let us stop talking about “Britain”, please, because when we do we ignore Northern Ireland, which when it comes to a referendum is going to be very important.

Among the always reliable stalwarts, an impassioned speech by John Redwood (Wokingham Con) was remarkable, Bill Cash (Stone Con) was close to the best I have ever seen him (which is an awful lot), and Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex Con) literally sparkled with irrefutable and accurate logic!

Probably the most shameless inntervention(s) and contribution came from a Liberal Democrat (flanked by Charles Kennedy) Martin Horwood, Chelltenham, at 7:28 pm.His party ran an election in support of an in/out referendum on the EU, reversed their stance between the Commons and the Lords to ensure the Lisbon Treaty was past into law, ran the General Election claiming support fo an in/out referendum - and now in Government, imposed their own three line whip to ensure no referendum would likely be ever forthcoming - contemptible creatures such as these do not bear further comment.

A valuable contribution, cut short by the Deputy Speaker, brilliantly illustrating how that ancient and venerable office has been degraded, was the following from Fran Field which ended as follows:

I make a plea to Members onmy own side of the House. We are getting it wrong on the issue of the representation of England and appear to be a party controlled by our Scottish colleagues. Increasingly, the question will be how England is represented in this Parliament, and so far we are on the wrong side of that debate. Again tonight, by trying to force Members into the Lobby in support of the Government stance, we are in danger of alienating many Labour voters.

When I first stood for election, the turnout was 85%.Last time, it was 60%. How have we managed to turn off 25% of the electorate? It comes down to our conduct
as politicians. We were going to make a small move by having debates that we, Back Benchers, could control, but the Government decided it would be better to clobber us with—
Mr Deputy Speaker: Order.

I wonder what he wanted to say, far more important than much else we heard, especially from the nowadays thororoughly grotesque, almost self-parodying, Scot, Sir Malcolm Rifkind!

The contributions from John Redwood and Austin Mitchell are in full on my blog Teetering Tories, linked here.

Glyn Davies, at 8:27 pm made a rambling speech which his Montgomeryshire, Conservative constituents must this morning, weigh heavily on their consciences.

Douglas Carswell (Clacton Con) began with a paragraph, that sums up well the despair and flavour of the entire evening, perhaps for once, leaving Britain's long disenfranchised voters with some small glimmer of hope:

8.41 pm
Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con): For 40 years, we have left Europe policy to Ministers and to mandarins—to a tinyWhitehall elite. Look at the collective  mess that they have made of it. We have a fisheries policy with no fish; red tape strangling small businesses; financial regulation that suffocates the City; and now
we are being asked to spend billions of pounds bailing out a currency that we never even joined. We have lurched from one bad deal with Brussels to the next,
and fromone disastrous round of negotiations to another. That is the price we pay for leaving it to Ministers and mandarins to decide our Europe policy. It is time to
trust the people. Today, every Member of this House faces a straightforward choice. They can either vote to give people a referendum on the EU or they can vote not to trust the people.

At least, for the first time, for many years, we can this morning count more than one-hundred true democrats in the House of Commons during last evening!

Two postings from the last 2 days in May 2010 - Greek Default & Economic Governance

This crisis is what the EU has always wanted and driven towards. These two warnings from this blog are from May 2010:

Monday, May 31, 2010

Economic Governance was always the EU objective!

There is a rather startling article in the Market Watch section of the Wall Street Journal this morning. It is written by David Marsh, linked here, titled "Germans to the front in Europe"and includes this assertion: The irrefutable message being relayed at home and abroad is that Germany is seeking gradually to take control of the European economy -- in a last-ditch response to what Berlin sees as other countries' widespread failure to put their house in order. Regular readers of this blog and its forerunner cannot help but be aware that non-democratic economic governance and its consequent tyranny of corporatist totalitarianism (once called national socialism now mutated to become an intra-national version of economic fascism) has been the objective for years as the progress towards this end has been clearly recorded and commented upon on an almost daily basis right here over many years. Given these blogs archives the following facts can thus not now be convincingly disputed: The common currency had to fail without fiscal union and social harmonisation. Greece never met the currency criteria and its present crisis was not only foreseeable but therefore became a desired objective. The emergency measures designed to save Greece were never going to succeed and were thus implemented to destroy the Treaties and therefore the rule of law within the EU. The silence of all governments, both within the Eurogroup and those outside the Eurogroup but within the EU since 10th May speaks for itself. If I, as a non-economist and merely interested commentator, have been able to chronicle and foretell these events down the years, how come the Wall Street Journal columnist and author of the linked article remains so blind?

