A continuing chronicle of how democracy is being destroyed across the entire European Union.
This blog is henceforth exploring various means whereby democracy may now be restored within or to the EU's formerly independent nation states now that economic chaos looms following the euro currency's apparently deliberate self-destruction, as long predicted on this blog? (Changed 23/11/10)
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Summer lessons from the carol of King Wencelas
A few words brought together in text can sometimes be combined in verse in such a manner that they can create in the mind's eye a picture more powerful than any set of images projected onto an Imax screen.
Totally out of season on this summer morning on the eve of June, carefully consider if you will, these words from the opening verse as my memory recalls them of the Christmas carol "Good King Wencelas".
Good King Wencelas last looked out,
on the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even,
Brightly shone the moon that night,
though the frost was cru-el,
When a poor man came in sight,
gath'ring winter fu-(u)-el.
The picture of a hard frost upon deep snow on a post Christmas, mid-winter moonlit night is vividly described and thereby readily imagined.
But why was the "poor man" gathering firewood, after dark and within sight of the castle window rather than in the likely to be more fruitful, but certainly less visible woodlands by daylight?
Why, furthermore, had the "poor man" left the gathering of firewood until the very regular peak winter period the certain effects of which it should have been earlier laid down to prevent, namely and ideally during the previous summer months?
A clue to this feckless charecter's true motivations can be found in the hint as to the nature of the King, contained in the first line of the verse! King Wencelas was reputed to be "good" king, perhaps through being considered a soft touch. Were not the true motivations of the "poor" man, perhaps simply to be let in to sit by the castle fire, on which presumably a large animal would no doubt be being spit-roasted, and share in the general feasting that was certain to follow, given the earlier efforts and prior planning the the castle employees of the King.
The poor man was thus a forerunner of our modern day welfare dependents and increasingly obese couch potatoes. The King, through his supposed goodness, was thus in fact not doing his subjects any favours at all, by the masturbation of his conscience by the pandering to his own selfish altruistic tendencies.
In the coming summer months, as we celebrate the diamond jubilee of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, upon whom I shall no doubt feel prompted to write further over the coming weekend, let us dwell for a while upon how we have come to expect our rulers to be "good" to us, and how much better off we would become if we used the days that lie ahead, to prepare ourselves for the economic harshness of the consequences, soon to arrive, from our own Rulers' recent fecklessness and our encouragement of them in providing it.
Here is a YouTube version of the hymn for those who might enjoy it or cannot now recall the tune:
PM Cameron and Deputy PM Clegg employed Coulson at Downing Street!
As repeatedly warned from this blog, employing Andy Coulson was not an action to be undertaken by individuals remotely fit to govern, let alone in a Prime Ministerial or even Deputy Prime Ministerial capacity. Two minutes spent reading any edition of the News of the World whilst under this individual's editorship was all the evidence a rational man would need!
The following two brief paragraphs reinforce the point of the headline to this posting, both coming from an article in the Evening Standard of tonight, linked here:
Mr Coulson, then employed by Downing Street as director of communications, told the trial in December 2010 that he had no knowledge of illegal activities by reporters while he was editor of the News of the World.
He also claimed: "I don't accept there was a culture of phone hacking at the News of the World."
30% of Conservative voters in Britain incredibly still believe something is salvageable from the EU.
Channel 4's Gary Gibbon, linked here. comments on a poll conducted by the Conservative Home blog, which shows that only 70% of grass roots tory voters in Britain have so far discerned the complete disaster for Britain that the European Union has become. This is a truly startling indictment of the cognitive powers of conservative voters, given that since the outset the project was bound to work against the economic interests of our islands, based as it was on the destruction of our trading patterns built over centuries around the common english language, and in more recent later years the deliberate takeover of nearly all our basic industries through the corruption of our political class and ruling establishment.
One presumes that these ignorant thirty per cent still supporting the EU, have their noses in the public trough and have yet to see that payment of even their own rewards for such treachery cannot long be maintained, dependant, as they have now become, upon the failing structures of the EU itself.
Debating now on whether or not to hold a referendum on whether or not to stay in a construct that is clearly falling apart at the seams is as disgraceful as not having held one over recent decades, when our democracy and wealth has been being sold off to foreigners for the proceeds to be trousered by the utterly treacherous looters and their paymasters who graspingly run our three main poltical parties.
In Spain the head of their central bank has this morning been forced to leave office early, a good precedent for us to follow with the removal of "SIR" Mervyn King as an initial consequence for his part in the destruction of our pound sterling!
According to the Pew Global Attitudes Report, "European Unity on the Rocks", released today, linked here, "Germany is now the only society where a healthy majority (59%) think integration has actually bolstered their economy."
It is a mystery how the incompetent non-German national leaders, who continue to destroy their demestic economies in the name of yet further integration, actually expect to get away with such grotesque mismanagement, surely they cannot all be merely following German "orders"?
There is still much muddled thinking across the EU regarding the nature of the EU project. Years of constant EU propaganda and school brainwashing cannot quickly be undone! The loss of democracy and individual freedoms in what is clearly a collectivist state and classic tyranny as defined by Karl Popper, seems yet to only barely be sinking home. As the economic consequences of the disaster continue to worsen, such a state of innocence can surely not much longer last. At least the truth on the euro is becoming accepted, note this comment from the Overview:
Among the five euro area nations surveyed, a median of only 37% believes
having the euro as their currency has been a good thing. This includes
just 30% of the Italians and 31% of the French. At the same time, the
three non-euro zone countries surveyed are quite happy they have kept
their own currencies, including nearly three-quarters of the British
(73%).
