Santander downgrade another exposure for Britain to the Euro

The reports coming in on the downgrade by S and P by two notches of the huge Spanish bank Santander, must surely be of great concern to HM Treasury!

According to some such reports our sloppy politicians, civil servants, Bank of England officials and other financial regulators have permitted some 26.7 million British comsumers to run accounts with this bank, most of which acquisitions were made even when it was increasingly obvious that the Spanish economy and indeed the sovereign itself was in deep, deep trouble.

Now of course these accounts might still be quite secure and the assets they represent perfectly intact and available to Britiain's guarantors against any further difficulties or even possible eventual default. On the other hand seeing how everything else connected with banks, governments and the EU has gone over recent years, then perhaps things might not end up quite so clear cut!

Cameron's defence rests on Blair and Brown being worse

Every candidate standing for the Conservative Party in Thursday's elections must be cringing in horror at their association with the blustering bully-boy that David Cameron, their party leader and shamefully British PM, again proved himself to be in Parliament this afternoon.

Cameron's main defence was once again to associate all others in the Commons chamber with similar demeaning motivations towards their own politics and detail numbers of meetings with the Murdochs for Blair and Brown in excess of his own, somewhat akin to admitting murder but claiming innocence on the grounds that your predecessors had many more victims.

I will add a link to the Hansard report of the exchanges when it is published, from here.

Can France and Britain resume a role in Europe's politics?

That question is considered by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in his column in the Daily Telegraph this morning, linked here.

In France the columnist expresses hopes but has the following to say on next Sunday's likely Presidential victor:

The Latin Bloc might politely tell Berlin: acquiesce in the new landscape, or expect Latin Europe to take matters into its own hands and bring about the fiscal, monetary, and exchange conditions needed to safeguard its societies - entailing a very nasty shock for German banks and exporters.
No such showdown is about to happen of course. Mr Hollande is an Enarque at heart, easily bidable. He may be fobbed off with a bigger role for the European Investment Bank.

Britain's voters must be wary of falling into a similar trap. While the elections on Thursday are only for local government, in Britain's curious party system politics a complete rejection of the three main parties could bring central government politics to a shuddering halt.

Voters have three more days to look at the state of their country, in every area of life where politicians have a say, then look at what is underway in Europe, where their politicians have no say whatsoever and never will, and then take the necessary action with their vote - after all as a voter YOU are ultimately in charge AND fully repsonsible!

Other reading - Growth versus Austerity - A phony debate, by Pater Tenebrarum linked here.

Britain's maritime heritage lives on! Britain does NOT!

While the three arrogant bullies, who today run bankrupt Britain, cower in Downing Street, apparently unable to face the obvious consequences of their joint decision to appoint Andy Coulson as their, and their Coalition Government's official spokesman (almost as its first act), across the globe in Western Australia a magnificent example of Britain's maritime heritage is taking place. Read here.

Britain's politicians, today perfectly epitomised, by the stuck-up trio Cameron, Clegg and Osborne, fittingly represent their class of opinionated low-grade opportunists who have for years sold out their once proud country to the EU and rendered it the bankrupt plaything for Continental conspirators which it has today become.

Four thousand seven hundred english speaking US servicemen and women, this weekend visit the Western Australian cities of Fremantle and Perth, to share the heritage of which our language seems to remain the last significant element in so far as British men and women can be concerned or involved. Our politicians have sold out our place amongst the english speaking nations of the world for the pensions and perks they, together with their officials, harvest as our administrators, such lucre being returned to these undeserving turncoats, as the price of a seat among the 27 "member states" of the evil EU.

This weekend I am visiting an island where it is believed the roots of Admiralty Law can be found. There will be no more posts until Monday!

Are David & Sam Cameron heading to OZ after Downing Street?

Resignation, long awaited by all decent British electors, must be high in the sights of Prime Minister, David Cameron this evening as news breaks that he and his wife, Samantha, have selected an Australian nanny for their young daughter. Read the rather critical report in The Guardian, linked here.

Whether this came on the recommendation of the Murdoch clan is not yet known, neither whether it is in anticipation of a fairly prompt and hurried departure from Downing Street possibly requiring fairly rapid acclimatisation to a country where they presumably hope to still receive a tepid welcome.

This blog takes the news as a very welcome sign that the real difficulties of the EU are finally, perhaps, being grasped by our PM, however, quitting the sinking ship like a rat seems more characteristic of the man than his having such a sudden realistic, economic insight!

Probably merely complete and utter thoughtlessness, as in every other area of his policies and governance!

Hunt and officials worked to block Murdcoch's Sky bid opponents

The Guardian's most recent scoop on the crisis that is now clearly engulfing number 10 Downing Street, is linked here.

Hunt is clinging on in an attempt to defy gravity as it has been perfectly clear for the past few days that should he go, THEN MUST Cameron quickly follow behind. Looking at the facts exposed from Leveson, who can be diverted from all the evidence of Cameron's schmoozing with the powers that be at News International, THEREFORE what Hunt's task in this matter involved. Not one single word needed to be uttered to that effect!

The crucial element is the complicity in all this of all those Conservative MPs who gave Cameron their support as their leader, presumably because they hoped his vacuity and PR glitz would dupe the voters. It did not, it instead duped Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats, that is the sole reason why Britain has Cameron, the creature of the EU (which apparently is all the LibDems desire,) in place as PM today.

Clegg too must have known the score, why else did he accept Coulson at Number 10, as this blog has asked many, many times?

Keeping Europeans Calm or perhaps just Ignorant!

One of the most suspicious events of the past few years of economic crisis has for me become evident in watching the activities and results of the Spanish bank Santander. Yesterday saw the results of that operation published, in the USA early yesterday and this morning in Europe. There are lots of bits missing in the version that seems to be most available from Euope. Compare Reuters US edition from here and the AP Bloomberg Businessweek version from Madrid linked here.

On their property portfolio the following is the main highlights provided for Europe:

Banco Santander said Thursday its first-quarter profits fell 24 percent as its provisions for bad loans rose sharply, particularly in its recession-hit home market of Spain. The eurozone's largest bank by market capitalization said its net profit in the January-March period was (EURO)1.6 billion ($2.1 billion). Revenue grew by more than 8 percent to (EURO)11.4 billion.
That income gain, however, was offset by bigger loan losses -- Santander set aside (EURO)3.1 billion in provisions, up 51 percent from the same quarter of 2011.
Banco Santander S.A. said non-performing loans amounted to 3.9 percent of its portfolio, an increase of 0.37 percentage points. In rececession-plagued Spain, the ratio rose 1.18 points to 5.75 percent.

In the USA report things appear far more gruesome and one suspects a fairer view of the absolute disaster ongoing in the Spanish property market can thus be obtained:

Santander (SAN.MC), the euro zone's largest bank, said on Thursday it still had 1 billion euros in property-related losses to come after first quarter profit was hit by rising loan provisions in recessionary Spain and overheated Brazil. Spain has instructed its banks to set aside capital to cover a funding gap of tens of billions of euros stemming from a decade of unsustainable lending to property developers during a real estate boom that went abruptly into reverse in 2008. Santander said it would take the rest of the provisions throughout 2012. With more Spanish householders and businesses defaulting on debt as the economy sinks back into recession, and nearly one in four workers unemployed, investors fear the scale of Spain's problem might ultimately require an international bailout as in Greece, Ireland and Portugal....

S and P (based in the USA) knocked Spain's credit rating down two further notches this morning! Irish Times report from here.

Signs grow stronger that Hollande will smoothly replace Sarkozy as Merkel's poodle!