Labels: Euro collapse

Sunday, May 30, 2010

"Greece must exit Euro and Default"

The following is an extract from this morning's Sunday Times, linked here.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), a London economics consultancy that is advising the Athens government, said Greece would be unable to escape its debt trap unless it devalued its currency to boost exports.

The only way for this to happen is for Greece to leave the euro. Until now, Greek politicians have played down the prospect of abandoning the euro, which some observers fear could set in motion the break-up of the single currency.

Speaking from Athens yesterday, Doug McWilliams, chief executive of CEBR, said: “The only option for Greece is both to exit the euro and to default.”

This blog has been stating this obvious fact as it appears in this posting's headline for some considerable time, in fact ever since the so-called Greek crisis first hit the headlines! Other common sense on the present terrible situation is in other postings below this.

Labels: Euro collapse

Reports are now circulating in the US that the IMF will advance no more funds for another Bail Out - How much UK Taxpayer's Money have they wasted so far to no purpose?

Von Rompuy to Govern the Non-Euro, EU Members

The summary from EurActiv of yesterday's meeting, makes clear that the EU as originall envisaged for what has become 27 member states, is now at an end. In future it will be 17 euro members, and ten othere, see this link, from which I quote:

Part of this deal granted European Council President Herman Van Rompuy a key role in mediating between the eurozone and non-eurozone member states.

The conclusions stipulate that presidents of the eurozone countries must always be appointed at the same time and for the same terms as Presidents of the European Council. Pending the next such election, the Council said Van Rompuy should perform this role, "keeping non Eurozone member states closely informed" of Eurozone summit preparations.

Van Rompuy was also charged with 'exploring the possibilities' of treaty change.

The provisions were part of a compromise to satisfy David Cameron and other non-eurozone member countries that they would not be ostracised by any further hardening of the eurozone that results from treaty change.

Council officials briefed EurActiv, however, that the deal also substantially bolstered the position of the Council and of Van Rompuy, effectively placing him in the key role of mediator between the two EU member state groupings, and charging him with the crucial role of pathfinding the treaty change.

Get this image to as many MPs as possible TODAY

GET THIS IMAGE AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE TO AS MANY MPs AS POSSIBLE AT WESTMINSTER TODAY AND THROUGHOUT THE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS IMAGE DEVISED FOR THE BLOG "IRONIES" IN 2005 HAS NOW HAD ALL COPYRIGHT CLAIMS REMOVED BY MARTIN COLE OF "IRONIES" AND "IRONIES TOO"

PRINT OUT THE IMAGE AND LEAVE IT WHEREVER YOU ARE ABLE!

Cameron cancels foreign trips to take further EU orders on Wednesday.

The weak and crawling, two faced, conniving creep that is the British Prime Minister, has now cancelled a visit to Japan and New Zealand, so that he, David Cameron, can receive the latest orders from the EU as to how Britain can further genuflect and debase itself to fruitlessly squander more of our fast diminishing wealth in a fruitless attempt to try to salvage the doomed Euro currency. Reuters report from here.

Miliband urges Cameron to miss Commonwealth HOG meeting for further EU humiliation!

Cameron, bruised football of the powers that be in the EU, is on his way back to London this afternoon, as the serious business of deciding the future course of Europe gets underway, amongst the main players in the Euro Group of former sovereign and soon ex-democratic nations.