How can we Europeans bloodlessly escape this nightmare and so disprove Karl Popper' assertion? Especially since our democracies have been neutered, while all the levers of economic power have been handed over to effective eventual German control, apparently now to be even more obviously manipulated for that one nation's sole benefit?
Blair at Leveson - "hitherto uncharted realms of madness"!
Stephen Glover in the Daily Mail covers the inadequacies of the questioning of the unspeakable Tony Blair at Leveson yesterday, linked from here. It concludes as follows:
Put Dr David Kelly’s terrible death to one side. The spinning, the media manipulation and occasionally the downright mendacity of his administration eventually inflicted unprecedented damage to the trust between the media and the political class and in the process corrupted public discourse.
So it was with some disbelief, and a very heavy heart, that I heard Lord Justice Leveson at the end of the proceedings invite an eager Tony Blair to come back with his best ideas for the proper regulation of the Press.
How he must have blessed the innocent judge! The thought of Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell determining how newspapers should behave takes us into hitherto uncharted realms of madness.
Beyond that the day was otherwise memorable for the interruption by a protester, who was at least able to express some of the angst many in the country must feel at the horrendous damage Blair and his immediate successor inflicted upon Britain. At least the results are now clearly written upon the former man's features I noted!
Are the Irish about to vote "yes" for fear of their home politicians?
The following is an excerpt from an interesting comment in the Irish Independent this evening, linked here:
At the heart of their thinking is a new phenomenon which I believe is a
significant factor in Yes vote support. It can be briefly stated thus:
"Irish people who do not profess to understand the economic complexities
of the fiscal treaty, the European Stability Mechanism, or how much
further the euro has to go before it collapses, no longer want economic
responsibility reverting to Irish politicians, because they can't be
trusted. It is, therefore, better to vote Yes, surrender our future to
the eurozone, and accept austerity government by Germany. Although this
represents the ultimate surrender of Irish sovereignty, the
justification for this is evident in the muddled views of your
Government whose thinking is seen as being akin to last administration,
if there is thinking there at all."
The writer, Bruce Arnold, raises some interesting points on the motivation about the referendum on the EU fiscal treaty, this too is worth recording here:
It is absurd to approve a fiscal treaty which would tie future Irish
governments to balanced budgets and to a 'debt brake'. Doing so in order
to have access to a fund which does not yet exist and which depends on
an ESM treaty not yet ratified is also absurd.
I spent some time in Italy during the early days of the EEC and believed local enthusiam for the project was as much about doubts over the calibre of their domestic politicians and democratic institutions, rather than any particular enthusiasm for the EU project as it was clearly becoming.
Odd is it not, that now the Irish might be sacrificing their sovereignty and hard won independence because they put greater trust in the Germans than their home grown political classes?
EurActiv has the report on the meeting in Brussels where senior executives of Europe's airline industry slammed the total incompetence of the thoroughly corrupt organisation. One wonders where they have been cossetted for the past few decades, read here!
Willie Walsh of BA is quoted in the article from Friday, he has even more to worry about today as now is being reported in the Evening Standard, read here.
50 years of the EU undermining Britain's worldwide historic trading links!
Why is Britain in the process of bankrupting itself to save a common currency to which it does not belong to undermine its own historic strengths? Are we mad?
Australia and Europe in Conversation – number 4: 50 years of EU-Australia relations
RMIT City campus, Building 13, level 3, room 9 Emily McPherson Building, Corner of Russel and Victoria Streets, Melbourne
This month we are fortunate to be joined by H.E. Mr Sven-Olof Petersson, Ambassador of Sweden to Australia, H.E. Mr Patrick Renault, Ambassador for Belgium to Australia, and Dr Bruno Mascitelli, President of the Contemporary European Studies Association of Australia, Swinburne University, who will together discuss ‘The EU as a regional institution and democracy? The place of smaller member states’. Joining them will be Mr Paul Barclay from ABC’s Radio National, who will moderate the discussion. Please RSVP to eucentre@rmit.edu.au for catering purposes.
Guardian follows this blog's concerns on BA/Bankia of this morning!
The Guardian newspaper tonight is following up on this blog's concerns of this morning on likely problems for Britiah Airways from the ever deepening Bankia banking disaster, on which the same newspaper has further startling developments this evening at the start of that aricle, read here. A brief quote on the reported desperate moves to directly involve the ECB in keeping the stricken financial dinosaur afloat is here:
Spain is considering proposals to inject €19bn (£15bn) of capital
into nationalised Bankia in the form of government debt that could then
be used to raise money from the European Central Bank (ECB), forcing it to get involved in what may become a far wider bailout of Spain's creaking banking sector. Details remain sketchy, but sources in Madrid confirmed that a refinancing
involving the ECB was the most probable way forward for a Spanish
government that will have trouble raising €19bn itself at a manageable
interest rate. By avoiding the markets altogether, the government would indirectly "push the financing of Bankia's bailout on to the ECB",
according to El País newspaper.
How badly will BA be squeezed in the growing Spanish shambles?
The fact that Bankia is the major shareholder stakeholder in IAG the parent group of the merged Iberia and British Airways airlune (misad)venture which has also recently absorbed the loss-making BMI does not bode well for Britain's flag carrying airline. Read Thursday's FT commenthere and the Sunday Telegraphhere.