The removal of the elected government in Holland this week, and its replacement by a caretaker arrangement that rapidly adopted all the EU (Merkel) had demanded of its failed predecessor, has still failed to set off alarm bells across the Continent as of this morning's press and broadcast media reports!

More danger signs come in this report from the Chicago Tribune as to how smoothly Hollande will be likely to fill the underdog pose adopted by President Sarkozy towards growing German authoritarianism. With problems in Hungary and the Czech Republic, over and above those I mentioned in my last post of last evening, it is now impossible to see where resistance to the obviously growing EU tyranny is now likely to be found!

Reports of renewed shelling of civilians by President Assad of Syria this morning must surely make obvious to the worrld that the UN has become a completely useless and worthless organisation - where exactly do the citizens of the EU believe aid will now come to save them from the economic blackmail set to be imposed to achieve the long term objective of an EU non-democratic super state through compulsory fiscal union.

Only by re-invigorating their national parliaments will resistance be possible, in Britain, Simon Hughes should be concentrating his efforts on that, his party also sold out to Murdoch years ago, as evidenced by the appointment of Coulson as Downing Street spokesman for the Coalition Government!

It appears that the sole MP in Westminster on the government benches with a grasp of what is underway is for the moment  Nadine Dorries joined from the opposition benches by Kate Hoey!

Holland apes Portugal in passing austerity without Government

The erosion of democratic governance across the EU continues apace this evening with the announcement that the Dutch MPs whose Government handed its resignation to their Queen this very week, has now passed the latest austerity proviosions demanded by the tyrannical EU. Read here.

In so doing they follow the example of Portugal and Ireland where bailouts were essentially agreed, between two elections, by self-serving civil servants; then Greece and Italy where democratically elected governments have been replaced and the EU puppets, Papademos and Monti put in charge.

Nowhere tonight in Western Europe can democracy still feel secure, except perhaps in Switzerland where that mountain-protected nation has its own secure freedoms and existence outside of the EU, which are themselves partially protected from the greed and avarice of their surrounding EU neighbours by their own large, well-equipped and trained armed forces.

IMF says Spain's Banks vulnerable and may need help!

The report summarised in this post's headline, is from the Washington Post, linked here, from which comes this quote:

Investors worried about Spain’s indebtedness are pushing up the country’s borrowing costs and have raised the specter of another European country needing an international bailout. Yet the effort to trim debt is pulling billions of dollars out of the economy and undercutting growth.

The Economist just out also comments on this presently most obvious are of the EU's death throes, linked here.

Across Europe there is now also a noticeable tendency for the crisis to appear to be shifting, from the certainty of the unreliability of the banks to the awakening of the knowledge of the similar unreliability of EU politicians!

An accurate post on Cameron, Murdoch and the IMF

The following is one of many postings on Ironies Too on 23rd July 2011, uncannily accurate on all counts, is it not?

More IMF cash for Greece? A view from Australia!

MSN has a viewpoint from an Australian point of view, linked here. The time must be approaching, regardless of the appointment of the ill-equipped Lagarde to head the organisation, where the nation's that stump up the IMF cash, such as Australia, Canada and most importantly the USA, say "Enough"!

Unhappily Britain will not be involved, with EU Pensioner, Nick Clegg now effectively running the country, due to the mangling of Cameron by Murdoch. Note this amusing cartoon from Prospect Magazine, linked here.

Labels: Cameron, Greece Bailout 2.0, IMF

posted by Martin at 12:25 P

Dexia Banks again needs capital to avoid collapse!

The report from Reuters is linked here, the following being the key quote:

Bailed out Franco-Belgian bank Dexia urgently needs fresh capital to stay afloat, Belgium's central bank governor told a parliamentary committee on Wednesday, according to a lawmaker who attended the sitting.

Janusz Lewandowski on video on EU budget demonstrates why the EU must be destroyed!

EU political will cannot save Spain.

The following is a very brief extract from an article by Pater Tenebrarum on Acting Man, linked here, which is preferably best read in full:

“The headline numbers on the combined European firewall are as large as €940 billion. This includes €220 billion of funds already committed to Portugal, Ireland and Greece (note that this is the 'theoretical maximum' at the moment, ed.) Germany would guarantee a total of €401 billion, but the amount currently approved by the Bundestag is only €211 billion....Greece would guarantee €20 billion – quite a chunk for a country that has just been bailed out.... Spain would guarantee/owe €176 billion – 16% of GDP and 154% of the projected tax revenues for 2012.”

It follows from the above that if Spain really needs a bailout, the total amount available for the European 'financial firewall' will be much smaller than advertised, since Spain can hardly be expected to bail out itself (although Spain's government has recently decided to get creative with its banks, which are supposed to lend the bank bailout fund the money it needs to bail them out, so you obviously never know).
If all the 'PIIGS' mooted contributions to the ESM were to be subtracted, the total amount available to the ESM would shrink by about one third. Moreover, the ESM will start out with only €80 billion in paid in capital – the remaining €500 billion can be 'drawn upon request' – they are mere guarantees.

Governance by Troika

Ireland reaches the halfway stage of its supposed limited period of direct rule by foreigners today, with no signs that any real steps have been taken to heal its economy or repay its debts. Yet the figurative jackboot over Ireland's fate is grinding ever further into the flesh and fabric of the country. The following is the final paragraph of the report on this anniversary by Irish broadcaster RTE, linked here:

Other aspects of the troika talks have concentrated on reforming social welfare and so called labour activation measures for the unemployed, the introduction of water meters and charges, and the sale of some state assets.

Britons would be seriously misguided if they believe they can continue within the EU with a man of the dreadfully weak character and lack of substance such as Cameron in Downing Street and not eventually suffer exactly the same fate - indeed are not compulsory water meters already been placed on the agenda?

Perhaps the EU nightmare is finally ending!

The following tweet comes from Open Europe this evening, reporting the front page of a major German newspaper:

Open Europe ‏@OpenEurope

Frontpage Leader Die Welt: "If it continues like this, that's the end of the #Euro zone"; laments "end" of fiscal pact http://bit.ly/I5vzwU

BUT BETTER YET, FAR BETTER

Over and over again today the two arrogant, posh boys, in defending the UK return to recession

HAVE CITED GROWING NON-EU EXPORTS

AS OUR SOLE CAUSE FOR HOPE!

Excuse this blog for saying so, but is that not exactly the point we have been making over many long years of pointless blogging? The EU = death!

Cameron's undisclosed meetings with Murdoch

The following is from Hansard in the Commons this afternoon, linked here.

Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab):

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Last July the Prime Minister—I tried to warn him that I would raise this point of order; obviously he has now left the Chamber—published a list of all the meetings he had had with proprietors, editors and senior media executives between May 2010 and July 2011. It details only one meeting with Rupert Murdoch between May and July 2011. However, this afternoon Rupert Murdoch—this has been published by the Leveson inquiry—made it clear that there were meetings with the Prime Minister on 18 May, 25 May, 21 July, another on 21 July, and 22 July. My point of order is to ask you whether something that is laid in the Library of the House is just as much a matter of privilege as something that is said. In other words, if someone has tabled something in the Library that has misled the House, is that just as serious a matter as something said in the Chamber?

Mr Speaker:

All Members, including the Prime Minister, are responsible for the accuracy of what they say to the House, and my implicit assumption is that that includes material lodged with the House. I am happy to take further advice on that, but there is an encouraging nod from the Clerk of the House from a sedentary position, and that provides me with succour. Beyond that, I simply say that Members should be careful what they say if—I emphasise if—they are not asking a question, but making an accusation. I say that simply for the general knowledge and enrichment of the House. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his point of order.

