Juncker fuels speculation on ECB bond purchases

Juncker has previously confessed he sees his task as to lie to dupe the markets for what he sees as the best interests of the Euro. A boost in the short term outlook for the Euro has often, however, later been seen to be in the worst possible long term interests of that currency and its member states..

Extraordinarily, in claiming that the ECB will announce authority for the ECB to commence bond purchases to ease the Spanish crisis, seems to reduce the benefit to zero for both the short and long term prospects for the common currency. Juncker's comments may be read in a report from the Irish Times this morning, linked here. A quote from that paper including one from Le Figaro is as follows:

Mr Juncker said the euro zone was at a “decisive point” where members had to show “with all means available” they were ready to defend their currency’s stability. 

 “Just what measures we will adopt [to secure the euro], we will decide in the coming days – we have no time to waste,” he told the Le Figaro newspaper. “It is not yet decided what exactly we will do. That depends on the developments in the coming days and how quickly we have to react.”

So the markets will be left in complete uncertainty, albeit probably behave as normal and temporarily rise between now and Thursday, but then collapse if further useless platitudes emerge on Thursday or Friday morning, being completely routed by next Monday as individual nations announce they will not participate in any backing for ECB bond buying, which will be national suicide for the remaining triple A rated countries, of which there are already few still remaining within the disastrous Euro Group!

How Bankia conned its customers and small investors.

Reuters has a good analysis, linked here, of some of the dirty tricks used to keep the large bank Bankia afloat for a few more months in Spain.

Given that foul, dirty and despicably fraudulent tactics were used to disguise losses within the Spanish banking sector and pass off some of the already known losses to depositers AND that this happened in one part of the EU where all that is awful, rapidly spreads throughout the other twenty-six member states while all that is worthwhile is ruthlessly turned against and eradicated, it would be worthwhile if Britain's bank account holders read of some of the tricks used, so as  to avoid being duped in the same manner and reduce similar potential losses in Britain.

This is probably particularly true regarding RBS, whose head has warned of huge coming financial penalties in respect of that bank's failings over LIBOR, events that took place before the taxpayer became obligated for its past sins, read here.

Rodrigo Rato, former head of the IMF and head of Bankia, has at least been arrested, see here, for criminal fraud in Spain as has one of the top bankers in Ireland but no such moves have been seen in Britain.

Little seems likely to happen in the UK given the glimpse we have been given into the mindset of our leaders over the London Olympics, as covered in this post from Orphans of Liberty, linked here.

Empty Olympic seats bear testimony to politicians incompetence

It often appeared to me when living in Britain, that politicians could only spend the wealth which they extorted from others. The same held true for most public servants and nearly all quangos.

The empty seats at the Olympics will now provide daily proof of this stark fact, visible and daily evidence of how they have thus destroyed the nation's wealth, see here. No doubt they will contrive to disguise this truth, by cobbling together some cheapskate means of salvaging a little revenue on a day to day basis for seats that would otherwise be empty as mere window-dressing, to spare their embarassment.

It would not have been beyond the wit of any reasonably competent commercial enterprise to ensure that a main area of revenue raising in a venture now forecast to cost £11 billion is milked to the maximum, with seats subject to re-sale in the event of a no-show within a certain specified time.

It appears almost everything to do with making money is beyond the wit of those who stand for public office in the UK and of those they then appoint to perform the tasks they have been voted to oversee. In other words they are both witless and as has been proven time and again elsewhere in recent governance, without conscience, nor possibly even morals nor indeed, sometimes even honesty.

Turning away spectaors for the "unticketed" archery event was yet another early example of such thought process defects, as I blogged yesterday the NHS of course remains the prime example within the country, amazingly unseen by the ill-educated masses, upon which Peter Hitchens wrote so well upon my birthday in the Daily Mail, linked here.

One really must wonder for how much longer our politicians can continue to escape any consequences for their quite obvious complete and utter incompetence and unscupulousness! Unhappily for ever if Hitchen's gloomy views are proved correct.

Making the NHS the rock upon which stands Britain!

As Showbiz the London Olympics opening ceremony, with odd exceptions, was fantastic spectacle. As a statement of what Britain has become during my lifetime it was to me almost 100% spot on. The quite frankly completely weird dance to the oddly rendered hymn "Abide with me" being a particular case in point.

At the centre of it all was the NHS, those grotesque letter combinations (representing as they do Olympic Gold levels of managerial incompetence and waste at almost every level of its delivery,) even putting in an appearance at the centre of the stadium, with the massed rows of metal framed beds, with their child-patient occupants, pointing up the national obsession with the absolute right to free health care at every level of society, regardless of the self-neglect causing the complaints, or the cost to other tax-payers in attempting to rectify them with money being no object and often in the face of nature.

The absolute belief in the NHS, itself a major cause of my choosing not to live in my native country of England, not for health care reasons as I avoid medical profession encounters as far as I am possibly able on grounds of both cowardice and fear of quackery, but more for the muddled thought processes such a belief requires.

Perhaps this ceremony, highlighting the absurdity and huge cost of the wastefulness and complete social injustice delivered by such a healthcare system, will prompt a questioning as to its point and purpose in the minds of the people of Britain, and begin to effect a change towards the self-reliance for which the country once stood, which change is evermore essential if the age of austerity and EU corporatism (otherwise formerly known as National Socialism and Fascism) is to be brought to an end. If it manages that then the £11 Billion costs the Olympics have now cost will eventually yield a dividend.

On a positive note the opening theme from rural idyll to satanic mills was brilliant, the forging of the hoops absolutely spectacular and inspired while the final flame lighting in the cauldron being raised upwards completely breath-taking. Overall I enjoyed the concert outside Buckingham Palace for the Queen's  Diamond Jubilee marginally more on TV

Recreating the vain tyranny of Louis XIV in Brussels' EU

David Starkey's first episode of a new series is a tour de force, particularly for its relevance to events in Europe today, (just as for the two periods it covers, namely the 1680s and 1930s,) should be watched by whatever means you can find. A review from The Independent of this morning is linked from here.