The merger never made much sense when viewed from the Madrid hub airport which the FT has it is showing "weakening commercial trade". Living in SW France it once seemed a sensible routing option for the US East Coast, but several unhappy experiences have led our most recent booking to return via Paris CDG.
Put on top of that the deteriorating economic situation in Spain and the ever growing shambles that is Heathrow and it might appear that Bankia will be unlikely to be killed in a rush of buyers for its IAG stake!
Living daily lies domestically impacts foreign policy too!
Our politicians who lie on such a regular, routine and casual basis, are now in danger of not recognising, let alone facing up to, obvious facts as they appear to the general public.
No, I am not here thinking of the Leveson inquiry, rather a broadcast yesterday morning, in which the High Commissioner from Pakistan in London, tried to assert that part of the thirty odd year prison sentence passed against the doctor who helped to identify the genes of Osama Bin Laden, was down to some mishandling of polio prevention in that country.
Considering the outrageous statements made by members of our own government on an almost daily basis, we are hardly in a position to protest at such obvious attempted deception. The US is cutting aid to Pakistan as a result, but what stance is Britain , the former colonial power, taking? An article on the disaster unfolding in Pakistan from Toronto is relevant.
Because of virtually unrestricted mass immigration from Pakistan to Britain over recent decades, Pakistan is not merely a matter of Foreign Affairs for our country!
Yet what mention of the grave issues all this raises for Britain does this get from either our politicians or on the pages and airwaves of our shamed and useless mass media?
Bankia shares suspended - Spain's Sorrows set to trump Greece Grief!
The report on Bankia may be read from fellow Euro Zone member Ireland's Irish Timesfrom here, more surprisingly also from the Daily Mail, linked here, who just recently have begun to twig the dangers to their readers from Santander Bank in Britain!
Update 1538 BST
On Spain see also this Telegraph report that Catalonia is asking for a €17 billion bailout from the Spanish government, no doubt the first of many such requests soon to follow.
The mendacious message from Smith via Hunt and Cameron!
We do not need at present to say much more on Adam Smith, who will be on TV at Leveson again this morning, other than that he studied history at Durham and thereafter, at thirty, he has continued to do absolutely nothing with his life other than be at the complete beck and call of the unspeakable piece of filth that Jeremy Hunt is presently being exposed to be. One presumes Smith expected to one day fill Hunt's shoes! Enough said!
Jeremy Hunt attained his present position, where he screws every new penny of advantage out of his contacts that he seems able, in the 24 hours each day provides, from the following launch pad, as detailed on Wikipedia:
Hunt has had detail of more of his business activities explored on John Ward's blog, The Slog, which may be read from here and here.
But again like Smith, Hunt although thoroughly loathsome is not the main problem, for he is but a mere creature of our present Prime Minister, David Cameron.
The memo between the two men, lied about later in Parliament by Hunt, see here, seems to prove that point beyond any shadow of doubt.
Cameron's deep flaws have for long been pointed out on this blog's sister site "Teetering Tories". Members of the Conservative Party chose to ignore such faults in the hope of electoral rewards, which they are today harvesting to grave and possibly permanent cost to our nation state.
We in Britain must now look to our elected MPs to do the honourable thing, and regardless of party, remove these charlatans from power - unhappily the Smith/Hunt/Cameron blueprint for power grabbing conspiracy is not unique to the Tory Party! Only a subsequent election can redress that sorry fact!
Caretaker Dutch Parliament ratifies ESM Treaty - Court will rule on nullification of ratification 29th May.
The report from the WSJ is linked here. The main points:
The EUR700 billion fund, which will have a lending capital of EUR500
billion, is meant to shore up Europe's defenses against the debt crisis
by providing financial aid to struggling countries. It is scheduled to
take effect in July, once euro-zone countries representing 90% of the
total capital have ratified it.
Dexia Bank still exposed to €11.7 Billion in Italy
The WSJ just now reporting the possible sale of its Turkish subsidiary to the Russians concludes its article with the following two rather harrowing paragraphs:
The fates of several large parts of Dexia still need to be settled.
Dexia is finishing the sale of Dexia Municipal Agency, its Paris-based
public-finance business, to two savings banks controlled by the French
government, and it recently launched the sale of its Luxembourg-based
asset management business. Once the process is completed, Dexia will be left as a holding
company for illiquid loans and sovereign debt from the troubled euro
zone periphery. Dexia's largest southern euro-zone exposures are €11.7
billion of Italian sovereign debt and €1.6 billion of Portuguese debt,
the company said recently.
Peter Tenebrarum, Acting Man, concludes his comments on the useless EU summit of last evening as follows:
We
have all heard Rompuy's wish list before – a thousand times in fact.
Now, should someone from the eurocracy stumble over this blog, here are a
few tips:
Politicians
and bureaucrats create neither economic growth nor jobs. The only
positive thing they can do, apart from resigning on the spot, consists
of getting out of the way. Chuck the myriad regulations that are
stifling the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe; cut fiscal spending so
that the State shrinks back to a far smaller percentage of economic activity than it represent today; cut taxes. Cut down on your own numbers, generously.
While
you're at it, think over the current monetary system and its countless
flaws. It would be best to throw it out of the window and start from
scratch, with a free banking system based on sound money and the strict
enforcement of property rights (no more money from thin air, so that two
or more different people no longer end up having claims on the same
original deposit; this has been regarded as a fraudulent practice in
Europe since antiquity, and although it has been legalized, it still is a
fraudulent practice).