Cameron seeks shelter from corruption charges by claiming "Commons" culpability!

The scumbags and rogues who infest and prosper from the common corruption across the Commons were called upon by Prime Minister Cameron today to rally to his defence on the grounds of common culpability, see Hansard from here, in particular this quote:

I think on all sides of the House there is a bit of a need to say, hand on heart, that we all did too much cosying up to Rupert Murdoch—I think we would agree.

It is the common corruption amongst the poltical class, which has rubbed off upon our civil service, that now needs to be addressed. Cameron's performance in the Palace of Westminster today could hardly have made that fact any more clear.

A week from tomorrow the voters of Britain will have their chance to make that plain fact clear. Do not vote for any representative of the three main parties and where there is no alternative do not vote at all, or register your thoughts on your ballot paper!

My reply to John Redwood - Foreign Aid & Health Waste!

Martin Cole

Posted April 25, 2012 at 7:41 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation. Why is the prime area for savage cuts not itemised I wonder. The following is what you have written:

“Overseas Aid, Health and educational spending also rises, within the Departmental spending totals.”

It seems all other expenditures have been detailed, can you please winkle out the clearly deliberately concealed details and list them on your blog…. Please

How Britain has been bought!

Today when Rupert Murdoch appears unde oath at the Leveson Inquiry the country shouls learn many facts as to how the absolute dregs of humanity that have been running our politics and civil service during recent decades have been bought and controlled.

At the end of the day we must hope that reform will at last begin to be seen to be possible, not least because it is essential. The necessary start will come from the electorate, whom beginning with the local elections on 3rd May, must boycott the three main poltical parties who have instituted or facilitated and certainly profited from the widespread corruption which has eaten away the fabric ot our society!.

Pointless Hunt going with Cameron left in place!

Pointless Hunt going and Cameron staying on, after all who put Hunt in place?

Germany vs Holland - in CDS etc!

Thanks to FT Alphaville for this video and graph, linked here.

Dutch credit default swap (CDS) spreads are currently trading at 135 basis points. This means it costs £135,000 a year over five years to insure £10m of Dutch government debt, compared with £91,000 for Germany.

Some telling points to Osborne on the IMF Fiasco

The following points to the arrogant George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer following his statement on the IMF were as follows:


Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab): Does the Chancellor not accept that the credibility of the IMF itself is put in question if it continues to provide support for eurozone countries that are, and remain, insolvent?

Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con): Last October, the Chancellor told this House that Britain would not be putting money into the bail-out fund, either directly or through the IMF. He said:

“the IMF contributing money to the eurozone bail-out fund? No. And Britain contributing money to the eurozone bail-out fund? No. That is Britain’s clear position.”—[Official Report, 27 October 2011; Vol. 534, c. 471.]

Has he changed his mind or was he playing with words?

Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Given that I agree with the Chancellor that IMF money should not be used to bail out a currency, will he urge the IMF to make sure that loans are made available to European countries only when they are in a position to devalue or when they are withdrawing from the single currency? Otherwise, as with the sterling area, surely the responsibility rests with the governing authorities and the central bank of the euro to make the money, the loans, the subsidies available.

Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab): The IMF was designed for a world of separate national currencies with exchange controls and properly managed national economies. Is it not time to look again at re-creating that sensible world, because it actually worked, starting with the re-creation of national currencies in Europe?

Mr Peter Bone (Wellingborough) (Con): The only way for Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece to become competitive and get their economies growing again is through a return to national currencies. Does not the Chancellor agree that it is a bonkers policy to pour billions and billions of UK taxpayers’ money into supporting the failed euro?

Mark Pritchard (The Wrekin) (Con): But is not the IMF in danger of sleight of hand? On the one hand the IMF claims not to bail out currencies, yet on the other hand it offers bilateral loans to countries in the eurozone that are failing because of the eurozone currency. Is that not an indirect loan from the IMF?

 Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab): If in the weeks ahead the IMF announces, to everyone’s utter astonishment, that it wants to use some of that general fund for the eurozone bail-out pot, will the Chancellor bring the matter back to the House and allow us to vote on it?

The replies, naturally enough, are not worth recording but may be found on this link to Hansard together with many other points raised to this remorseless, contritionless and compassionless piece of puffed-up privilege, George Osborne.

EU shoppers now have the power to halt the hegemony!

The following is a summary of the deepening crisis in the EU taken from the editorial in City AM of this morning, linked here.

EURO CRISIS


IT is all going very badly wrong in the Eurozone. First we had the French elections. Then the Dutch government collapsed yesterday, once again because of the fallout from the crisis. And then came the grim economic data, oodles and oodles of it: first quarter GDP shrank by 0.4 per cent in Spain – and that was the least of the EU’s worries. The Eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a good gauge of activity, slumped to 47.4 in April, down dramatically from March’s 49.1; a number below 50 means contraction. This collapse was felt for both services, which slumped to 47.9 from 49.2 and for manufacturing, down to 46.0 from 47.7. Even Germany is being engulfed in the implosion of the periphery nations: its overall PMI is down to 50.9, suggesting very little growth, with manufacturing in deeply negative territory at a 33-month low of 46.3.

Now the opportunity is here for every ordinary man and woman across the EU to send a warning shot across the bows of those who are both trying and succeeding in destroying the last remaining democratic rights and national parliamentary perogatives all across the EU!

In every area of daily life close inspection of the products we use will quickly prove the market dominance German companies have obtained through the ruthless crushing of our national sovereignties and democracies. Sacrifices are everywhere being imposed upon Europeans in the name of austerity. We can individually make sure that the sacrifices we make fall most heavily upon the perpetrators of this horrendous economic disaster!

Boycott products from companies of the countries that are destroying our democracies!

A new EU Rule for Oppression has been issued today

THE END GAME

The European Commission repeated its demand for the Dutch government to submit measures to balance the budget in line with euro spending rules to Brussels within nine days.

“The commission trusts that the Dutch government will continue to seek a budget solution,” said a spokesman. “Governments commit on behalf of states. Therefore commitments are not linked to one government. Governments change but commitments on behalf of states cannot be changed without discussion with European partners.”

The absolute neutering of democratically elected governance has surely never been made any clearer! The source is to be found in the final paragraphs in this report by Bruno Waterfield, linked here.

I repeat the new guiding principle behind the EU - surely never has there been a clearer manifesto than this for that evil organisation's absolute dedication to imposing tyranny across Europe!

“Governments commit on behalf of states. Therefore commitments are not linked to one government. Governments change but commitments on behalf of states cannot be changed without discussion with European partners.”

Nonsense! In the real world, outside of Brussels, electors vote in new governments, who are then authorised to act in furtherance of the policies upon which they have most recently been elected by their voters! 

Nowhere does there exist an obligation to discuss national policy with outsiders. No British Government, of this I am certain, can bind its successors, least of all can any Westminster Parliament prohibit its actions being overruled by any succeeding parliament - that is what parliamentary sovereignty means, and it is this the EU has always sought to destroy - the final battle seems about to commence in the EU saga!

Cameron & Osborne - Two arrogant posh boys - "no remorse, no contrition, no compassion!

....... To understand the lives of others and that is their real crime!"
(Nadine Dorries Conservative Party MP today).



I fear that their crimes go far deeper than that, extending as they do to the wholesale selling out of their country!

Bet Canadians are relieved over the IMF as Dutch PM resigns!

Global Montreal has a picture from Holland of people outside the palace of Queen Beatrix while the Dutch PM hands in his Government's resignation.