Continued humiliation for Britain will be guaranteed tomorrow by Ed Miliband, supporting Cameron to reject a British EU referendum in the House of Commons tomorrow, with a three line whip for Labour MPs to also vote in support of the treacherous and devious Tory leader and his EU Comptrollers!

Laughingly, this same leader of the Labour Perty, which sold the country out by delivering us bound and gagged under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, shamelessly reneging on their promise of a referendum, today suggested (see also here,) on the BBC's The Politics Show, this lunchtime, that Cameron, at the moment of being ejected and excluded from the discussions in Brussels, should also cancel his trip to Perth in Western Australia, this week, where the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting is taking place, in what should be a perfect opportunity for our country to shake off the introverted sloth caused by the corrupt EU and thereafter to once again re-forge our historical worldwide trading links!

We must very soon begin to restore our national wealth, sapped as it has been by the EU over many years of devious subservience, or the resulting countrywide poverty will undermine the national will even more severely, as seems the intention and objective of Cameron, Clegg and Miliband!

The Commonwealth could soon become our salvation, if we can but be saved from the treachery of the present ruling political class!

The partly justified glorification of Gadaffi's gruesome end.

Britain's weak and wimpish establishment have adopted a 'holier than thou' approach to the events surrounding the capture, death and aftermath of Colonel Gadaffi. Is it perhaps partly because they also involve themselves in similar manipulations and distortions to contort the very meaning of the term democracy, that they fear one day they may share a similar fate?

It seems to have been forgotten that they only belatedly acted, at the main prompting of President Sarkozy of France, when a complete bloodbath of thousands of innocent civilians was about to take place in Benghazi.

The citizens of Misratah faced months of vicious bombardment by Gadaffi's merceneraries, can we not understand the human urge to stand in line and see with their own eyes, if not digitally record, that the individual who caused decades of untold misery to your country, your family and yourself, is indeed really and truly dead? Read here.

Well I have some news for the leaders of the West, busy accomplishing similar democracy destroying devices all across Europe. People do notice, we are not stupid - we see and note what you have accomplished!

What is planned in Westminster, for tomorrow, with a three line whip being imposed by Britain's three main party Leaders on their MPs in the Commons, is a device designed to set in place, no doubt hopefully they believe for all time, the destruction of Britain's Parliament, that our leaders, after forty years of devious deceit and conspiracy, have now almost totally accomplished.

Any MPs voting against the granting of a referendum to Britain's voters, on Britain's continued subjugation to the clearly collapsing EU, must today and tomorrow be made aware, that if they seek to gain further continuing power, perks and pensions from thus betraying their supposed loyalty to democratic independent rule, they should best think again. Breaking such slender strands of loyalties to Parties concerned sloely with their own amassing of extra power and wealth, should be as nothing when compared to destroying our rights carefully acquired, treasured and died for down the centuires!

Britons, as a civilised people, must abhor what has happened over Gadaffi's death, while understanding the motives and raw human emotion behind such acts. Britain's MPs, betraying their historic duty in Parliament tomorrow, must do so in the full knowledge, that the people of Britain will eventually ensure that they lose all that they seek to gain from such treachery!

This October 24th will be a watershed for British democracy, imposing the three line whip has ensured that such must become the case. It is an act of extreme arrogance and stupidity, it fittingly illustrates the natures of the completely contemptible scum who act as front men and women for those who now actually govern us from abroad and sometimes even at home.

Tory traitors - EUstice and Heaton-Harris

The Conservative Party has a long list of traitors to Britain, over the EU, among their ranks. Autonomous Mind tips apart EUstice quite effectively in a posting linked here and another here.

Heaton-Harris is another, upon whom less is available on the internet. I repeat below a posting from last August in which I sought to alert the British public to this particular dangerous specimen:

Chris Heaton-Harris MP - a Fierce Eurosceptic!

The description of Mr Heaton-Harris MP, former sidekick, when an MEP, to Roger Helmer MEP for the East Midlands, (ten years at the trough then,) and presently Conservative MP for Daventry, came from his own web-site, the exact quote:

"A fierce Eurosceptic, he hopes his experience in Brussels will be useful to any future Conservative government." (Editor's note, this phrase appears to have been removed while preparing this posting, but it was there as I began!)