It
is really simple. One needs neither euro-bonds for this, nor 'tax
harmonization' or any of the other gimmicks the centralizers and
socialist super-state builders dream about, nor should it matter whether
everybody uses the same medium of exchange or not. Of course the gravy
train in Brussels and bureaucratic centers elsewhere would end up
considerably diminished.
This
last sentence is why none of the above is likely to happen anytime
soon. Still, we should probably be glad if nothing actually comes out of
the summit. One must always fear the worst when they actually do
make decisions on something. As the title of this blog suggests, the
main reason to travel to these summits is probably the undoubtedly high
quality of the catering.
Read the entire posting from here.The title, I think, comes from Hitchhikers Guide...: "So long comrades, and Thanks for all the shrimp".
Tyranny in operation - putting the unratified ESM to work in July
The ESM is designed to replace the EFSF and EFSM, It has not been ratified among the Euro Group countries involved. Despite this, the effective date for putting it to work has been advanced from the originally scheduled date of early 2013 to July 2012.
In the case of Holland, their parliament has been dissolved and a caretaker government is in place. Elections have been pushed back to September. The outgoing Prime Minister Rutte signed the Treaty before parliamentary debate and the dissolution of his Government.
An opinion poll for television programme EenVandaag this Tuesday showed that six out of 10 Dutch voters think parliament should not ratify the treaty
to set up a permanent European rescue fund until after the September
general election.
Elsewhere across the EU other wierd manipulations are underway to push this treaty through.
Europe has, it appears, lost any care or thought for their dying democratic freedoms!
EU leaders' informal dinner, fed them, but achieved nothing else!
Two views from far apart across the globe - Seattle here and Dublin here, convey the same sense of hopelessness and despair that all must feel when viewing the pathetic performance of those who presently purport to lead Europe.
Their removal now seems the sole sane solution, surely the majority will soon take that view? Some quotes:
...leaders concluded their latest summit with few concrete steps to fix the continent's festering financial crisis even as the potential for a messy Greek exit from the euro appears to be rising.
§§§§§
...LEADERS sought to advance a new plan to stimulate economic growth as Germany and France laid out opposing strategies to tackle the debt crisis, raising fresh questions about Europe’s ability to overcome the debacle.
Dutch Caretaker Government prepare to cede €40 Billion spending authority to the ESM
The artcile summarising the state of play in the soon to be bankrupted country of Holland was described this morning on this link, which concluded as follows:
In the present ESM, the EFSF, a unanimous vote by all participating
countries was required. For the ESM, this obtains regarding decisions
that must be taken quickly, the backing of 85 percent of the
participating countries is sufficient, to avoid small countries being
able to cause decision-making to stagnate. The Netherlands (with a share of just 5.7 percent) will not be able
to block any ESM measures on its own. Earlier, the Council of State and
government auditors were also extremely critical of the permanent
emergency fund, particularly the limited opportunities for checking up.
The measures mentioned can cover spending of €4.5 billion in the case of Holland, plus another €35 billion in guarantees.
Think how much cash-strapped France is giving away for the ESM which will be as doomed over Spain, Italy, et al just as the EFSF and EFSM have proved over Greece!!
Germans to buy Britain's military bridge builder WFEL
Hot on the heels of the news that our countryside is about to be sold to the Germans (see my post beneath this,) comes news in the Daily Telegraph, linked here, that the German company best known for making Tiger tanks in WWII is to acquire our military bridge builder WFEL with the innovative expertise of 250 odd engineers.
WFEL was originally the Fairey Aviation Company. One must wonder why our fore -father's generations bothered building such planes as those of Fairey, and indeed spent years of blood toil, effort, misery, dreadful wounds and death in fighting the Germans for our independence, when our spineless politicians of today lay to waste our economy and hand our heritage to foreigners in exchange for worthless euros we must then spend our few remaining pounds sterling in supporting!
Click here to read the press release put out some ten minutes ago.
Our dairy industry is what ensures that a small part of our green and pleasant land still survives in spite of the ravages of our corrupt senior civil service and the political classes.
Steadily over decades our country has been ground into the dust and dirt and stripped naked of its entire productive industry and infrastructure. Controlling our countryside MUST be turned into the final straw.
I tweeted the following on hearing this news, which comes on top of learning that Britain has once again been over-ruled by foreign judges, this time on votes for convicts:
The Dutch Christian Democrats Union (thanks anon., for the correction) are now joining Geert Wilders Freedom Party in trying to block the ratification of the ESM Treaty in the Netherlands. The following is an extract from the Dutch Press Review of today from Radio Netherlands Worldwide:
Christian Union joins Wilders to block EU fiscal pact
The Christian Union has searched its conscience and turned to the
Socialist Party and Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party (PVV) on the question
of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), writes de Volkskrant.
While the other four parties involved in the Spring Accord – the
minority caretaker government’s latest austerity package negotiated with
the opposition to balance its books – the Christian Union “cannot
approve this treaty,” says party leader Arie Slob. If parliament
ratifies it, then we lose control of 40 billion euros, he exclaims.
“Those 40 billion euros amount to our total education budget and what
we spend on safety.” Slob says if countries need to make use of the
fund to pay off countries in distress, then there should be a vote each
time. “Without this consent, the accord lacks democracy.”
And as the eurozone begins to appear less like a trading and fiscal
union than a self-help group for debt addicts, the chance is
considerable that a country which has run adrift will be begging for
some ESM fix at some point.
“PVV leader Geert Wilders is seeking an injunction against the state
to block parliament’s ratification of the ESM this week,” continues de Volkskrant.