I bet the people of Canada reading this are really relieved their Government did not commit any more funds for the EU over the weekend.

In Britain the pathetic and economically childlike Chancellor, George Osborne, was unsuccessfully trying to explain to Parliament why he did not follow the US and Canadian example!

Czech Republic Government on verge of collapse - Klaus in London

Another Coalition Government within the EU faced collapse over the past weekend, as well as the more publicised problems of Holland, the Czech Republic similarly faces early elections as the Prime Minister, Petr Necas, announced last evening that the governing centre right coalition was dissolving itself, read here.

Strangely enough, earlier in the weekend, the Bruges Group had announced that Czech President Vaclev Klaus, would be in London on 3rd May, (as disastrous local election results for the UK Coalition will be being announced,)  to explain his views as the sole sane leader of any nation amongst the 27 former nations now mere EU member states. An example of his sound sense may be seen in these quotes, used by the Bruges Group, in promoting his visit:

President Klaus argues that, ‘In contrast to Marx, supporters of global governance do not believe that salvation will arise via the proletariat: they humbly suggest that it will come from themselves.

‘The manifestations of transnational progressivism—global governance and the European Union—are supplanting liberal democracy and nation-states and driving us into the stage of post-democracy. The EU wants to replace the project that is malfunctioning today by even bigger doses of the same. That is entirely absurd.’

We must sincerely hope that the political crisis in the Czech Republic does not prevent President Klaus from making this important speech.

Voters of France and Holland AGAIN potentially now control the future of the EU!

The past weekend with the French rejection of the two leading Presidential candidates, see the posting immediately beneath this, and the collapse of consensus in the Netherlands, see Reuters here, now have the opportunity to demand the scrapping of the EU which they first clearly indicated they desired in the referendums in their countries on the EU Reform Treaty in May and June 2005.

In the interim, contrary to their democratically demonstrated demands,  their greed-ridden, self-serving politicians have continued to mindlessly feed the ever-growing corrupt bueaucratic monstrosity that the EU had by then already become, such that by today it takes its present form which quite obviously clearly  threatens the well-being and prosperity of every man woman and child within its 27 member states.

Voters in Holland and France must now leave no doubt of their desire to ensure that the E.U., as presently contrived and constructed by use of the deliberate EMU conspiracy, can continue to exist to stifle democracy and individual freedoms no longer!

Anti EU vote prevails in French Presidential First Round Voting

The significant numbers with 98% of the vote counted and based on still changing figures from the French Ministry of the Interior, as published in Le Figaro, linked here, (excluding only French votes cast abroad) are to me as follows:

Specifically anti-EU votes (Le Pen 18.1+ Mélanchon 11.1) 29.2%

Hollande 28.6%

Sarkozy 27.1%

Abstentions 19.6%

In the two weeks between the first and second round votes the two contenders now face a crucial choice, upon which possibly hangs the future of the EU. This choice is whether to abandon the present concept of the EU, already under imminent threat of economically induced collapse, and restore France to independent democratic sovereignty during the term of office they will then have become almost certain to win, or to continue to muddle along under German control!

If neither Hollande nor Sarkozy grab such an opportunity, then it now appears certain that the EU will suffer a long drawn out death over the next few years, guaranteeing that François Hollande will also be a one term President, exactly like his immediate predecessor.

Euro break-up foretold in EU Parliament by Nigel Farage!

18th April Strasbourg 

EU Presidents and Commissioners squirm in their seats, last week, as facts permeate the corrupt citadel of power and degradation!

Dutch Crisis Deepens as early elections loom

The situation in yet another EU member state approaches crisis point as new elections in Holland loom on the very weekend where France kicks off its first round of Presidential voting.

One article on the economic implications of this latest Euro Group natinal economic collapse is here, while an overall view written in my view with some frustration coming through, from Radio Netherlands Worldwide, is here.

My reply to John Redwood this morning, 1922 Committee.

Martin Cole

Posted April 22, 2012 at 7:07 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Thanks for this exercise in Open Government.
Mr Redwood writes “I have never before written about these meetings. They are best kept private.”
I presume we may now look forward to regular reports each Thursday morning and following all 1922 meeting while Parliament sits, or will such frankness depend solely upon the leakiness of your colleagues.
A precedent has been set, now how will such matters be handled in the future?

IMF appears to disassociate itself from its MD Christine Lagarde!

The statement detailing the pledges of extra support the IMF is claiming to have received appears only under the name of Madame Christine Lagarde, the IMF's competence challenged Managing Director, the dangers of whom to the world economy, this blog has long warned.

The version of Mme Lagarde's statement available from the IMF website, linked here, has at least been edited since it first appeared, so that the figures are finally properly aligned, but the dreadful arithmetical errors that would shame many eleven year olds still exist. The total of the numbers provided remain woefully far short of the Grand Lump Sum offered at the end, with a mere footnote number 3:

 "³ Including China, Russia, Brazil, India, and other countries"

being supposedly offered up as justification for this cheapest of low conjuring tricks.

Readers may search in vain for numbers that add up all across the IMF site but none others appear. Thus the organisation appears to have disassociated itself from the entire exercise, particularly as the IMF seems also silent under what provisions these sums have been pledged and with which particular procedures, of the many available to the IMF, they will be disbursed!

All this should be sufficient to consign UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, back to the political playpen, from which he should never have been allowed to set forth.

Edward Elgar Nimrod

For a peaceful weekend afternoon!

Does not US & Canada's absence from new IMF loan make it illegal.

Alex Brummer in the Daily Mail raises the point that the extra £10 billion offered by George Osborne last night to Mme Christine Lagarde is more or less just that, a personal loan from George to Christine, backed by HM Treasury, which has in reality nothing whatever to do with the IMF and its usual financing arrangements.

A legal challenge should be mounted by some of the protesting Tory MPs ASAP it appears to this blogger!

Treasures from the threads number 77 - The Chavez lesson for the EU

The following comment comes (strangely enough) to an article in the Daily Telegraph on the extra UK payment to the IMF. (I blogged on that last evening, and threatened to make it my last post which following the kind comments to that idea, and surprisingly also the urging of Mrs IT, I have withdrawn).

Firozali A.Mulla
15 minutes ago

CARACAS, Venezuela — By 6:30 a.m., a full hour
and a half before the store would open, about two dozen people were already in
line. They waited patiently, not for the latest iPhone, but for something far more basic: groceries. “Whatever I can get,” said Katherine Huga, 23, a mother of two, describing her shopping list. She gave a shrug of resignation. “You buy what they have.” Venezuela is one of the world’s top oil producers at a time of soaring energy prices, yet shortages of staples like milk, meat and toilet paper are a chronic part of life here, often turning grocery shopping into a hit or miss proposition Some residents arrange their calendars around the once-a-week deliveries made to government-subsidized stores like this one, lining up before
dawn to buy a single frozen chicken before the stock runs out.  A couple of bags of flour.  A bottle of cooking oil. The shortages affect both the poor and the well off, in surprising ways. A supermarket in the upscale La Castellana neighborhood recently had plenty of chicken and cheese — even quail eggs — but not a single roll of toilet paper. Only a few bags of coffee remained on a bottom shelf. Asked where a shopper could get milk on a day when that, too, was out of stock, a manager said with sarcasm, “At Chávez’s house.” At the heart of the debate is President Hugo Chávez’s socialist-inspired government, which imposes strict price controls that are intended to make a range of foods and other goods more affordable for the poor. They are often the very products that are the hardest to find. Those are the  hardest to find. The once-a-week deliveries made to government-subsidized stores like this one, lining up before dawn to dawn. “It was good for me,” she said drily, pushing her 14-month-old daughter in a stroller. “I lost several pounds.” Tell me where the sub Sahara people will do, as they are the poorest lot and totally depend on the donations (at time fabricated that I ought to point out as I have stayed there. There is power, water, shortages and no one cares. The cities are filled with dirty water as the drainage is blocked and the water them stinks that make a man wake up to say where id this pong coming from? To think that we are complaining in the sub Sahara is of no use at all. We at this arena are a lost tribe. I thank you Firozali A.Mulla DBA

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George Osborne throws £10 Billion more at dying EU via the IMF

Osborne's statement on his latest atrocious waste of UK taxpayer's money concludes as follows:

"...Should these additional resources be used, they would support well designed IMF programs with appropriate conditionality and risk mitigating measures would apply. Australia will contribute $7 billion, Singapore $4 billion, Republic of Korea $15 billion and the United Kingdom $15 billion."