What does that mean exactly, this fierce euroscepticism? One can read about his work for the institution which he claims to be fiercely doubtful about, how he worked to further its workings over ten years, while trousering all the proceeds from the useless talking shop that is the EU Parliament, which some UKIP MEPs have reckoned can be worth over £1 million per year, from here.

So much for that link, with all the false PR, what form does his fierce euroscepticism, presumably of the kind on which I blogged first thing this morning, really take?

Well back last May, Mr Heaton-Harris, tabled a wrecking motion in Parliament, designed to ensure that British taxpayers would receive no relief from the EU Bailouts! I presumed at the time it was at the behest of the Conservative Whips, Heaton-Harris having been one such in the EU monstrosity.

I blogged about it at the time, but could not bring myself to mention his name, thus providing more of the kind of notoriety he clearly craves. The post (the day after a report on the actual debate, which I titled "Our Parliament. Whipped into whingeing worthlessness!") is linked here, it contained this description of the then unnamed Chris Heaton-Harris as follows:

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

To read the Hansard report on his performance, click here. Fierce eurosceptic, maybe, but surely, in all he has achieved, apparently solely working to promote the EU?

Labels: Anti-EU, Chris Heaton-Harris, Eurosceptics

Multi- EU Summits to boost world stock markets!

The EU has always been run along the lines of playground infantilism, the quip in this posting's headline, apparently comes from a close aid to EU Council President Von Rompuy, it speaks volumes.

I can hardly credit it as true, but it is reported by no less a source than the German State broadcaster Deutsche Welle, linked here. The link is also useful as it provides the latest update of the present state of negotiations from the heart of the crisis in Germany, from whence the final shape of the way ahead must eventually be forged.

The Weekend Dawns - Two days for your MP to grasp the basic EU truths!

MPs in Westminster, do not really work on Fridays!

MPs in Westminster hardly work at all, on any day of the year!

MPs at Westminster have handed most of their responsibilities for their constituents, to the European Union, they pretend they are responsible, but in truth thay have given away almost all of that which you voted to them.

In the main - Westminster MPs are low-life filth!

This weekend, we have two days, before the Commons vote on Monday, to let each of our MPs, learn personally, that if they again vote to deprive the people of Britain of a say regarding our Country's role in the collapsing EU, yet again, WE WILL NEVER! EVER VOTE FOR THEM AGAIN!

If they believe that fact is true, it matters not what their party whips may require - read here. MPs are scared, because they know the full facts of what they have done!

TALK TO YOUR MP! This weekend! - Phone and phone again until you do, email them, text them, let them know we want a say in our own affairs once more!

MPs are afraid, that fact is now our only card to play for regaining our democracy!

Cure-All Sunday EU Council meeting deferred until Wednesday

Can't agree or cannot agree, the French and German guiding lights behind the Euro Group of countries, have at least decided they will not agree by Sunday and have surprisingly agreed to issue a jointly agreed statement as follows:

....that Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel would meet to discuss their "ambitious and comprehensive response" to the crisis ahead of the European Council summit on Sunday.

But in a tacit admission of the gulf between them, the statement added that resolutions would be "finally adopted" at a "second meeting no later than Wednesday".

The report in the newspaper from which that quote was taken, linked here, thereafter continued:

But in a tacit admission of the gulf between them, the statement added that resolutions would be "finally adopted" at a "second meeting no later than Wednesday".
Insiders said the weekend's summit of European leaders came close to being cancelled altogether, with the French president Mr Sarkozy having to beg German Chancellor Mrs Merkel not to pull the plug during frantic telephone calls.

Britain's bank lending to France sky-rockets!