Wilders sees the permanent bailout fund which is part of an EU fiscal
pact to reinforce economic surveillance as “an unlawful action”.
The Netherlands might need to join the debt group itself. Since 2008,
the country has degenerated from a leading economy to “a trouble
child”, writes de Volkskrant in its economy section, citing a Standard & Poor’s report.
Jörg Asmussen, the German ECB member driving the case for an EU Fatherland
The Irish Times today has coverage on the plans for pretty wide-sweeping changes to the concept of the EU as now being put forward by the German Board Member of the drowning ECB, Jörg Asmussen.
EU break-up as strongly favoured by this blog based on the anti-democratic and unworkable institutions and procedures of the existing EU, is never going to be achieved without a struggle. Naturally therefore those who have been driving this model forwards would inevitably end by propounding even worse extremes. That is a refreshing development, so far things have reached their present desperate straits by the deceits, lies, evasions and secretive corruption of the EU which we all can witness today.
To correct the inefficiencies, incompetence and criminal waste of the existing EU will require some brutal measures and very distasteful medecine on a pan-european basis. Naturally increased authoritarianism will thus be required. It will be sold only as the cure, to treat the symptoms which naturally are becoming increasingly plain and dire.
We in Europe can seek our own national solutions by democratic means, which means abandoning the EU as presently constructed, and thereafter find a better way of working alongside one another towards some common prosperity, or we can submit ourselves to pan-european rule by the likes of Jörg Asmussen.
The latter would be a Popperian Tyranny, on which I commented at the start of my blogspot blogging over nine years ago!
More reports on Jörg Asmussen from Irish Independent, here and his ECB profile here.
The consequences of Greece and Spain collapsing in tandem
The Economic Times from India has an interesting article on the consequences of the ever more likely-seeming combined collapse of Greece and Spain, read here.
The following is a brief extract, but the entire article is worth reading:
"When you have Greece and Spain
happening at the same time, the problem becomes exponential and very,
very dangerous," said Stephen Jen, a former economist at the International Monetary Fund
who runs a hedge fund in London. "So far, the policy has been to buy
time and build a firewall - but that just makes the cost bigger. There
is just no good ending here."
The numbers do look dire.
Stephane Deo, an economist at UBS, estimates that the cost of a Greek
exit to European taxpayers would be 225 billion euros, assuming Greece
defaulted on the money it now owes to European public institutions.
But, he says, the real fear is that while that was happening, the slow-motion collapse of Spanish banks from toxic real estate loans could suddenly turn into a fast-moving bank run, as depositors pulled out their money.
With Spanish banks now holding deposits of 2.3 trillion euros, such a
loss of confidence could be disastrous for Spain and for the highly
interconnected global banking system. The financial world's assumption
lately has been that it is sufficiently prepared to absorb the
consequences of a Greek withdrawal from the euro. But if a Spanish
banking collapse were factored in, Europe's long-dreaded "Lehman moment"
might finally arrive. "The scale is just so much bigger, when you talk
about Spain," Deo said.
The Institute for Government is an affront to democracy
The Institute for Government, read some of the garbage it stands for from its own site, linked here, is as a supposed charity, a complete outrage. See this tweet from Douglas Carswell MP, who is foolish enough to be among its followers:
IIF estimates Spanish bank losses €216 to €260 Billion
The report from Fox Business News is linked here. Ginormous and humungus financial losses, such as these in Spain and those of the clearly already crippled banks in Greece, to be presumably eventually covered from elsewhere in Euroland, are presently being funded by the ECB, but who is providing any guarantees for such ECB spending of these mind-boggling sums? That seems to remain a bit of a mystery shrouded in the Scotch Mist of TARGET2.
The EFSF emergency funding and that of the EFSM, the only two so far actually agreed, can provide nothing like sufficient sums, with or without the IMF.
Why is this plain fact not being discussed in the constant and ongoing mulilateral meetings or at least raised in the press conferences that follow them! The math is perfectly obvious!
ESM ratification, machinations and manipulations - Is Twitter culpable?
In years to come the ESM Treaty looks like becoming the preferred weapon of oppression against Eurozone countries, by which the EU elite will maintain their powers and benefits at the expense of those who utilise their enterprise and efforts in order to survive.
It has already been decided that the Treaty should come into effect before it has even been ratified, read here.
Now it appears that in Holland, where no legal government presently exists, plans continue to ram the Treaty through and to facilitate this without protest Twitter accounts of those opposed to the ESM are being blocked. I quote a blog post on that topic in full from Holland, linked here:
It looks like Twitter is the front in the Second Dutch Revolt. This time against the EUnion and specifically against the ESM and the cack-handed way in which our political ‘betters’ are trying to run this through parliament.
Finally, at long last, we have an issue for the Dutch to rally around, to wake them up to the danger the EUnion and out own ‘leaders’ pose. The manner in which the current care-taker government is trying to ram through ratification of the ESM is confirming to a lot of Dutch that the people occupying seats in parliament do not work for us, that they work for the EUnion. And the reaction, on Twitter at least, is fierce.
So fierce in fact that parties unknown have managed to persuade Twitter to suspend accounts openly opposed to the ESM ratification. Specifically, the accounts are @ESMNEE, @ESMnooit and @No2ESM.
This weirdness, which started earlier this evening, did not go unnoticed. The predictable reaction was not long in coming. New accounts such as @GEEN_ESM, @ESM_Nee and @esmNEE sprang up almost immediately and are still functional as of this writing.