That is clearly untrue, as the funds will go to support member states of the Euro who are prevented from devaluing to thus return their economies to competitiveness (always a requirement of earlier IMF rescues)!

Britain's leaders are in the process of deliberately destroying the remaining assets of the people of Britain, after years of squandering the former wealth of the nation merely to rotate in power with other politicians for the personal gain, power, pensions and perks of them all!

A halt must be called.

This blog has tried to warn its readers of the consequences of their rulers greed, dishonesty and incompetence for years.

As I feel tonight, I cannot usefully type, think, say or protest any longer. This  may thus be my final posting. Of all the pointless ends I have envisaged down the years, nothing has been as bad as what I now foresee as about to unfold.

Good luck to all, except all those hundreds of thousands partly or fully involved in this dreadful EU conspiracy!

UK Offshore shale gas gives energy self-sufficiency

The report from EurActiv will be enough to make those EU fanatics working on that outlet scared witless, I would imagine.

Britain has been given a second chance!

Once again we could be self-sufficient in energy it has been announced this week!

This time let's not waste it!

NOW there is no longer any excuse for Britain to suffer the continued bullying and subjugation to the economic powers on the Continent who have enriched themselves at Britain's expense!

The Lisbon Treaty now provides us with the right to withdraw from the EU, the Government should give notice under Article 50 of the TEU:

Article 50 TEU
1. Any Member State may decide to withdraw from the Union in accordance with its own constitutional requirements.
2. A Member State which decides to withdraw shall notify the European Council of its intention. In the light of the guidelines provided by the European Council, the Union shall negotiate and conclude an agreement with that State, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship with the Union. That agreement shall be negotiated in accordance with Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It shall be concluded on behalf of the Union by the Council, acting by a qualified majority, after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament.
3. The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned, unanimously decides to extend this period.
4. For the purposes of paragraphs 2 and 3, the member of the European Council or of the Council representing the withdrawing Member State shall not participate in the discussions of the European Council or Council or in decisions concerning it.
A qualified majority shall be defined in accordance with Article 238(3)(b) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
5. If a State which has withdrawn from the Union asks to rejoin, its request shall be subject to the procedure referred to in Article 49.

The EU is about to disintegrate! A member state giving notice of withdrawal prior to such an event will be in a powerful position in the recrimnation games that will thereafter inevitably follow, energy independence will be the Ace of Trumps!

Olli's same old story but with his new song and dance tune

Here is Olli Rehn with his now self-confessed truth-challenged side-kick, Jean-Claude Juncker, in 2010 boasting on how the PIIGS problems were all under control. Back then it was mainly Greece, Portugal and Ireland...... today it is Italy and Spain. The complete garbage put out by this EU Commissioner and the Head of the Euro Group, however, remains unchanged!

The content is much more entertaining if you play the sound and watch the dance of Laurel and Hardy which has had to replace the earlier theme tune for Olli on this blog "Another Fine Mess" due to a copyright challenge, unsurprisingly from Germany, to Google.

My reply to John Redwood today - Know-it-all Comments like mine!

Martin Cole

Posted April 20, 2012 at 6:32 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

“Talk is easy, as many of you point out, if you are not responsible for the matters you are talking about.” How true, how about this clincher:
“Talk is easy, as many of you point out, in your comments to this blog prove, if you are not responsible for the matters you are talking about.
I plead particularly guilty!

Spain's Dodgy Housing Loan Data is Unbelievable

Non-performing loans are according to this chart restricted to property developers and construction firms, while in spite of a rise in unemployment to almost a quarter, household non-performing loans have remained almost static, which of course is hardly credible!

The full comment on the Spanish disaster from the Acting Man blog may be read from here.

The EU must quickly learn that once belief in its statistics is lost, pretty soon it will heve no credibility in any area whatsoever - then the final collapse will be already upon it!

EU inspired home eviction in Ireland

Olli Rehn pleads for more cash for the EIB!

Click here for the real stupidity!

Apologies to fans of "Another Fine Mess" Olli's original theme tune from this blog, but this remains the subject of a copyright dispute between Google and some Germans!

I am quite taken by this alternative!

TARGET2 - Irish & Greek farmer's tractors from Germany

The audio I posted on this site yesterday on the TARGET2 imbalances give an example of the Bundesbank having a surplus as a result of a transfer between the Irish Central Bank and the Bundesbank resulting from an Irish farmer buying a German tractor.

Later it is implied that the Bundesbank has now accepted as a liability an imbalance in respect of a similar purchase in the past by a Greek farmer. Hence one must presume the reason for the present importance attached by the Germans to the Greek situation being a unique and once off event, effectively a default in all but name.

TARGET2 only works, it seems to this non-economist, if EMU is certain to survive, hence I guess the reason for the conclusion of Ambrose Evans-Prtichard's column today, linked here, as follows:

I suspect that the realities of the eurozone have reached a point where only two options exist:
1) The folding together of the eurozone states, with a debt pool, shared budgets, joint taxation, and fiscal union. In other words, the nation states must abolish themselves (leaving only the shell), and Germany must cease to exist in any meaningful form. This was always the inherent logic of EMU. We are coming close to the moment when it must be decided.
2) The system blows apart. From a German point of view, Target2 means if the deed were done "twere better it were done quickly". Perhaps very quickly.

I have added a new link to more information on Target2 to yesterday afternoon's audio posting.

The knives are out for Sir Jeremy Heywood!

Quentin Letts wrote a brilliant article on the odious Sir Jeremy Heywood which appeared in The Spectator, 17th March edition, on which I blogged on 15th March which is linked here.

Today, the same magazine, has a follow-up piece by James Forsyth, full of criticism of Heywood's takeover of the Number 10 policy unit, which may be read from here. That Speccie article concludes with the following paragraph, a dire warning for Cameron in light of the latest Home Office fiasco:

Throughout his leadership of the Tory party, Cameron’s saving grace has been that he’s managed to change direction just before it’s too late. At the moment, though, he does not appear to be in the mood for doing that. One confidant says, ‘He doesn’t think there’s an existential threat to his premiership. It takes a lot to shake him out of his complacency.’ Cameron is used to having his critics talk this way, but when his friends join in then he ought to take notice. There are, after all, only a certain amount of mistakes and U-turns that a government can survive before it loses its most valuable asset: credibility.

Perhaps Cameron's only hope, at this late stage, is throwing the Knights of the Civil Service overboard, they are expendable and make perfect jetsam, thereafter we could as a country face up to the real crisis which is caused by the EU and is rapidly getting out of control!