A report from the BIS, linked here, has the surprising news that British banl lending to French public bodies rose by 23% in the second calendar quarter, a quote:

European banks boosted lending to French borrowers 8 percent to $925 billion in the three months ended June 30, according to data released yesterday by the BIS, based in Basel, Switzerland. That was driven by a 23 percent increase in loans to the French public sector by British banks

Interestingly, on the Action Man blog, this afternoon, a detailed posting appeared describing how European banks have been shrinking their asset base to raise new funds, as apparently was the last resort of Dexia. A quote from that report, linked here, is as follows:

The reason is that the euro area banks have now had problems to fund their assets for quite some time, as wholesale and interbank funding markets have dried up. In order to receive funding, many of them have resorted to encumbering collateral. In some places like Spain, Ireland and Greece this has been done to such an extent that banks now have to avail themselves of the euro-system's 'emergency liquidity facilities', where banks borrow funds from their national central banks in exchange for – essentially nothing. Instead of handing over eligible collateral, they simply hand over an IOU they themselves create.

This is also what has tripped up Dexia, as its wrong way derivatives bets required it to encumber more and more collateral, until it no longer had anything left it could pledge. In these deals, lenders usually insist on over-collateralization or significant haircuts, with the end result that not all assets can be funded anymore at some point. This is especially true in cases such as Dexia, where a big interest rate swap trade went totally wrong and more and more collateral was required to keep it afloat.

As Action Man, itself goes on to state, the end game does now seem close for the Euro farce:

So much for the ECB's full-throated assurances – given only a few months ago – that there is 'over € 14 trillion in eligible collateral in the euro area's banking system' and that therefore there 'can not possibly be a liquidity problem in the banking system'. Dexia's case already proves otherwise and obviously by now just about everyone knows that what the ECB contended simply is no longer true.

After the Grand Opera and reception laid on for the retirement of the arch-trickster, Jean-Claude Trichet, last evening, in Frankfurt, which iteslf apparently turned to farce, can the TTITPB find a suitable disguise and escape back to St Malo before the fan finally performs its long pre-ordained task!

Hypocrite Von Rompuy

Brussels, 20 October 2011 EUCO 104/11


Joint statement by President Herman Van Rompuy and President José Manuel Barroso on the death of Muammar Gaddafi.

The reported death of Muammar Gaddafi marks the end of an era of despotism and repression from which the Libyan people have suffered for too long. Today Libya can turn a page in its history and embrace a new democratic future. We call on the National Transitional Council to pursue a broad based reconciliation process which reaches out to all Libyans and enables a democratic, peaceful and transparent transition in the country

Stewart Jackson PPS to ex EU-sceptic Owen Paterson prepared to quit!

The first of the 'kept' vote to threaten to quit over the Governments'  EU referendum vote, is Stewart Jackson, according to a BBC report linked here.

Pressure on all MPs must be maintained and continued from their registered voters within their own constituencies. If enough PPS decide their present salary is not worth the risk of long term unemployment, then soon Junior Ministers and eventually Cabinet members could be forced to concede the principle of a referendum.

If the numbers revolting get enough momentum and weight, then the risks of rebellion will decrease and the day could potentially be won on Monday.

Chaos continues apace on the Continent where rumours are now rife that Sunday's EU Council meeting could well be cancelled.

Von Rompuy's role model for EU; Gaddafi reported dead!

Over many decades of my life, the evil spectre of Colonel Gaddafi has hovered in the background, casting a pall of corruption over the Mediterranean Sea and up across Europe, even sometime reaching the inner depths of Downing Street.

At lunchtime today Gadaffi was reported captured in Sirte, reports now suggest that rather than just having been shot in the legs, he is in fact dead. Al Arabiyah is tweeting that this is in fact the case and that shortly they will be permitted to film the corpse.

All this is cause for an immense feeling of both relief and satisfaction. One day the truth of Gadaffi, his role in the original oil price crisis and the long demise of the West will be more widely known and even fully appreciated. I will enjoy a quiet celebratory drink this evening.

Unhappily, Von Rompuy, still seems prepared to lead the EU in a similar direction, see my posting on that topic from last August, linked here.

Guido has a picture see here.