Starkey's underlying theme was that Winston Churchill, while researching a biography of his illustrious ancestor, John Churchill, Ist Duke of Marlborough (so created following his victory at the Battle of Blenheim which changed the course of European history) was able to spot by 1932 the dangers in the rise of Nazism in Germany. So far he has not gone on to draw the similarities between events today and those around the turn of the 17th to18th centuries, the resulting tyranny from which, John Churchill eventually put down, but I will now do so.

Louis XIV, ruled France as an absolute monarch for over 72 years in such a manner as many believe made the eventual and bloody French Revolution a racing certainty, although its arrival was delayed for another 70 odd years of such rule. The programme did make clear the importance of the difference in outcome of the earlier religious wars between France and Britain and the impact in England of the arrival of so many Huguenot refugees, fleeing the Catholic tyranny in France, but has yet to signal the importance of John Churchill's West Country roots, which I consider especially important.  

Earlier posts of mine on this same topic may be read here from May 2008; "Why does Europe seem to hate Britain"; also in November 2009 "Europe's New Rulers" and most recently and importantly "Britain's Greatest UK Traitors at Westminster Hall", the latter with the sole tag "treason" reflecting the occasion and nature of the Pope's visit.

Starkey did highlight one very interesting point that had previously not occurred to me, right  at the end of this first episode, that being that it was only after Blenheim that French and British history can truly be said to have really parted.

A pile of scrap metal on Nowhere Island - London's Olympics typified

 

Nowhereisland

Orbit, a twisted pile of apparently scrap metal bits!

Also going nowhere!

Politicians of the three main political parties in Britain have all presumably had their input into how they wish the London Olympics to represent our Capital and the nation for which it stands.

What a fascinating insight to their minds and inner thoughts, this pile of scrap metal, "Orbit" (seen at its most grotesque, behind the shoulders of the BBC announcers from their Olympic Studio,) combined with the absurd "Nowhereisland" due to be towed from Weymouth to Exmouth, the town of my birth, sixty-eight years ago today, together brilliantly exemplifying what these three political parties have achieved during those years!

The only thing missing is a symbol for the crass commercialism and greed that will once again now be set loose!

Treasures from the threads number 81 - Sack Osborne

The Spectator Coffee House forum are discussing firing George Osborne, (indeeed at last I feel you think!) I particularly enjoyed this apt contribution:

Sorry folks it was, as I feared it might be, removed before I could get it copied and pasted. It was from a poster Wat Tyler and described a spiv Dave down the pub, describing how an amateur plumber George destroyed Dave's rented house and boiler. If someone caught it before the Speccie could take it down, send it by email to me and I will paste it below;

No 4G for Europe but new railway lines plough ahead

While I was out making the above video this morning Reuters issued a press release on how President Hollande's growth plans are being thwarted by the need for austerity, linked here, from which I quote the following:

In a country already crisscrossed with high-speed trains and world-class motorways, the national audit office said many of France's highest-profile projects in the pipeline were incompatible with a push to rein in the deficit.

Well at least the National Audit Office is watching the Brussels bureaucrats and blinkered national French politicians. Who is doing that job in Britain? Well may we ask over HS2 as Cameron's crazed obedience to everything the EU ordains is driving the nation to bankruptcy faster than a High Speed Train!!

Only Clegg has the power to rid us of the mess in Cameron's mind!

On 5th September 2010, I wondered on the apparent absence of any moral compass in the make-up of Prime Minister, David Cameron, over his appointment of Andy Coulson, to Downing street, read here. That posting concluded with the following stark truths for Liberal Democrats:

Liberal Democrats not wishing to now become tarred by the same brush of sleaze, half-truths and downright untruths which the Downing Street media manipulation machine has become over recent years should quickly re-examine the backgrounds and lack of integrity and judgement that seems to be the rule among the leadership of their coalition partners as Parliament re-convenes after its long break during the past crisis ridden summer. Does the country really wish the connotation of 10 Downing Street to be set by former News of the World editor Andy Coulson? If so many former Tory Prime Ministers must now be turning in their graves.

In May this year a wake-up call to Paddy Ashdown on the Blog Orphans of Liberty, to which I at least received the courtesy of a reply, that cannot be linked at present as the site is down, but the repeat of the posting on this blog is linked here. It began as follows:

In the fraught days of two years ago, when the general election delivered a hung parliament to Britain, the crucial role played by former Liberal Democrat Party Leader, Lord Paddy Ashdown, became evident through his frquent media appearences and statements. An even more critical turning point now presents itself to this senior party grandée, and self-appointed representative of decency within Britain's system of governance.

Can Lord Ashdown still shrug off my concerns so readily today as he felt able so to do last May?

Last evening on Sky News we watched Business Secretary of State, Vince Cable, squirm on the Jeff Randall Live interview, whilst trying to defend the completely odious Lord Green whom it appears was content to oversee activities while in charge at HSBC  rightly condemned last week in the US Congress.

Nick Clegg must be woken up to realise that the connotations of linking names such as Osborne/Oleg Deripaska and Coulson/Wade will hardly sit well with voters seeking a change from the present corrupt methods of contemporary politics and an escape from being governed according to the priorities and perogatives of the messy mind inside the head of David Cameron.

All this takes on an even greater urgency when the extent of the disaster in the Euro Group is taken on board, Britain will need some right thinking individuals looking out for the nation's interests as these events unfold, as it appears ever more doubtful that this crisis is going to permit Europe's leaders and coddled fonctionaires their usual two month summer break, while matters fester and deteriorate ever further, they can hardly surely now hardly get any worse?

Central Bank's silence over known Libor rigging!

As pointed out on this blog at the time, and again more recently, it can be seen from press reports at the time that the New York Fed and Bank of England knew about false reporting of borrowing rates to fix Libor levels during the 2008 crisis, and that  such rigging can therefore have only been continuing with specific Downing Street approval.

The latest reports from Reuters, dated today and linked here, on Timothy Geithner's own knowledge of these goings on, seems significant in highlighting the hypocrisy in the present reporting of what is essentially the collapse of the West's entire economic system.

Why has the EU become a Popperian tyranny?

   Moody's negative outlook announced today for the credit ratings for the supposed most prosperous EU northern national economies, even including Germany, MUST mark an EU crisis turning point.

   Many years ago this blogger proposed that the Swiss Constitution provided an ideal blue print for a democratic grouping of Europe's nations wishing to form a closer trading union. That was ignored. The years in between have been wasted.