My reply to John Redwood this morning on Water Supplies

Martin Cole

Posted April 19, 2012 at 7:20 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

I cannot understand how as a sitting MP in the party that has handed our country lock, stock and barrel to Continentals, you can sit down and type this article and never once mention the handing of our water supply industry as a lucrative milch cow to foreigners.
Where I live in France, over the past few years, road works during the laying of new water mains and storage facilities have been something of a problem for several years, though thankfully now complete. That is where the money from England’s water payments has been spent and while we have suffered a very similar drought here in SW France, we have no rationing – thanks hugely to all you thoroughly treacherous Tory MPs! If you would arrange to take our country with its independence back from the EU, then perhaps many of us, together with our tax payments might return!

Placeman Papademos informs his EU masters that all is OK in Greece except...

"Greece suffers from a lack of capacity to implement policy, manage public finances, collect taxes, open markets to competition, make public procurement work efficiently and innovatively, pay suppliers, or offer timely judicial review to its citizens,”

All the above is according to a draft document, seen by Reuters, as published in an article on the letter sent by the former Goldman and ECB banker to his bosses in Brussels.

The entire article may be read in ekathimerini, linked here.

Warren Buffett's prostate proves the pointlessness of his purpose.

The press and the market following 24 hour TV stations were in a tizzy all yesterday over the reported prostate cancer of megarich professional investor, onetime master of the universe, Warren Buffet.

I find it all highly amusing. Buffet is 81 years old, since the moment he was born in 1930 it was alwys inevitable that he would one day die. Yet in the press release to his fawning investors  he assures us all that his condition "is not remotely life-threatening or even debilitating in any meaningful way." Hah!, die he will one day and he cannot take "it" with him! Always presuming of course that "it" still by then has any meaning or value and has not been rendered completely worthless by the activities of the Lagardes, the Bernanks, the Geitners and the Obamas!


When we stop worshipping the worthless such as Buffett, then perhaps we will start to see a light at the end of the present ever deepening financial crisis!

Mario Monti updates Italian suicide number following Cabinet

AGI, linked here, reports as follows:

20:16 18 APR 2012

(AGI) Rome - PM Mario Monti said, "We are fighting every day to continue to avoid the fate of Greece." Monti was speaking during a press conference at the close of the Council of Ministers meeting. He initially spoke of lives which have been dramaticly interrupted and then used directly the term "suicides", updating the number. Mario Monti did not attempt to hide "the dramatic consequences of the crisis" and that it painted a grave picture which "in Italy we are trying to turn around, under very difficult conditions".

German asset stripping of the PIIGS continues apace - Audi/Ducati

A full report may be read in Business Week, although a price was apparently strangely absent from the official release! A quote:

VW Chairman Ferdinand Piech, who turned 75 yesterday, has long coveted the brand. He publicly expressed interest in buying Ducati in April 2008 before eventually losing out to Investindustrial. The purchase will make Ducati the 11th brand in VW’s portfolio, alongside super-car marques Lamborghini and Bugatti and heavy-duty truck manufacturers Scania AB (SCVB) and MAN SE. (MAN)

Flashman Cameron's put-down of his own MP Douglas Carswell

The exchange as quoted below is from 27:26 to 28:10 in the above video. Also from the record in Hansard is the exchange in the Commons this afternoon, linked here.

Mr Douglas Carswell (Clacton) (Con):

A few weeks—[Interruption.]

Mr Speaker:

Order. Let us have some order in the House. I want to hear Mr Douglas Carswell.

Mr Carswell:

A few weeks ago in this House, I asked the Prime Minister to what extent he believed that the Whitehall machine—the Sir Humphrey factor—was frustrating reform. He assured us that it was not. According to the Financial Times, in Malaysia last week the PM said:

“I can tell you, as Prime Minister, it”—

“Yes Minister”—

“is true to life.”

Can he tell us what has happened to make him change his mind?

The Prime Minister:

There are a few occasions when I think that my hon. Friend does need a bit of a sense of humour.

Douglas Carswell has been writing and complaining of the corruption and undue powers wiothin our Civil Service. Cameron, a bullying product of the same system must be made to provide an answer!

Bundesbank exposure to the Target2 imbalances

An audio presentation of 13th April, on this worrying topic is linked here.

A summary is that the Bundesbank is liable for only 27% of ECB losses on Target2. While it presently has reserves of €129 Billion before calls on German taxpayers will become necessary, loss provisions already made adversely affect German taxpayers with an increase from €4.1Billion to €7.7 Billion. The legal position is unclear should a country such as Greece leave the EMU as is the situation of a complete euro break up.

UPDATE A link with much more background on the TARGET2 debate has been provided in a comment it is here.

Flash Eurobarometer 338 Some highlights of the new report.

MONITORING THE SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE CRISIS

80% of respondents think that poverty has increased in their own country over the past 12 months

63% of respondents say that there is a risk of being unable to cope with an unexpected expense of €1,000 over the coming year

While 46% of people think they would be likely to find another job within six months in the event of being laid-off, 48% say they would be unlikely to do so

A majority (57%) of EU respondents is worried that they will have insufficient income in old age to live in dignity – up from 53% in October 2010.

The EU spreads extra misery each and every extra day of its existence. Close it down, its officialdom is fat enough already!

The link to the report is here.

EU silence on Argentina's seizure of an EU energy Company!

EurActiv which is supported by and reports upon events of the European Union, seeks to imply that a protest has been lodged against Argentina in an article titled "EU outraged as Spain's Repsol ousted from Argentina". It is linked here.

On reading the article it may be quickly seen no such outrage has been expressed. Indeed from the second paragraph of the exact quote from below, it can be noted that the Commission response quoted is from 13th April, before the announcement of the expropriation!

Spain vowed "clear and strong" measures over what it called a hostile decision, while the EU executive warned that an expropriation would send a very negative signal to investors.
Commission to send team to Buenos Aires
Speaking to the press on 13 April, Commission spokesperson Olivier Bailly said the the EU executive sided with Spain in the dispute. A Commission team will visit Argentina on 19-20 April to discuss the issue with the country's authorities.

The deliberate disregard for the truth in all areas of the EU involvement can therefore now be seen to extend to hugely sensitive foreign and diplomatic matters, where a grotesque and expensive army of EU officials under Baroness Acton, serve only to render the EU a global laughing stock and political football for tin pot South American failed states of even lower economic stature than the EU itself.

Spain can ill afford such an economic blow at this juncture. Having handed its governance to Brussels it has rendered itself powerless to even properly protest, a harsh lesson on the real world for the rest of Europe!

UPDATE 0820 BST Read background to the seizure from Acting Man linked here.

IMF April Report - The EU "Tail Risk"

Link to full pdf report is here. The following quote is from page 17:

Tail Risks

Several tail risks are hard to quantify but merit attention:

• The potential consequences of a disorderly default and exit by a euro area member are unpredictable and thus not possible to map into a specific scenario. If such an event occurs, it is possible that other euro area economies perceived to have similar risk characteristics would come under severe pressure as well, with a full-blown panic in financial markets and depositor flight from several banking systems. Under these circumstances, a breakup of the euro area could not be ruled out.
The financial and real spillovers to other regions, especially emerging Europe, would likely be very large. This could cause major political shocks that could aggravate economic stress to levels well above those after the Lehman collapse.....

If the EU had any clout or respect - Argentina would not be seizing YPF

Spain is not just battered and bankrupt from its association with the thoroughly corrupt and worthless EU, it has now lost its stake in the Argentinian oil industry once held by Repsol through its stake in YPF.