German MPs resent haste to rush an agreement for Euro

Open Europe's daily press briefing, has the following, hugely significant quote, illustrating how far the EU has already departed from democratic norms:

 FAZ reports that all parties in the Bundestag have complained about the "extreme time pressure" they are under to make choices on the future of the eurozone’s rescue fund, the EFSF, with Merkel possibly forced to travel to Sunday’s summit without a clear mandate. SPD MP Thomas Oppermann criticised the process saying, “The planned course of action running up to the EU-summit on Sunday has by no means been deemed appropriate by parliament. In a democracy, you cannot treat a parliament like this”.

Lobby Parliament on Monday

According to a tweet from O'Flynn of the Express, permission has been granted for a petition of Parliament (an insult that it is required) from 2:30 pm on Monday afternoon, by the People's Pledge, from St Stephen's entrance of the Palace of Westminster.

15 Potential Tory rebels from Ministers and Whips - Guido Fawkes

The link to the Guido Fawkes report is here.

Only fifteen rebels from the kept vote shows how venal the Conservative Party has become!

A revolt by Mark Pritchard MP over the EU

Tellingly, given the serial treachery of the BBC, a recording of the debate this morning, between two conservative MPs, Mark Pritchard and Nadhim Zawahi, is STILL not available online, you may try from here.

The Guardian, however, has a report which is linked here, on the decision of one brave Tory, to put country before party and self-interest, as I may quote:

Mark Pritchard, the Conservative MP for Wrekin and secretary of the 1922 committee, made clear on Thursday he intends to rebel.

"If it's a three-line whip, yes I will," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. "Ultimately, this is about country first, party second and career last and that's what we have got to move to because ultimately the British people – the majority – have not had a say on this issue. It's not going to go away."

He added: "This is fundamentally about freedom, about democracy and it's about the legitimacy of the European project. There's the great disenfranchised out there that have never had a say.

"They need to be enfranchised. People feel there's a real disconnect, not only between Brussels and the British people but increasingly between Westminster and the British people."

Bruges Group all day Rally Saturday 22nd October

The Case for an EU Referendum
All-day Congress in the Grand Hall, Methodist Central Hall, Westminster (see map) Saturday 22nd October 2011, 10:30am - 5:30pm

To raise the profile of the demand for an EU referendum in the run-up to a potential vote in Parliament before the end of the year, on Saturday 22nd October the People's Pledge will be hosting around 2,000 referendum supporters and activists at an all-day Congress for an EU Referendum. The event is expected to be the biggest of its type since the Referendum Party's election rallies in the late 1990s.

As well as keynote speakers from across the political spectrum, and even across the divide of opinion on Britain's EU membership, there will be panel discussions about the state of opinion within the Labour and Conservative parties, together with two set-piece debates about whether there should be an EU referendum and whether we should be in or out of the EU.

35 speakers are now confirmed to participate, including:

• Keith Vaz MP, Labour former Minister for Europe
• David Davis MP, Conservative former Shadow Home Secretary
• Bob Crow, General Secretary of the RMT Union
• Zac Goldsmith MP, Conservative
• Kate Hoey MP, Labour
• Jenny Jones AM, Green party, candidate for London mayor
• Daniel Hannan MEP, Conservative
• Graham Stringer MP, Labour
• Lembit Opik, former Liberal Democrat MP
• Douglas Carswell MP, Conservative
• Marta Andreasen MEP, UKIP, former EU chief accountant
• Cllr Steve Radford, President of the Liberal party

To see a full list of participants and the provisional running order for the day click here (pdf)

The People's Pledge are pleased to offer two free tickets to Bruges Group members (normally £5 each). To secure your tickets, please call Chris Bruni-Lowe at the People's Pledge on 020 3427 5624 or print out this email and bring it to the registration desk on the day - please confirm you will attend by emailing mail@peoplespledge.org.

My comment to John Redwood's Diary posting of today.