    My recording of a question to Debating Europe for some EU Presidents and perhaps EU Commissioners, at a planned public debate for next October, reflects that shameful reality and is pasted at the foot of this posting.

    The Swiss Confederation recognises four languages, the strong autonomy of its Cantons - co-incidentally numbering roughly the same number as EU member states, its strong direct democracy with protections for specific linguistic and cantonal sensibilities, a guiding star chamber of seven ministers at confederate level, a federal parliament, provisions for regular constitutional changes, plus the longest history of democracy within Europe all combine to make it the perfect blue-print for an EU Constitution!

   Temporary modifications could be established for an interim emergency EU arrangement, prior to establishing a full EU Constitution subject to individual national referendums contemplating exclusion in the event of a NO vote.

   The only alternative this blogger can foresee is widespread fragmentation during and after years of economic decline across the EU, not necessarily within former national boundaries, with all the well known risks of such an occurence as Europe's troubled history has demonstrated over and over again.

 

Britain Euro-free, but Lame Duck PM and Brain Dead Chancellor cancels gains

The Euro plunged in Far Eastern markets as Europe slept this morning but the deepening crisis in Spain, Greece ,Italy and the entire euro group of countries sucked into the tyrannical tragedy that the Euro has ever been, long before entering its terminal sickness stage some four years ago, is this week set to worsen.

In spite of the calls from this blog, repeated several times daily throughout the past weekend on Twitter, nothing whatso ever appears to have been done and there remain no signs that proper provisions are being made for the financial hurricane that is about to hit us all.

The UK could by now have diversified and maximised our trading positions from sterling's independence to actually be benefitting as the EU Continentals flounder through the consequences of their own inaction during the recent years of denial and drift. Instead we are part of the tragedy - incapacitated by our politicians incompetence.

As I called for last week, the first step is to install a new team at the Treasury, they will bear the burden of the nation's future prosperity as the debacle unfolds, heaven forbid Cameron or Clegg be given any operational executive authority.

AFP has one report on Asia's markets, linked here.

The entire UK Treasury team needs replacing forthwith!

Allister Heath, Editor of City AM, and presently the media's number one choice for economic comment on the hoof, generally has some pretty clear thinking on the economic disaster through which the British economy is presently plodding its unimaginative way, has called in the Daily Telegraph, for George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to be be given until September to correct matters, read from here.

This could prove fatal

Britain may have two months before the Euro finally gives in to the ineviable consequences of its flawed construction, it may on the other hand have only two weeks or even perhaps a mere two days. In any event a new team should be given whatever period of time it can get to prepare for this certainty. 

The Osborne team, includiong the senior Treasury civil servants has been proven to be completely incompetent.

William Hague at the Foreign Office and Theresa May at the Home Office have proven to be similarly incompetent, and therefore cannot be considered candidates for any of the higher offices of State.

I would prefer John Redwood to be Chancellor with David Laws in support, the latter acting with actual financial honour and probity in the face of cant and sexual hypocrisy over the events leading to his resignation at the start of the Coalition Government. Redwood proves his credentials yet again this morning with some imaginative proposals to actually raise wages. These two men are clearly the best qualified and practically promotable as presently available,  given the dynamics of the crisis and adaptability shortfalls of the PM and his Deputy! Given the friendship of the former and political power of Osborne, it seems lucky an acceptable vacancy also seems to fall due at the Home or Foreign Offices.

Coalition political problems might require the team become Laws/Redwood, so be it - the civil service changes are probably as critical, given the obvious absence of new ideas behind the latest Treasury thinking, as presented yesterday by Osborne and Alexander, read here.

I will be taking a weekend break from blogging, no doubt all will be unchanged within the government upon my return, but I hope not - poor old Britain.

A Proper X Examination of PMs Blair, Bown & Cameron would make Buckles look competent

The Guardian has its say here, the Telegraph from here, but one thing that the ordinary people of Britain must surely now be beginning to grasp, is that, however woeful Nick Buckles' performance in his job as head of G4S  (the company failing to supply security for the Olympic Games as contracted) has been, it would appear stunningly successful if able to be put against any similar cross examination of our past three Prime Ministers, as that delivered by the Home Affairs Select Committee in Parliament yesterday.

The fact that such questioning has still yet to begin in our Parliament, and that such gross incompetence in several Cabinets and across the Civil Service has continued unchecked for so long, plus the fact that all our MPs are today heading off on months of undeserved, high paid vacation, is a stunning indictment of our elected representatives, and ourselves as voters in tolerating this criminal negligence and incompetence for so long.

Buckles' errors at G4S are nothing when compared with the administrative mess, in almost every area of public control, and decay across the stock of public assets, which make the past remedies for High Treason seem mild for the depths and lengths of crimes that have been committed in the public's name in the supposed, but non-existent, governance and administration of our nation. Worse, the opposite of moral guidance has been shown at the highest levels, leading the way to an almost complete collapse of standards and principle wherever money is circulated and used in Britain. APR interest rates in the mid 1700% on pay day loans continue as MPs depart!

There has hardly been one Minister or Civil Servant or Senior official (as typified by Lord Adair Turner and Sir Mervyn King and his side-kick the oily Paul  (ever startled-looking) Tucker at another such Committee in Parliament yesterday morning,) who comes to mind to be singled out to escape such charges on the grounds of a job well done. I trust there is an exception somewhere but have little hope the number would enter double figures!

The HSBC shame revealed in the US Congress by the afternoon, fittingly concluded a day of complete but thoroughly deserved humiliation for our country and all of us who hold its citizenship.

Oil proves Osborne incompetent on economy - EU/Olympics for all politicos

Osborne's incompetence in attempting to intitailly destroy one of the few productive sectors of our economy in his ealiest days was pointed up by The Guardian in March 2011, linked here. This blog of course was on this case from the start reminding readers on 23rd February of this year as follows:

George Osborne's policies have already resulted in a real slow-down in exploration activity in the British sector of the North Sea. Brilliantly mistimed and breathtakingly ignorant as it was when first announced his extra tax decisions appear ever more mistaken as the threat from Iran in the Straits of Hormuz pushes the oil markets to daily higher prices.