Now, one can question the utility of social media campaigns. But evidently some parties are worried enough to try and get opposition to the Dutch ratification of the ESM silenced. As we wrote yesterday, something is going on.
And as I sit here, writing this post, the sober, contemplative part of the back of my brain sits in amazement that here I am writing about active attempts at censorship, in the second decade of this the 21st century, about a usually calm and sedate corner of the world. How the hell did we end up in a situation that I have to write about my own country as if it were a two-bit dictatorship, as if the current regime is not better then those of China, Iran or Lukashenko’s Belarus. My Lord, but have we slipped downhill in a couple of years.
Related: ESM, a coup d’état in 17 countries! [UPDATE001] I mean, really! The account @GEEN_ESM has been pulled off air as well. What the hell is going on?
The EU could potentially be forced to withdraw from the UN Convention on Human and Environmental Rights, (if it manages to continue in existence one presumes,) according to a report linked here. (H/T Anglo Saxon Times).
This democracy and prosperity destroying EU tyranny was always bound to carry its authoritarian attitudes too far in the end.
Let us hope the elected leaders of its member states finally come to their senses and bring the curtain down on this farce first, fancy having to rely on the UN to expose the tyranny!
The BBC has become a mere propaganda pawn for the EU,
steadily and remorselessly throughout your years in Parliament Mr
Redwood. Over the same period your own party has similarly become a pawn
of that same EU institution, yet you remainyour party’s faithful
servant.
More compassion is suggested, for the unthinking or mindless BBC
reporters who are in fact in exactly the same boat as yourself. You all
do as the EU requires because your past decisions now offer you little
other lifestyle choice. Would not a touch of truthfulness and courage be
refreshing?
The G8 leaders moved on from Camp David near Washington DC at the weekend to re-gather in Chicago as heads of NATO, with those from the EU re-convening in Brussels on Wednesday. Their lying and therefore meaningless manifestos and deceitful declarations cannot obscure the realities. On Afghanistan the NATO declaration avers that they will leave Afghanistan as one while all nevertheless accept that France will now precede them some two years ahead, merely one small example of their presently institutionalised duplicity!
The founding principles of NATO were the mutual self-defence of the founding principles of "WESTERN DEMOCRACY". Such founding principles were broken when NATO entered Afghanistan and continue to be trampled upon on every day the troops remain there.
The marching of high ranking uniformed representatives before the assembled mental pygmies and devious charlatans among the NATO leaders, who have jointly already degraded the aims of the organisation they are now in the process of destroying, with the bugle playing of compositions properly best reserved for solemn memorial occasions, merely makes the inevitable meaningless posturing, guaranteed to follow, ever more obscene.
The regular cycle of democracy that these countries once recently shared was formed as a result of the movement of the currents and maritime atmospheric pressure systems over the North Atlantic. The communities that then formed along the western seaboard of the North Atlantic, well before the invasions from the North and East by Belgae, Franks, Saxons, Suevi, Vikings etc., could allow the best of their societies to travel within the natural rythms of the ocean's cycles while leaving others at home, secure within the democratic cycles only their strongest leaders could enforce. No history books yet exist to confirm this as fact, (although continuing archaeology makes it ever more likely,) yet it is something I know within my blood and bones. Naturally it therefore predates the Romans making the professed objectives of the present EU ever more absurd and incomprehensible!
This democracy lay to the WEST of the majority of people in Europe, hence our shorthand use of the word for all that we hold dear and still seek to protect.
It is those principles of the West that are being betrayed in the never ending cycle of meetings of our supposed democratic representatives, discussing but never grasping the essentials of Europe's economic crisis, exemplified for the moment most clearly in Spain and brought about by the absence of any moral compass among those who profess to lead us.
Pater, what happens when they run out of collateral? Seems I recall
the posting of collateral revolved around the credit rating of the
outfit involved. I would suspect we would see another AIG incident, as
there likely wouldn’t be a market to offset the position. My basic
point is the sovereigns and banks are floating each other and all this
other financial stuff as well and it appears they are both sinking in
the abyss. There is a massive haircut coming. This is a lot bigger
than subprime and Lehman. The governments of the USA and Germany aren’t
exactly in fine fiscal shape and I don’t believe the QE’s and LTRO’s on
the short term do anything other than facilitate the movement of bank
liabilities. Maybe they allow JPM to buy back some more stock or buy
some existing financial assets. The balance sheets have to remain
intact or what appears to be there isn’t.
A lighter hearted Sunday look at Greece and the Euro
Many thanks to a regular correspondent, who sent me this which struck me as so apt as to compell me to break my self-imposed weekend blogging embargo!
If you want a plain explanation as to what's happening in the Eurozone with regard to the Greek debacle, perhaps the following will enlighten you:
The tribal wisdom of the Lakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that;
“When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount".
However, in government more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Arranging to visit foreign countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase the dead horse's performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And of course.... 13 Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.
I will be spending this weekend in the very historic port city of La Rochelle where the bi-lingual book on the Hanseatic League will be launched this evening, fittingly at the Protestant Museum.
On that topic and the celebrations by the British Monarchy yesterday, with lunch for the crowned heads of other states at Windsor Castle, and a similar event at Buckingham Palace last evening hosted by Prince Charles, I again query why the actual day of the sixtieth anniversary of her accession to the throne the Queen (or Palace) chose to celebrate such an important British event, at the sole surviving Hanseatic building in the UK in Kings Lynn? (Hansa rights in Kings Lynn were part of the peace treaty terms granted by England's Kings brought on by the defeat resulting from our weakness due to their family quarrels in France).