The Diary entry recording the status of Conservative Party opinion, on the coming EU vote on Monday, linked here,was as follows:

Martin Cole

Posted October 20, 2011 at 7:51 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Thank you for that analysis of the situation in your party.
President Sarkozy, quitting his wife’s bedside as she gave birth to their daughter, to negotiate details in Frankfurt of an arrangement to stave off default of the three largest French banks, better paints the backdrop to the environment against which Monday’s brought forward vote in Westminster will occur.
The riots on the streets of Greece, the closing collapse of the Portuguese economy and the threat to Spain and Italy of passing beyond a liquidity crisis to one of solvency, as warned by Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, the evening before last, all indicate that over the next few days Europe is approaching an historically defining moment. MPs owe it to their constituents to educate themselves on the EU over the coming few days, crass ignorance is widespread.
To grapple with the realities of the developments now likely to follow this coming defining moment for the EU, our Parliamentarians of all parties need to take cognisance of all the well known facts, both of our country since the European Communities Act of 1972 but more importantly the motivations and negligence of those devising and running the euro currency since its inception.
Much day to day commentary, down the years, of all these events is available on my blog.
Any MPs who vote in any way (regardless of any supposed party whipping that may or may not be imposed,) to deprive the people of Britain, a say in the future course of their country at this crucial and desperate juncture, will never again deserve election to any legislative or public body.

More background to the crisis may be read here.

How Singaporeans will soon see the EU reported tomorrow!

Published October 20, 2011 LINKED HERE

A nightmare scenario for the EU

There's a high and rising risk of the EMU breaking up - an eventuality policymakers must take bold action to avoid

By PADHRAIC GARVEY

THE eurozone crisis has gripped world attention in the past couple of years, and inability to address the problems in a convincing manner has seen manageable issues within the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) of the European Union become problems that have grown so large that they could pull the system apart.
As it is, the break-up risk remains elevated, and that risk has continued to increase since the crisis erupted in early 2008. Since then, three small issuers (Greece, Ireland and Portugal) have gone cap-in-hand to their EU partners and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and more recently two large issuers (Italy and Spain) have had to ask for European Central Bank (ECB) support through purchases of their government bonds.
Too little, too late
Every time eurozone politicians have cobbled together a solution, it has been too little too late, and frustratingly has pushed the EMU system further into crisis. A number of things have been agreed. EU loans to Greece were a first important step. Then the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) was set up to help fund stressed issuers. However, in both cases the initial packages have had to be subsequently doubled in size in order to appease market demand for a more credible solution.





The column concludes as follows:

The loss of even one EMU member would be a nightmare. The consequences are unbounded, and we would venture into the absolute unknown which would see financial markets trade worst-case fears, potentially bringing down the global financial system for a period.

This in turn is why we think it will not happen. The only risk to our view is that if Greece itself decides to leave the union - in such a scenario, nothing can be done to prevent this from happening, and we would have to manage the consequences.

The writer is global head of developed debt and rates strategy at ING Bank

Sarkozy/Carla Bruni have baby girl - better a New Franc

Stuff NZ has the report, linked here. President Sarkozy, is this evening in Frankfurt, locked in session with the useless indivduals who have destroyed the euro currency, now apparently intent on setting back european unity for decades by turning the underfunded EFSF into an insurer of dodgy debt!

EU referendum vote advanced to Monday 24th October

Probably as a result of worries that constituents will pressurise their weak and mainly spineless, money-grabbing MPs into voting the proper and patriotic way, the Government has brought forward the debate on a European referendum to next Monday.

Time is short, threaten your MP with future and permanent loss of your vote TODAY!

Sarkozy in Frankfurt meeting Merkel, Lagarde & Trichet

The surprise meeting comes as progress towards the euro, possibly even the EU's disintegration gathers pace. Reuters report is here. More from the WSJ here.

Rumours, earlier in the day, questioned whether the second Greek bailout might even be officially abandoned, confirming what many have long suspected, particulalry this blog, that the deal would never work, since its first announcement on 21st July, at what became a long and agonising summer of pure pantomime!!!

Perhaps the protesters on the streets of Athens today are finally being noticed in the EU's corrupt and thoroughly rotten corridors of power!

EU traces its predicted course - Athens 19/10/11

French Finance Minister Baroin warns growth may fall!