Osborne's stubborn pride, crass ignorance and almost complete ministerial incompetence, in charge of Britain's economy during this period of grave crisis cannot surely be allowed to continue any longer, given the proof of all that knowledgeable oil industry experts have been maintaining for many months, as evidenced by this report from The Scotsman, this morning, which after the good news concludes:

“These statistics always sound very exciting because we’re operating from a low base of activity. We have some way to go before we are back to the levels seen in 2009 and 2010.”

The lamentable reports on the Olympics provide another insight into the total inability of politicians from any party, once put in office, to run anything, presumably compounded by the elitist ignorant university trained hierarchies of an almost entirely blinkered and back-scratching civil service power structure.

Yet all that shrinks into complete insignificance viewing the farce of the media show in a railway shed yesterday of the PM and his Deputy. What should have been urgently concerning these two public school pratts cannot be better summarised, I believe, than by this contribution, last evening from The Slog, linked here. A quote on Britain:

Future observers and historians will look back at this euromess, and probably have three main reactions: first, they will wonder why the populace allowed gravy-train bureaucrats and hubris-blinded politicians to continue the pointless pavane for so long;  and second, they will gasp at the smug inaction of Camerlot in failing to spot when an imponderable outcome became an impossible nightmare for the British.

What must Britain do about the EU? That is the question!

John Bruton a former taoiseach of Ireland, has an article discussing the chaos within the EU, (although naturally he does not describe it as such,) in the Irish Times,  this morning, linked here. The final bullet point he mentions as needing resolution is the following:

* And what to do about Britain, which wants nothing to do with the euro or a banking union, but still wants access to financial markets on the same terms as everyone else.

Had Britain any politicians of ability or principle they would perceive the insult that such a statement contains, especially as the immediately following sentence is this:

"These are difficult political issues and will need to be resolved in a way that is both theoretically sound, and politically balanced between all the 27 countries in the EU. Patience will be required."

Ireland is a defeated conquered and thereby now non-existent nation, entirely governed by the whim of an international group known as the Troika.

Ireland is bankrupt and its youth are fleeing overseas in droves, mostly to countries outside the reach or control of the evil EU, particulalrly Australia, in an exodus not seen since the potato blight.

Yet I suspect David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband will see nothing strange about that statement by a former Irish Prime Minister, they too wish to secure their own personal futures with a sinecure within the EU during the decades of depression that now lie ahead for us all, entirely due to such misplaced romanticism disguising ambition, pride and selfishness - Heavens help us all!

Libor truths will eclipse Lords Reform, Coalition Woes and transform British politics!

Sky News has a leaked memo this morning from the Barclays Bank Executive Board in a report linked here, from which comes this quote:

In a memo sent to staff yesterday evening and which has been leaked to (Mark Kleinman, the article's author), the nine members of the bank's executive committee warned that the Libor crisis should not distract them from the core task of safeguarding Barclays' vast balance sheet.
"The macro-environment remains febrile, especially in Europe. We have to remain vigilant on balance sheet exposures and risk management. In short, our focus must remain on capital, funding and liquidity; improving returns; and driving income growth."
The memo, co-written by Marcus Agius, Barclays' outgoing chairman, apologised for the impact of the rate-fixing episode on the bank's staff, but hinted that its rivals were likely to be hit even harder than the £290m in fines imposed on Barclays.
"As other banks settle with authorities, and their details become public, and various governments' inquiries shed more light, our situation will eventually be put in perspective."

Of course it is not just other banks. The true scandal and the eventual truth that will emerge is that it was the Central Bankers and the then governing politicians in Downing Street who conspired to create the crisis.

The posting on my blog from 24th September 2008, quoting a report from Bloomberg gives the entire game away from this one statement:

"There's no real term funding markets except for central banks," said Meyrick Chapman, a fixed-income strategist in London at UBS AG. "The Libor is meaningless. It's for unsecured lending and there is no unsecured lending as far as I can see."

Therefore it is obvious that if there was no unsecured lending in September 2008, and you can read my blog archive for that month by clicking here to recall the prevailing chaos, then as Libor rates continued to be issued, they appeared only as a result of a conspiracy between Central Bankers presumably at the behest of their political masters with ultimate responsibility resting with Gordon Brown in Downing Street, (already widely suspected of having become almost completely unhinged).

The fact that Brown, Darling and those others New Labour ministers and placemen involved have yet to be called to account, speaks volumes on Britain's present methods of governance, in which Lords Reform can immediately be seen to be a complete irrelevance.

Bastille Day finds France blowing €Billions on EU Glorification

I had hoped that in spite of completely mental taxation and spending policies the incoming socialist administration in France would at least have the common sense to halt the ridiculous massive spending on vainglorious rail improvement projects cutting mere minutes from journey times to Brussels, solely for the pride of the insane EU and its pampered Commissioners and employees. Not so!

Attending our commune's Mairie to complete the new five paged formalities regarding bonfires in our garden (President Hollande's plan to ease unemployment so far consists of hiring an extra 150,000 civil servants, so we can expect more of these,) we were given a broadsheet, twelve page, full colour presentation called LISEA Express, detailing the incredible waste of billions of €uros on the high-speed upgrade for the existing efficient and speedy rail link, between Tours and Bordeaux, known as LGV (Ligne Grande Vitesse) Tours Bordeaux. Visit the website here if you are interested or opposed to the similar HS2 in the UK!

France was lucky in that Britain pipped it to the post in getting the 2012 Olympics, so the French will be spared the ludicrous waste of taxpayers' money in the full face of the worst economic crisis the world has likely ever faced. In France, Renault and Peugeot this week announced car sales in France down around 15% in the second quarter, a truly shocking fall given the depressed start point from the 2007/2008 crisis effected levels. One Peugeot factory will be shut with 8,000 more job losses on top of the 6,500 previously announced.

Here are some of the dreadful statistics this free brochure boasts about in extolling the detail of this rail project, exceeded technologically, of course, while Queen Victoria sat upon England's throne:

Train speeds will rise from 230 km/hr to 320km/hr (Keeping civil servants from their desks as long as possible would likely yield greater taxpayer savings, ordinary folk will be flying with budget airlines):

No matter, the EU inspired railway line, designed to get Spanish and Portuguese fonctionaires to their Brussels desks some twenty minutes faster than previously, ignoring the fact that flying from Lisbon and Madrid would be quicker and cheaper AND that there will likely be no need for such journeys, given both countries might soon regain their independence from Brussels through economic necessity.