If any blog readers know of an official explanation, perhaps they would provide it in the comments section to this post, or email me if they prefer it to remain private - martin.coleatgmail.com
Greeces' "Y" Euro Notes being withdrawn? (reports)
This blog has alerted its readers for years of the dangers of holding certain bank notes of the euro currency with the starting letter dedicated to certain dodgier states. In the case of Greece it was "Y".
The Slog has been reporting today that it appears such notes are disappearing in Greece and that "X" for German notes are being circulated in replacement, read here.
So if Germany is to take over the issuance of Euros for countries forced out of EMU because of economic mismanagement and/or profligacy, then surely German citizens are indeed very right to start worrying about Weimar Republic style hyperinflation.
The rest of us should perhaps now treat all euro notes, whatever their initial serial letter, with the same equal suspicion! Or at the very least avoid the X and Y like the plague!
There is a dilemma that arises from what you have written,
particularly as it relates to Britain and its place within the EU. The
section I refer to is the following statement:
It was the political class who drove them into the Euro, and the
political class who told them it would work just fine. In another sense
they are victims of their neighbours. If you vote for the vision of the
Euro, you have to live with its many problems and imperfections, and do
your bit to help offset them.
We in Britain were spared the Euro but driven in to the EU by our
political class, grouped within the three main parties, which with our
first past the post electoral system and refusal of meaningful recent
referendum, made any alternative an impossibility.
Now even a supposed opponent of our EU membership, in the party
supposedly containing most such insightful individuals, gives continued
support to a completely EU subjugated executive, even when the fact of a
Coalition has finally empowered such small group of rebels to force a
re-appraisal at the very moment when the whole EU edifice is clearly
collapsing.
What value may we thus place on your written blogged words, you are
in Parliament, you have the mandated power, please, please do something,
the entire world sees Cameron and Osborne for what they are, they must
be neutered!
Irish already admit they will rerun 31st May Fiscal referendum in event of a "NO" vote
In the past the Irish have at least pretended up to the actual "NO" vote on EU matters that they might respect the people's choice. This time as delusion with the democratic farce the EU has become is accepted fact, Irish Minister Richard Bruton, has admitted on the radio that in the event of a "NO" vote, the government, as has become the norm across the EU, will simply put the question again. Read the Irish Times report, from here.
This is the tyrannical organisation, clearly on the brink of collapse, that Britain's three main parties refuse to contemplate leaving, let alone preparing alternative trade arrangements should be surprising, but of course it is merely taken as fact with a shrug of indifference. At least the Irish farmers are involved in a major push into China!
This blog has for so long been warning about Spain, for example, that I cannot but help be totally surprised by the reaction in the UK this morning to Moody's downgrade of 16 Spanish banks, plus the UK operations of Santander.
Pig ignorance amongst those who run and comment upon the crucial affairs of the UK is utterly astounding!
Well better late than never I guess, the Daily Mail, This is Money column is finally today advising its readers about the plight of the Spanish parent of Santander's High Street subsidiary in Britain, read here.
Believe it if you wish!
FT Alphaville warns of a mass downgrade of credit ratings for Spanish banks here.
A Spanish bond auction is presently taking the main attention of the markets, but this report on that from Bloomberg has this paragraph:
Investors are also concerned over Spain's banking sector,
which is struggling with bad property loans. Clients of troubled
Spanish bank Bankia, nationalised last week, have
withdrawn more than 1 billion euros since last Wednesday, El
Mundo newspaper said.
Now that the Prime Minister, The Governor of the Bank of England, the Mainstream Media and YES even the BBC, have woken up to the grave problems of the EU and its common currency, this blog can first hail and celebrate some good news for Britain for a change!
Vauxhall at Ellesmere Port, it has been announced, read here from 2 minutes ago, has been spared by General Motors and will be the home of the new Astra model, for which adverts have been seen on British TV in the past few days.
This comes on top of news this week that the country has once again become a net exporter of motor vehicles for the first time in many decades this very week. Ellesmere Port has been under the threat of closure it seems throughout my economically conscious life. This therefore is particularly surprising news!
Those seeking an update on the EU/Euro disaster this morning may best find it in the City AM comment, linked here. The EU break up is coming and Cameron should be ordering and co-ordinating the preparations of his government. As even the Daily Mail has perceived this morning, such a break-up presents a fantastic economic oportunity for all of Europe, not just Greece - let us embrace our returning democracy and regained economic and political freedoms! Here is a video to help you savour the coming EU destruction:
So when will bank deposits start to be run down in other weakened eurozone nations, such as portugal and Ireland then presumably leading to Italy and Spain?
Are those in charge in the EU making decisions such as that reported in this posting's headline, as confirmed in the Chicago Tribune, linked here, really aiming to bring chaos across the entire EU?
The EU, already proven completely incapable of running anything at all, has now apparently decided to use what little authority it has left to begin shooting up small boats off the horn of Africa. Just the job a swaggering, bullying and failed organisation would relish. The actual nationality of the helicopter and forces used is being kept secret as may be noted from this report in this morning's Telegraph:
Rear Admiral Duncan Potts, the British operation commander of the EU Naval Force.
The attack involved troops from several of the European navies including seven frigates currently patrolling off Somalia, from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Portugal.
Officials said it was "a European mission" and would not specify from which warship the strike was launched. There are currently no Royal Navy vessels deployed with the joint force, known as Operation Atalanta, since HMS Westminster was deployed there last month.