Every European member state must be made aware by their voters that this intolerable wealth and democracy destroying disaster that is the corrupt European Union cannot be permitted any further life. Every day that passes, more money is squandered and greater indebtedness incurred, which high-paid EU and national officials will take years to squabble over, all at taxpayers cost. Read here.

The whole world will spit upon Eurozone countries as they cause impoverishment across the globe, such anger will quickly turn against other EU member states outside the Euro, quite rightly too, for those such as Britain, with its offer made yesterday of £10 Billion extra for the EU, via the IMF, is clearly complicit in maintaining this monstrosity with links to geopolitical life!

The EU should be immediately eradicated and wound up!

Treasures from the threads - Number 76 Christina Speight on UKIP

To a posting on Open Europe on Cameron, UKIP and the EU, linked here, comes this comment, full of her characteristic good sense, from Christina Speight:

 Christina Speight Says: 12:06 PM
I realise that Open Europe does not go along with any idea that Britain should lay down a clear policy of withdrawal altogether

I remain unimpressed by the simplistic UKIP approach that all that is necessary is to get out! There is a mass of detail before we reach that goal. I'm with those who have that goal in mind but the devil's in the detail. We loosely talk of the Swiss model and it is an attractive one.

But twixt here and there is a great gulf of licensing agreements, tax deals, international trade pacts, criminal legal arrangements, and a host of other relationships which would have to be unpicked and reassembled from an independent standpoint by someone who is committed - ie no LibDems!.

It's not as simple as UKIP pretends. Their aim is fine but I'd hate to see negotiations in their unskilled hands.

And there's a word of caution on any referendum! The opinion polls on referenda in advance are hideously unreliable. It's only when the chips are down that opinion hardens. My gut feeling is that we could win an IN-OUT refeerndum now but it';s far from a 'done deal'.. Industry is scared of "letting go of nurse' and frankly UKIPs rhetoric scares them more. They could come down heavily in favour of staying IN and that could be decisive. People would be scared for their jobs. If that were to happen we'd be locked in for a very long time.

Jingoism is great fun but no substitute for a carefully crafted and detailed policy. That's why many comments on ConHome for example scare me.

My reply to John Redwood today - EU Crisis

Martin Cole

Posted April 17, 2012 at 7:38 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

I think perhaps you might find the answers you seek to the questions you raise in this posting by re-working your final sentence as follows:
Instead of discussing how to finance failure, more thought needs to be given about how to get member countries out of the need for subsidised loans in the first place.

Some may wish to add the words “of the euro” in replacement, personally I would select “of the EU!”

North Korea is now clearly the rôle-model state for the EU

Watch the slide show of pictures of the recent parade in North Korea linked here.

The people of North Korea know nothing of the world, they starve, they obey every government edict for no known purpose and live in complete ignorance of how their hereditary ruler came to take power.

Which family or individual is plotting to establish an hereditary dynasrty within the EU? Why have 27 once democratic countries allowed themselves to now be ruled by shadowy anonymous figures from outside, why do they idly watch their national economies being destroyed? Why do their national leaders not take back their their citizens stolen powers to self-government?

Spain & Italy - A Scary Chart

Here is one from Acting Man, link!

Apple and Google shares in large sell-off

The WSJ account is linked here. They use the term "hammered" !

The latest internet report is here.

Sarkozy appears to abandon support for Germany and the new Fiscal Treaty

The sitting French President appears to have suddenly started to hear his voters in abruptly reversing direction over growth versus austerity and French interests in respect of German  domination as reported in the Daily Telegraph this morning. This time next week the first round of the Presidential election in France will be over and the name of the two contenders for the second round will be known. It will be a tense few days here in France as few seem to me prepared to forecast the outcome, complete disgust with politicians appearing to be running at a previously unknown high level! Latest polling is here.

In another article, in the same newspaper Devon, is revealed as having valuable tungsten reserves in a presently abandoned mine near Plympton. An expensive new road to the mine has been under construction for some time by thge local authority so development seems assured!

EU break-up was always most likely to begin on a regional basis, maybe my native Devonshire will be able to afford to be in the vanguard!

Treasures from the threads - Number 75 Spain

On an article in the Telegraph on the growing disaster in Spain came the following comment:

owainglyndwr
Today 12:54 PM

‘Under Rajoy, Spain has been trying to get its finances in
order, but the challenge just seems too great.’
The task is truly awesome for the decentralized State and banks having gorged upon the cheap money from 1997 to 2007.
In 2006 Spain built more houses than France, the
UK and Germany combined. 760, 179 dwelling starts. In 1990 to 1996 the average number of starts was 240,000. Little wonder Spain now has one million homes unsold. House prices (30% down since peak) and the assets underpinning Spain’s banks are central to Rajoy’s plans. House prices are likely to fall further and its questionable if Spain’s banks have provided enough for the existing falls. Banks delaying foreclosure to prevent further market falls, crystalizing the
losses is certainly an option when unemployment is high and there are few able to buy. Bank assets are however are marked to fantasy rather than to market.
Spain has 17 autonomous regions each with politicians
pursuing their own agendas exerting considerable spending power. Health and welfare make up 80% of the regional budget spending under this devolved system. Property taxes used to be an important revenue source for the free spending regions, as this income has fallen  many have growing deficits. It’s going to be a process of herding cats for Rajoy.
Spain with 24% unemployment (50% youth unemployment) needs considerably more than just labour reforms and cutting public spending. It needs growth, quickly. Poor cash-flow is like a heart attack. So where will growth come from? In the past millions of tourists flocked to Spain to enjoy cheap holidays and many purchased Spanish holiday homes fuelling a property building boom.  Now using the harder currency of the euro Spain for the tourist is not so attractive anymore. Many Brits now enjoy holidays in Turkey.

‘In February, Spanish banks' net ECB borrowing was €169.8bn
– a staggering 47pc of ECB lending to all eurozone banks. In March, that figure surged again, to €316.3bn. Spanish banks are now under intense pressure and that distress, as it bursts into the open, will soon be dumped on the state.’
Indeed. I wish the Spanish people well, they have shown
remarkable fortitude and restraint with 24% unemployment. However there is one crucial difference Spain has with Ireland. Spain now appears to be entering a banking crisis with net public debt of 80 %. Ireland started this process at 25%. One in five Spanish mortgages is now in negative equity with a 30% fall from peak. This is not surprising. In 1997 – 2007 house prices rose by  187%.
In Ireland it’s taken five bank bailouts and the banking stress
tests being independently verified last year to help restore a degree of confidence in Ireland's banking system. There is still a considerable amount to do before Ireland has a banking system fit for purpose. Ireland was the only country in Europe to have its stress tests verified. The model used a 70% fall in house prices based upon the Nevada, Los Vegas house price falls. Spain might have to consider this option if house prices go into free-fall and markets refuse to lend to Spainish banks at a reasonable price . To calm the herd you need to get ahead of it providing accruate data not simply politicians providing
press statements.

Irish Banks had €85.1bn in outstanding loans from the ECB as of March 30, down from a figure of €87.1bn in February, while emergency loans from the Irish Central Bank fell to €45bn from €45.2bn.  Still shockingly high but moving in the tight direction. Overall Irish bank borrowings have fallen by almost a third — from a high of €187bn in February 2011 — as banks began to aggressively shrink their balance sheets.
The euro truly is a currency for the good times.  Just so long as any country which depends upon tourism for a large part of its GDP isn’t using it when there is a recession or depression.
Act II in this euro drama shortly follows. The warm up band
of Greece, Ireland and Portugal are now leaving the stage. The main acts soon to follow are Spain, Italy and possibly France. How will Hollande as the likely French President next month react? 75 % tax on the wealthy and a renegotiated fiscal
pact? Only Portugal has passed Angela’s plan so far so its little more than a photo for the history books.  Will her fiscal toy be thrown out of the euro pram by a new socialist France? How will Germany re-act?
No wonder much of the American money is reaching for the
popcorn rather than the wallet when it comes to parts of Europe. A black comedy indeed of european political errors and 'light touch' eurozone central banking oversight upon bubbles that have now burst. The butchers bill is now being presented to the european taxpayer who has lost a few limbs.