70 stream and 4 major river crossings:

14 crossings above or below existing rail tracks:

1,000 diversions of gas pipelines,telephone and fibre optic cables, 300 deviations of electricity power lines and moving 320 water mains.

3 million tons of ballast to be quarried and laid.

3,000 hectares of preventitive archaeology, etc., etc., etc.

Can one credit the supposed thought processes of those authorising and overseeing such waste, not just at a national level, where the lunacy of appointing civil servants to reduce unemployment now sits alongside the compulsory 35 hour week for extreme governmental absurdity?

At the back of the French administrative mind, I suspect lies the thought that much of the cash being blown away comes from others in the EU. Cameron should take note, criminal waste on such a grand scale will not be tolerated in England,  HS2 should be cancelled in the UK and concurrently Britain should freeze all EU budget contributions dedicated to the transport sector, failure to do so is an abdication of responsibility; Justine Greening the transport secretary should present that case.

Instead we get an announcement this moment on the BBC Radio 4 news at 8:00 that the rail line between London and Sheffield is to be electrified, funded by the EU as well? My foot, we are all broke! £500 million down the drain to keep Nick Clegg sweet, Sheffield holds his constituency, pork barrel spending at its worst!

The insufferable arrogance and incompetence of Balls & Cooper

Look at Britain's disintegrating structures and the official attitudes of supreme managerial incompetence which oversees most area for public reponsibility and at some point, almost uncannily, one seems to find evidence of the involvement of Ed Balls and his partner Yvette Cooper. Yet when quizzed on this record, they both, because of their of still being surprisingly ultra-active at the highest levels of the main opposition party, they seem unaware of any liability whatever.

Cooper, yesterday on BBC News 24, for example, it is as though she believed that there was some universal law that prevents herself and her chosen one from ever doing any wrong, let alone being prone to any human failing whatsoever.

Couples, when acting together, can be fearsome forces, Britain has been unlucky to have had such a powerful duo with their finger in nearly every pie for the entire thirteen years of New Labour mis-governance. It is credit to this pairs forcefulness that they remain at the peak of their powers.

The vast majority of their countrymen and women must be left to look on in absolute wonderment at the sheer mendacity of their mental manipulations as they contrive to escape any blame for anything whatsoever, in those areas with which they were involved during their dozen or so years of orgiastic feasting on power.

Can MPs really contemplate months of hols with Pay Day loans at 1737%

A week ago today, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, to which MPs have devolved what little power remains in the country from that abnegated to the EU, decided to create yet more billions of pounds from thin air to hand to the largest banks in the land at zero cost.

Last evening, watching a TV programme on the underground railway called Crossrail, from the expiring and choked dinosaur that is Heathrow Airport to the soon to be the greed and EU and FTT destroyed wasteland that will become London's supposed new financial centre at Canary Wharf, we were frequently bombarded by childlike adverts, amongst others, to take out a pay day loan at an advertised APR of 1737%. Yes that rate is correct, I did not miss a decimal somewhere in the middle, I checked online this morning see here.

So Mandarins, Ministers and MPs should maybe think twice before taking off on their weeks of holidays. While many MPs are innumerate there can be no excuse to plead ignorance that when creating money for nothing to give as a free gift to the banks who will then charge desperate consumers, (unable to feed, clothe or shelter themselves between paydays, because of the currency devaluation, inflation and general misery brought about by the policies of successive governments,) at interest rates of 1737% APR, YOUR fellow citizens, MPs' voters and YOUR constituents are being right royally screwed. YOU will bear the blame, were I you I would refuse to quit Westminster while this outrage continues.

If MPs do depart and leaveve the growing crisis to care for itself, then I suggest they take time to run their hands round the neck of those tight collarless summer T shirts we all seem to don at this time if year - tight and uncomfortable are they not, worse still were they hemp, which surely must be what they are now quickly approaching deserving.

Here is a reminder of last week's QE announcement from Mervyn King, wasting anothe £50 Billion to now make a total £375 Billion imaginary digitally created cash, solely existing to defer the day these crooks are all brought to account! At least in the intervening six days we have identified another culprit, namely tennis loving fat-cat Sir Mervyn's side-kick, Paul Tucker!

Females & faith and Spiritual Lords in Legislatures.

This week has seen the leading body of the Church of England, its General Synod, fail to decide and agree upon whether or not to finally allow females to fill the senior positions within its church. Concurrently in the elected chamber of our parliament, MPs have torn themselves apart over the reform of its second chamber, where such Bishops still sit and vote as of right.

A planned restriction over the length of debate on the Lords reform bill had to be withdrawn by the Coalition Government yesterday, yet even that was not sufficient to quell a revolt by 91 of the members of the Commons' largest party against even the principle of Lords' Reform.

I have recently been researching the ghastly Albigensian crusades of 800 years ago, where heretics were freely burnt alive, sometimes without the slightest inquiry as to their beliefs. Studying the obscure difference in the beliefs that divided the Roman Church and these supposed heretics, it is difficult not to reach the conclusion that the real complaint was that the "Perfects" at the top of the breakaway faith were often female.

It would be self-gratifying to pretend at this distance from my own confirmation into the Church of England, that I left that church because of their similar intolerance, but that would not be strictly true, for like my peers I learned only blind tradition. More accurate as the cause of my distrust was the suspicion that the clergy attracted an odd type too prone to possibly enjoy the need to dress as female! Women clergy have hopefully now tempered that tendency.

So not considering myself a part of the Church of England I need not concern myself with their ongoing contortions over women Bishops.

That said why is my own gut reaction then to support the 91 Tory rebels over House of Lords' reform? I think it again rests partly on looking back at history. Constitutional change in England has tended to have been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. From monarch to Barons and steadily and often reluctantly from the Lords to the Commons. As always in considering the governance of Britain in the present times, we must for the moment discount from consideration the present unconstitutional powers handed to the EU, now shortly to be returned.

Power, even when transferred co-operatively, is never shaken loose easily, but when voluntarily relinquished by the powerful it serves to cement the remaining privileges of the donors.