Rear Admiral Potts, or the individual(s) in the MOD who issued the orders to him should reflect on the fate of Admiral Byng, read here.
Britain's taxpayers may consider it acceptable for Potts to command such an operation, but they do not equip a fleet of warships to ever be commanded by foreigners, which must now be a possibility given the precedent set here.
Indeed outside of NATO we have no mutual defence arrangements with the countries mentioned above and in view of the likely coming break-up of the eurozone and the likely consequences of reconciling the unimaginable financial losses of the ECB, we could be exchangingmore than verbal abuses at one another in the coming years if not months.
The greatest threat to Britain comes from the break-up of the EU, shooting up small attack boats, albeit with powerful outboards off Somalia, should be left to the Continentals, if that is how they wish to waste their ever diminishing resources!
Where is the Treaty that makes use of Britain's naval assets legal in such circumstances?
Conservative Home blog is providing good detail on the latest dirty dealings by Cameron's clique to cling to power as all that they pretend to portray crumbles back to the corrupt dust from which it was originally created.
The Wall Street Journal has the report, linked here. Amazing is it not, that the EU, built on the supposed belief that compromise and community of interests provides the solution to all difficulties, nevertheless seeks to undermine one of the longer standing institutions for international harmony.
Britain's Chancellor, George Osborne, is now reported to have gone along with this devious arrangement devised by French EU Commissioner Barnier, which will inevitably lead to other nations picking and choosing which portion of Basel III they wish to apply and further undermining the economic underpinnings of international trade and prosperity.
One must seriously question what exactly the EU now offers the world, and in Britain's case the response will inevitably reveal so little that the earliest possible withdrawal will be seen to be the only sensible, and therefore essential, next step.
Weakening euro serves to heighten German hegemony.
Watching Mrs Merkel pushing the new French President François Hollande all over the red carpet laid out for his arrival in Berlin, mere hours after having been sworn into office, I pondered the news made public earlier in the day that Germany was now almost virtually alone in having a growing economy amongst the countries lashed within the eurozone, and also grew at five times the forecast rate - an obscene achievement viewed against its present attitudes towards the prosperity plight of its supposed EU partners.
A weakening Euro, read the overnight movements from Reuters, linked here, should in theory aid the exporters in the smaller and peripheral eurozone member states, yet the German industrial panzer allowed free range within the structures of the EU, has already crushed and pulverised such ventures. German industry together with those so far allowed to survive in its immediately neighbouring states will thus gain the benefits of the tumbling Euro.
German apologists such as the Sky Foreign "expert" in Berlin for the Hollande visit, may well repeat every hour the plight of ordinary Germans during the Weimar Republic hyper-inflation, but it is wearing thin with this observer seeing first hand a Continent laid to waste through German intransigence. What does Germany want with this plundered and secreted wealth I wondered, power to prod and push it appeared was the answer!
Is President Hollande perhaps going to heed this blog
In what Inside Business descibes as an ironic cosmic joke, here, it has been reported that President Hollande's plane on his first day in charge of France, has been forced to turn back from its trip to Germany, just as the news of a new election in Greece broke and the euro began to tumble on currency markets.
Believe what you will, but perhaps the new President had second thoughts after considering the wisdom of my tweet of earlier today, as follows:
Update - Hollande is reported to be boarding a new plane, it appears nothing will prevent him from becoming Merkel's new poodle, cosmic signals or not!
Ministers deliberate near treason is exposed in Parliament by Bill Cash MP
The entire contribution from Mr Bill Cash MP is linked to Hansard from here. The two passages I have chosen to quote are these:
The fact is that employment regulations, the working time directive, paternity and maternity leaves and so forth have reached a point at which—in aggregate; I do not refer to any individual measure—they have strangled the small and medium-sized business environment of Europe which, in the real world, must compete with the Indias, the Chinas and the South Americas.
For practical purposes, we in this country must recognise that growth will come only from the generation of small and medium-sized businesses and a reduction in legislation. Yes, there is massive youth unemployment in other countries, but we cannot grow within a European Union which itself represents about 40% of our trade with those countries, and they cannot grow because they themselves were inhibited by the strangulation of small businesses, and also by the increase in legislation. As Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, I can assure the House that there is no stopping that; every week we are given pile after pile of it.
In 2005, the current Prime Minister described it as an imperative necessity to repatriate powers. On 16 May 2006, I proposed an amendment to the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill that, notwithstanding the European Communities Act 1972, would have enabled us to override European legislation where necessary. Some 50 current Government Ministers—Conservative Ministers—supported my amendment. It was then “three-lined” in the House of Lords, and it was opposed by the current Deputy Prime Minister and the Lib Dems. No repatriation of powers is a suicide note for the British nation. That is the message. We have to deregulate; we have to give oxygen to the SMEs. That is in the national interest.
This blogger has been fretting for years over the potential disaster likely to arise from the presence of Santander Bank in Britain. (One example is this from October 2008).
I was therefore interested to hear the nose-led wooden heads on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme finally begin to discuss the implications for the British High Street Bank in view of the ever worsening situation in Spain.
The report from Reuters just issued, that the shareholders of Bankia in Spain, might be about to react to having been so blatantly conned for years is now even more cause for concern.
If Radio Four today programme presenters seem worried, then the banking crisis must indeed be nearing its end-point! Still put it on right at the end and concentrate on the Dalai Lama, eh what! - then none need notice!