The French Finance Minister, François Baroin, warned on TV France 2 this morning, report here, that growth in the country may not achieve the expected 1.5% for next year.

Many viewers, such as this observer will be frankly startled if growth this year even approaches its targets. Nevertheless digging for the pointless new TGV upgrade that will knock mere minutes off the journey time between Bordeaux and Paris, continues apace here in SW France. Growth created by such projects, costing hundreds of millions seems absolutely pointless, unless of course you are an EU fonctionaire, with expenses paid by taxpayers to make such pointless trips!

As the EU falls apart - read my prophetic novel from 2000

Millennium Blitzkrieg - now available for your Kindle!

The novel written by this blog's author in the late nineteen-nineties and first published in 2000 is now available from Amazon on Kindle. Other digital reader versions will be announced from this blog shortly.

Read one view of how the non-democratic disaster that is the EU could be overcome by 2014!

Click on the links below to purchase in your country!

A sample and the first three chapters from amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

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Mervyn King BoE Governor names it a solvency crisis!

Mervyn King, urged surplus countries, such as Germany, to boost demand. Read Reuters from here.

French sales of warships to Greece, upsets the Germans

Der Spiegel carries the report of yet more unbelievable arms spending by the supposed bankrupt and maxed out Greek nation, read here:

A huge arms deal is threatening to put French-German relations under strain. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, France wants to deliver two to four new frigates to the Greek navy and to allow the highly indebted nation to postpone payment of the €300 million ($412 million) purchase price per ship for the next five years.
Under the deal, Greece will have the option of paying up after five years, with a significant discount of €100 million, or returning them to the French navy. The "stealth" frigates are designed to avoid detection by enemy radar and are built by state-owned French defense company DCNS.


In a letter to the German government, an executive from the ThyssenKrupp group complained that the vessel purchase will in effect be co-financed by German taxpayers because Greece, reliant on aid from the European Union and International Monetary Fund, may have to restructure its debts.

Well, well, well, there we were we believing, that it was only the rescue of the entire Euro Group, that these two countries had fallen out over, although admittedly impacting the entire world economy at the same time!

France and funding the EFSF once AGAIN!

As repeatedly pointed out on this blog, over many months, there are insufficient AAA rated Euro Zone nations to allow much, if any, boosting of the EFSF, let alone the eventual ESM. Rather than repeat old links to postings again and again, try this new one to Acting Man, from which comes the following quote:

The problem we want to focus on here is however the danger posed by a possible downgrade of France's current 'AAA' credit rating. This rating is absolutely essential to support the EFSF. And yet, if France should now give large additional guarantees to the EFSF, the mere fact of issuing said guarantees could be sufficient grounds for the credit rating agencies to downgrade France's rating – which in turn would then make the guarantees worth much less. In fact, it is very much conceivable that following a downgrade of France, the EFSF itself could also lose its current AAA rating – and this would deal a devastating blow to the entire bailout project.

As it were, S&P has already warned several weeks ago that an enlargement of the EFSF would likely 'lead to rating action'. France's public debt to GDP ratio is  nearly at 86%, so it is clear that the country would be in the crosshairs of the rating agencies. The big surge in CDS spreads on France over recent months and the recent large jump in yields on the French government's bonds  represent a big warning sign, as quite often the rating agencies will simply validate the market's assessment with a lag.

Commons EU Referendum vote for 27th October.

Douglas Carswell MP has tweeted that there will be a vote in the House of Commons in nine days time - with no wriggle room he asserts - although it will of course be non-binding on this appalling government!

The question is at present planned to be voted upon as follows:

"This house calls upon the government to introduce a bill in the next session of parliament to provide for the holding of a national referendum on whether the united kingdom:

A) should remain a member of the European Union on the current terms;
B) leave the european union; or
C) re-negotiate the terms of its membership in order to create a new relationship based on trade and co-operation"

If you agree that our country can no longer afford to be subjugated and ripped off by the corrupt Continentals for any longer, please make clear to your MP how you expect him to vote.