Against that background there has been something seriously amiss in the package as presently being put before Parliament through the Commons:

1) It results from a short term political fix between two parties sharing power on a platform never put to the country's voters.

2) It denies a popular referendum when such is now commonplace on far more trivial matters.

3) Finally and most crucially, the fact that Ed Miliband, the leader of the Opposition, allowed leading Muslim MP Sadiq Khan, to appear as spokesman for his tactics, given the complicating factors in this issue of the sitting Bishops and the future role for an established church, compounding his own rather unusual non-establishment backround, tended to turn this vote into more of a revolutionary, rather than an evolutionary change to my mind - with the desired eventual power structures being allowed to determine the reforms as opposed to the self-rejuvenation from the sitting powers in a more truly English manner.

German Constitutional Court set to delay ESM for a further 3 Months

An analysis of the German Constitutional Court statement from Karlsruhe by Pater Tenebrarum on his Acting Man blog is linked from here. That comment concludes as follows:

The upshot is that definitive ratification of the ESM could be delayed by several months.The patience of financial markets will be severely tested if this is in fact the case. Moreover, other countries will no longer deem ratification an urgent matter – which could help trip the whole project up as the contraction becomes more severe and more heads of political incumbents roll.

The times will therefore remain 'interesting' (in the Chinese curse sense) in the near to medium term. Regardless of the fact that the ESM would very likely anyway not have been of sufficient size to truly alter the course of the crisis, the markets will be a tad more nervous if its ratification is held up for so long.

The effect of the ESM is the destruction of the remaining national sovereignty of Euro Group member states which has so far yet to be abnegated in accordance with the machiavellian, and IMO pure evil, Master Plan of Monnet and Schumann

Vinegar and Brown Paper for Spain!

Nine hours of Euro Group meetings again last night, this time could not even summon up a sticking plaster for Spain, and worse, it would appear, the can they have been kicking down the road seems to have entirely disappeared. The summary of their meeting, from Reuters linked below,  must surely prove that the brick wall that always lay at the end of the road for the euro is now plainly in sight, even for the dimwits who waste their hours sitting in Ecofin meetings rather than leading productive lives!

Enough pathetic analogies, the deep sickness in the heads and actions of Europe's leaders is now fully in view for all their near-bankrupt citizens to clearly see, read Reuters summary of the agreement, from here, and note the following absurdity with which it begins:

"The Eurogroup has today reached a political understanding on the draft memorandum of understanding underlying the financial assistance for the recapitalization of financial institutions for Spain, to be provided via the EFSF until the ESM becomes available and then transferred to the ESM without gaining seniority status."

A political understanding, eh - not even any temporary political agreement any more! Doom indeed!

Footnote - If you are a citizen of Europe and believe my description of you as near-bankrupt is inaccurate look at how you value your worth, think of its connection to the meaningless euro, consider your own past votes in bringing this certain result upon your own country, now decide to do something about it and demand your own national politicians bring it to a halt - nothing in Europe can get better until you do!

EU fragmentation has begun!

This blog has long predicted that fragmentation will be the biggest danger as the EU collapse accelerates. There never were any guarantee that once the EU cracked apart all countries would revert to their previous national borders, and as always in Europe, it only needs a couple of small border changes within or between countries for the destabilising effects to mushroom into a continental crisis.

Such was ever the danger with the dangerous madness that has been the EU.

The report on the fragmentation from ekathimerini is linked here, this blog's warnings are here.

Its Britain's all-powerful political parties that need reform - not the Lords

Most sanity in the legislation produced by Parliament during my politically aware lifetime has been delivered by the House of Lords. There has been little evidence during that same period of any democracy surviving within our system. For example, I have seen my own parliamentary vote stripped from me during that same period.

We are governed and almost every aspect of our lives is controlled by the political parties who alternate in power. They in turn have delegated many powers over large portions of our daily lives to faceless, non elected bureacrats in Brussels who can be relied upon to extort money from people all across Europe to be fed back to the political parties who appoint them. Meantime national politicians infest the subsidised bars and restaurants plotting and scheming to rise to the top of their own political parties so that they too can get the maximum monetary and power kick from this obscene abuse of political power.

If you do not believe this description, look at the calibre of the three men who now lead our own parties, look at how they rose to lead their parties and the systems used and the detail of their 'supposed elections'. Look carefully at what they propose for our Upper Legislative Chamber on the floor of the Commons over the next two days, namely to guillotine legislation giving their parties the right to appoint up to 80 per cent of the members of the "reformed" Upper House or SENATE!

There are dangerous elements loose in Britain's societyat present, heading that list at present are David Cameron and Nick Clegg .

Modern day trial by champions at Wimbledon

In the year 1028 in Angoulême, near which historic city I now live, the ruler of Aquitaine, Count William fell ill, having only recently returned in triumph from Jerusalem. As Richard Landes describes in his book Relics, Apocalypse and the deceits of History, in a section titled 'Unintended Consequences of Triumph: Envy, Ambition, Disaster'  as follows:

"the Count's illness was mysterious, it slowly sapped his strength and wasted him before the eyes of his people..... according to the Count's son and heir Alduin, William was a victim of sorcery. The accused women refused to confess forcing a trial by combat"

Any may read what followed from page 180 onwards from this Google Book link.

In one of the footnotes to this entire sorry story, (as first recounted by eye witness, Ademar of the Abbey of St-Cybard that lay just outside the city ramparts of Angoulême,) R.I. Moore describes these events as giving birth to an era of a "persecuting society". As such they therefore mark a dreadful moment in history,   the result of superstitions regarding the new millennium, still ongoing after almost thirty years  and the populism brought on by the hyping of relics all as described by Richard Landes in the extracts from Google books.

As our modern day Champions take to the Centre Court of Wimbledon this afternoon; I will be torn as to where to place my support being British, but thoroughly shamed at my country's chosen course during my lifetime and having seen the best example as to an alternative way lying within Switzerland, with its direct democracy and their resulting society and chosen direction. That is the rub with trial by combat, it is not the individuals taking part that determines whom you support, but the cause they represent. I am forced to support the gentlemanly Federer against my fellow Brit Murray, in spite of the long gap way back to 1936 since last we had a Wimbledon Champion, could such a gap not therefore be somehow significant? Would a Murray victory signal a change of direction for Britain, or was that perhaps delivered by the Englishman, Jonathan Marry, in the Gentleman's Doubles last evening perhaps?