One hundred years ago German Imperialism began to replace the Pax Britannica.

One hundred years ago today the RMS Titanic first arrived at its graveyard resting place on the sea-bed of the North Atlantic. With it perished 1513 people. Among those was W.T. Stead, a founding member and leading light of the secretive Round Table organisation, which thus came under the control of the German Alfred Milner, later becoming 1st viscount Milner.

The Titanic, which was to have served to strengthen the links between the English  speaking peoples of the world, lay instead a useless rotting metal hulk at the bottom of the sea. The dreams for the Round Table organisation, now active throughout the world, may too have been bent to other purposes, which due to its secretive founding principles will never publicly be known. So too its junior feeding organisation, Crusaders, even more secretive and obnoxious in this blogger's experience of its activities, could well have followed.

The demented Kaiser Wilhelm II in Germany must have spent a huge day of celebration one hundred years ago. His crazed dreams in only a couple of years yet to then pass would lead to misery and slaughter on a massive scale, as similar centennial dates will soon pass, one by one to illustrate and highlight the misery this man wrought.

Nazi Germany became obsessive about the Titanic sinking, perhaps sensing the historical pivotal moment  the event represented, and propaganda minister Joseph Goebells spent years and billions in recreating the event, some footage from which can be seen in, "A Night to Remember".

Yet it is only today, through the machinations of the corrupt and evil EU, after all the deaths made pointless in two world wars, that the crazed ambition of Prussian Imperialism that festered in the Kaiser's head is beginning to emerge triumphant, aided by the dreadfully low calibre of Europe's national leaders, who have sold out their peoples' democracies for the unachievable illusions of Toynbee socialism with which Milner's ambitions appear to have been disguised. 

What we see in the EU today is a complete abandonment of the concepts of solidarity and mutual co-advancement being replaced by naked asset stripping of countries impoverished by the deliberate mismanagement of the euro common currency. Is Europe now about to witness a repeat of the Germanisation of Alsace and Lorraine as occurred between 1871 and 1918? What is the difference between those dreadful years and today, mainly perhaps, in that Britain now has opted to place itself under German control along with the other economically powerless nations on the Continent.

The Titanic and the Curse of the Mummy!

W.T. Stead who died on the Titanic, and who thus one hundred years ago today, along with hundreds of other fellow passengers and crew, would have been unknowingly living out his last day of life a century ago, had foreseen himself drowning, link here:

Speaking against the society in admitting evidence of communications from the dead, Stead drew, before the members of the Cosmos Club in 1909, a graphic, imaginary picture of himself, shipwrecked and drowning in the sea and calling frantically for help. He imagined that instead of throwing him a rope the rescuers would shout back: "Who are you? What is your name? 'I am Stead! W. T. Stead! I am drowning here in the sea. Throw me the rope. Be quick!' But instead of throwing me the rope they continue to shout back: 'How do we know you are Stead? Where were you born? Tell us the name of your grandmother.' "

Stead had also written on the dangers of icebergs and the inadequacy of the number of lifeboat places on transatlantic liners, link here:

For the 1893 Christmas issue of Review of Reviews, Stead wrote a story entitled "From the Old World to the New," a fiction concerning the dangers of icebergs in the Atlantic Ocean. The story is set on a ship named the Majestic with Captain Smith as commander. Reportedly, this is the same Captain Smith who 21 years later goes down with the Titanic. The narrative pictures the sinking of the liner and depicts the Atlantic Ocean as a grave.

Stead's involvement with the highest politics of his age has already been discussed on this blog during the past week, whether or not it was his association with Rhodes,  and disputations over world governance and the founding forces behind Round Table, read here, that put him on board the fated ship, we, the general public, will probably never know.

Another theory exists which concerns Stead's links to spritualism and takes us into the realms of Egyptology and the possibly cursed relics of Mummies, however, which is the topic for this posting on the eve of the fateful wreck.

An idea of the importance of Ancient Egypt in the Victorian era is best illustrated for me by the fact that the famed Entente Cordiale between Britain and France initially concerned itself mostly with the division of power in North Africa, with much emphasis on responsibility for Egyptian antiquities, see here. (Note the importance attached to the position of a French savant in the very first article!)

There is, of course, a mass of information available on the internet about Stead and his supposed telling of the tale of the Mummy's curse, at dinner on the last evening of the Titanic's maiden voyage, one such is here, another here.

I will leave others to surf and draw their own conclusions, while quoting this small but telling passage taken from one of his last letters, which seems strangely relevant to our world of today, from here:

"The general feeling of unrest that is surging over the world just now is profoundly disquieting some minds."

FT finally raises its eyes from the sewer rat activities of the European Union!

No less a personage than the editor of the FT himself, Lionel Barker, has actually spent twelve days concentrating on something beyond the closed minds of his newspaper's normal EUcentric coverage and visited West Africa for something longer than a cursory look. Link here!

Following the track once beaten by Margery Perham, he has perhaps glimpsed the opportunities and rich heritage potentially lossed by Britain in its Pearson prodded obsession with the ever corrupt EU and its earlier constructs. About ten years ago I spent many hours contributing to the FT Forums on a wide range of subjects, writing as "NM" while hoping for some policy changes from what was at one time a fine newspaper. Is my ten year wait in hopelessness about to see results?

Who knows, perhaps this weekend it might be worthwhile spending a lot of of your badly depreciated pennies on what has become a shameless pink propaganda sheet for the thoroughly odious EU, perhaps a change of views is potentially in sight?

Greek railways up for grabs after Athens' subway falls to Germans!

The rape of Greece continues apace as the spoils of  the deliberately manufactured  Euro currency disaster continue to destroy and impoverish the southernmost former sovereign states of Western Europe. Reuters exclusive report tonight covers the bidders eyeing the Greek national rail system, among whom it reports is France's nationalised rail company SNCF; makes sense after the Germans getting the new investment for the Athens metro, n'est ce pas?

SNCF management would do well to remember Oradour-sur-Glanes and the dreadful previous consequences of collaboration with injustice!

My reply to John Redwood today - UK energy pricing

Martin Cole

Posted April 13, 2012 at 6:34 am | Permalink

Your comment is awaiting moderation.

Who can but applaud your closing sentence “The government is trying to abate the high prices for the largest users of energy through subsidy, but energy cost remains an obstacle to successful competitive manufacturing in the UK. it needs instead to trigger more energy developments, and to pursue a policy of cheaper energy instead of interfering with the market in a way designed to raise prices.”
Crucially our energy industries, other than in internationally priced oil products, remain under the control of foreign state controlled monopoly suppliers, mostly French and German, whose priority quite clearly is through energy pricing, to render UK exports uncompetitive with their own in world markets.
The French and German governments, as for all others on the Continent, see the protection and advancement of their deomestic industry as their first priority, taking care of which requires close attention at home, not whizzing around the world on a combined domestic political PR come champagne sales drive jolly, with docile UK industrialists in tow.
Recovering price control over our own power utilities is now probably a priority even ahead of removing ourselves from the crippled EU itself!