Yesterday I got really cross about our cows!

(watercolour and contributory thoughts by my wife, Maggie)

I drafted out a blog yesterday about John Humphrys, milk and our cows and saved it to chew over later. I continued to seethe, changed the wording as Ed Davey bowed to his wind energy paymasters, but decided blasting off words onto a blog and sending a tweet that few people read would be useless at best and counter-productive at worst. But I know and love cows, as a pre-teen I rose every morning during weekends and school holidays, to help with the morning milking on a neighbouring farm and would not return home for breakfast until the milking parlour and its yard were properly cleaned and the cows contentedly returned to their grazing of our deep green Devonshire grass!

Whenever I pass cows in a field, happily a frequent occurrence in the part of rural France where I now live, my heart gets a lift, and I will often stop to exchange something I cannot explain that lies in the eyes and the stares of these tranquil beasts. Cattle herding in this part of France, where the Artenacian culture thrived before 2,600 BC, is a mark of mankind's gradual civilisation, to watch it disappear from our countryside to be replaced by giant dairy factories, wherever they are located, will erode not just our civilisation but our humanity. Cows give to mankind their trust, milk and beef; in return we must maintain the pastoral environment they deserve and ensure that their useful lives are passed pain free and in comfort in the countryside both species needs for the good of their souls.

I spent much time in Switzerland at one stage of my life. The Swiss pay a premium on their milk to sustain the husbandry of their cattle high in their mountain meadows and Alpine villages - one reason they have been saved from the horrors of the EU, thanks also of course to their direct democracy!

Here is a chance for we in England to make a stand against the EU. We should defy all their rules and ban the sale of non-English milk within our country. Farmers should be guaranteed a minimum milk price and comply with strict rules on the care,  grazing and winter accomodation for their cattle. Here is surely where the fight- back against the evils of the EU, the consequences of which we see all around us, and daily hear from the likes of Jonn Humphrys and his colleagues within the BBC, can begin.

I quote below my initial furious blog on this topic drafted yesterday, to forestall any email requests for details:

The Lib/Dem energy minister Ed Davey, should eventually face charges of criminal negligence for this absurd waste of 3 billions of funds at a time of supposed austerity and following yesterday's announcement of the destruction of the army and this morning's cries for help from our farmers at the destruction of cattle herding in this land, a symbol of our civilisation since the dawn of time, brushed aside by the BBC Radio 4 Today presenter, city dweller John Humphrys, now entering his scoffing and giggling second childhood of self-delusion, brought on, perhaps, by senile dementia! Read the report on the wind farms here. Rant ends.

My comment to John Redwood today on new BBC DG

I must admit to being surprised that my comment to MP John Redwood's post of this morning made it on to his website in its entirety, thanks Mr Redwood! It is in any event repeated below for my own record:

Martin Cole

Posted July 6, 2012 at 8:32 am | Permalink

The question of the long term misinformation on the EU broadcast by the BBC over many years combined with the pro-EU slant of its widely-read website is indeed a major concern.
I praised Stacey Dooley’s programme on Greece a week ago on my own blog, and her report also on BBC Three TV last evening, this time on Ireland, added to my respect for her obviously inquiring mind and refreshing ability to engage with complete strangers, particularly those of her own age group.
Both programmes show that something is still seriously amiss in the BBC Vision management structure which the new DG has up to now led, when any but the slightest passing mention of the EU seems to have been censored from these two programmes, let alone any blame being properly assigned for these present human tragedies now being daily played out in both Greece and Ireland, elsewhere almost entirely ignored by Britain’s licence funded, state propaganda mouthpiece.
I must presume from that Dooley reporting remaining away from the cutting room floor that at some point the responsibility of the EU and the Troika was made clear for the viewers, its absence from the final programmes is worrying proof that the EU propaganda programme which has distinguished the BBC over recent years, is set to continue.
What else could I have expected looking at the man, together with recalling his background and career, who made and announced the appointment, in slug-like slouch and eyes almost completely obscured by the puffiness of many decades of high living? I fear the new DG will prove a creature of Patten, who has become a prime exhibit of the kind of man who has delivered Britain and Europe to its present lamentable state

Finland, the ESM and the future of Europe

Finland is crucial to the Euro Zone group of countries as its collateral demands under the EFSF and ESM arrangements (soon to be the sole structures between EMU and its certain death) make it the only nation among the seventeen members of the common euro currency whose sovereign triple A credit rating still appears reasonably secure. Having at least one member contributing state, however small, still rated AAA, could be of profound significance to the borrowing activities of the ESM. Germany unless the ESM ratification can be successfully constitutionally challenged will soon have its credit rating at risk among the  worsening EU crash and worldwide recession so caused, Austria and Luxembourg cannot then be long behind.

Yet it is ironic beyond belief, that this very demand for Finnish collateral, results from that one country's obvious assessment that the project is certain to fail. A report from Bloomberg's Businessweek is linked here, it fails to report the earlier threat that Finland, if pushed could recall its parliament in August to halt the gaderene rush to pan-Eurozone national suicide.

After Bob Diamond revisit Lloyds - HBOS the bigger Brown scandal!

Postings from my blog may be read from here for those wishing to be reminded of this fiasco around Lloyds/HBOS.

Watching the evidence presented to Parliament yesterday by Bob Diamond, and reading again these posts points up the utter pointlessness of commenting in general and blogging in particular.

Our voices, along with probity and common sense now count for nowt!

Bob Diamond, ex CEO of Barclays, feared New Labour aimed to nationalise that bank!

There was much mealy mouthed testimony and pointless hand-wringing and platitudes over wrongdoing in the Barclays' trading room,  by Bob Diamond, before the Treasury Select Committee in the House of Commons this afternoon!

The main point of substance that came over to me was the fear at senior levels within the bank, that New Labour's dreadful set of ministers at HM Treasury and within Downing Street, were aiming for yet more bank nationalisations thus adding substance to the complaints raised by Elizabeth Beckett in her letter to the Master of the Rolls at that time, linked here, of which the following is the pertinent section 12:

I write now, in view of the danger, after the attempt of Michael Foot to nationalise banks, now being effected under the same intention, but with the camouflage of a world economic crisis, to ask your Lordship to declare the automatic assent void and illegal under the constitutional statute including that of 1795 made perpetual in 1807, 1817 and 1848 and only repealed under the automatic assent, Rogers and Walters claim the assent by convention had become automatic since Queen Anne was the last monarch to send a Bill back. In fact, William III, George III, William IV, Queen Victoria and, as Asquith well knew, Edward VII (because the Bill had been handed to him), had all returned Bills.

Memory Jogger Posts for this afternoon N° 1

Sunday 17th February 2008

Northern Rock nationalised

According to John Redwood MP, quoted in today's press, this will increase British taxpayer commitments to 100 billion from 50 billion. Darling is still mid-way through his announcement from Downing Street - what a fiasco!!!! And why on a Sunday evening???

posted by Martin at 4:23 PM 0 comments

Comment 4/7/12 - Northern Rock, of course, was a favourite bank (former Building Society) very active in property loans of doubtful securrity, much used by Labour Party supporters!

An American set to blow Britain's Establishment apart on Independence Day?

There is no doubt that the appearance of the former CEO of Barclays Bank before the Commons Treasury Committee this afternoon at 2pm London Time, will provide the biggest firework of this 4th July this side of the Atlantic. The Telegraph article stating that the blame will initially be passed to the Bank of England's P.W. Tucker is here.

At the end of this post I have pasted another posting from this blog showing that the moves in Libor and their significance were fully publicly known and their impact debtated.

This blog did not mainly concentrate on the Libor aspect of the unravelling of our financial system underway at that time of course. It also full tracked the dishonest, and more probably, the criminal activities of those Labour leaders in power at the time and their honours and wealth hungry professional mandarins. Some postings on that aspect are sometimes available from the archives of this blog. Some of the more significant ones that are not, I will try to paste from time to time this morning on this blog, with a twitter link, but without further comment.

It would be truly ironic, would it not, if the Labour Government loosening of extradition restrictions to the USA allowed us to eventually witness leading former New Labour Party ex-Ministers and others of their henchman and manipulators being carted off to the USA for US Federal criminal financial crimes and eventually serving time behind bars, where they so fully deserve to be?

Here is the other referenced posting from this blog on Libor in January 2008, others on that particular topic are among yesterday's postings:

Friday, January 11, 2008
LIBOR jitters and small businesses fears
Reuters reports jumps in the one and three month Libor interest rates signalling more financial storms ahead for sterling, read here. Meantime the pound crashes to a new record low against the euro at 75 pence following weak manafacturing figures although such activity now only accounts for 15 per cent of this once mighty industrial economy. Small businessmen are surely right to be demanding their promised referendum on the EU Treaty, a report on that is linked here.

Two Warnings on LIBOR from Ironies Too in 2008 and 2011!

Two postings from this blog proving the present LIBOR kerfuffle is all froth:

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Libor dead? Central Banks Rule? Chaos spreads!

The above posting concluded with this paragraph which makes a complete mockery of all the fake outrage in Parliament at the moment:

"There's no real term funding markets except for central banks," said Meyrick Chapman, a fixed-income strategist in London at UBS AG. "The Libor is meaningless. It's for unsecured lending and there is no unsecured lending as far as I can see."

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Pillars of western capitalism tremble!

This latter concluded with the following perfectly clear statement:

....far more worrying IMHO, implies the deliberate manipulation of Libor, which forms the basis for financial adjustments in many "real" (ie non intra-financial institutions) commercial dealings. Read here When I used it for large oil company contracts, I was assured by my financial and accounting specialists, that LIBOR was the Gold Standard of independence, is this still the case?


If Libor has been fiddled, where has trust now found a home?

"Sold a Pup" My foot Fox! - We have been deliberately betrayed and sold out!

"Sold a pup" - What a travesty of a description for the treason and deliberate betrayal and trashing of our nation, its democracy and our Parliament. All that underway for decades, due to the conspiracy for self-enrichment of our three main political parties and their most influential senior figures.

Dr Liam Fox, who resigned as Defence Minister in some disgrace, is not the man to lead the country from the shame of this almost certainly treasonable neuteringl of our politics by our politicians, mainly coming from the Conservative Party, over recent decades! The following passage from his speech on that very topic, linked here, proves that point quite convincingly:

.... there remains a strong seam of resentment running through a large part of the British people that they voted for one thing and were delivered into another. Worse, there is a suspicion that those who persuaded them to do so were all too aware of this deception. Not only were they sold a pup but they were intentionally sold a pup. 

So he knows what has happened, describes the resentment caused and then describes the end result as if we had merely been conned by some tawdry prize at a fairground hooplah stall!

No democracy, all our main public utilities in foreign hands and control, no manufacturing industry, North Sea Oil fields depleted and the proceeds from PRT and Royalties disappeared, unable to afford decent defence forces, crumbling schools and hospitals where even the smallest national decisions are made by foreigners in Brussels, and everything of importance to our nation being now subject to German veto! Some pup, what an insult of a speech.

Spanish defeat of Italy could spell doom for Monti!

Perception is sometimes everything. In the contest between Spain and Italy as to which country will deliver the final death blow to the euro currency, recent weeks have seen Spain as the front runner, yesterdays football crushing in the Euro finals could now be repeated in the bond markets.

As LIBOR has been shown to be in London, a contrived sham and politically convenient lie, perpetrated to maintain the elites in their privileged, unearned and undeserved positions of power and high living, so does the euro serve for the scum that floats on the surface of the sewage-filled and stagnant cesspit that is the EU.

The emergence of a new leader for the Northen League in Italy, replacing the scandal plagued Umberto Bossi could be the spur. The Northern League formed part of Berlusconi's coaltion government, the situation between Milan and Rome which has dominated Italian politics for decades, now mirrors the North/South split in the EU itself, a situation therefore that will prove worth watching as the European voters penchant with "self harm" that is the EU continues.

William Hague confirms the Conservative EU Conspiracy and Tory Treachery

H/T Talking Clock, Muffled Vociferations.

WATCH HIS EYES TO FEEL THE LIES!

The Libor scandal in the City is as nothing compared to the lies and conspiracy engaged in by Conservative Party politicians in recent years. That is where a new type of Leveson Inquiry should begin!