French PM Fillon wins confidence test by 100 votes

A report in french in Le Figaro is here, the Prime Minister re-asserted France's commitment to the EU and forecast growth of 2% next year.

It is not just Cameron and Clegg therefore, sleepwalking towards the abyss!

One quote from other morning press reports I skipped over this morning was the description of the Irish brutal austerity package as a sticking plaster over the gaping wound in the EU, or words to that effect.

David Prosser in the Independent, here, points out that the EU bank stress tests that took place in the summer meant nothing. That is why the Euro is now worth nothing, because the fact that it is solely based upon lies is daily becoming clearer to all!

Will the debt crisis now pass through Portugal, Spain, Italy and then on to France and the UK, will France seek relief by being absorbed into Germany? How will Britain cope with an austerity package similar to that unveiled yesterday in Ireland which will certainly be necessary?  These are the questions of the moment, as usual the UK MSM is elsewhere waffling about happiness indices and investments in high speed rail links for people with nowhere to go as they have no jobs to fill!

Happy Thanksgiving to my readers from America! Gobble gobble!

Clear signs that the Irish bail-out is already sunk!

Last week it was noises off from Austria that forewarned the Greek government that the next tranche of EU money would be delayed. This week it was the Finnish government who first gave the clue that the Irish bail-out was far from being a done deal, by demanding continued ECB support as a necessary first step, read here. Ironic really when considering it is a Finn, Commissioner Olli Rehn setting down the ground rules for Ireland's total economic subjugation in the name of the very banks the ECB has wasted billions in trying to support.

An earlier clue to the fact that the IMF/EU rescue package had already been doomed came yesterday morning, when the package supposedly having been agreed was torpedoed well below the waterline and with devestating effects by the man who negotiated the details on behalf of the IMF, Ajai Chopra, read here.

Why would the person who had negotiated a rescue package, hoping for support for the deal in the Irish Parliament and understanding amongst the general public over the coming two weeks at that moment go public with a call for reductions in dole payments and a cut in the minimum wage? Only one suggestion comes to my mind and that is that he had exceeded his authority in the negotiations and intended to incite the other side to renege on the terms and thus save his own position to the already severely strapped Board of the IMF.

Lastly, of course, we have the fact that no details of the deal became available during yesterday. No date was set for a meeting of the Euro Group Ecofin whose agreement would be required.

On top of all that as the day went on Spanish interest rates rose, Portuguese credit guarantees grew ever more expensive and the German Chancellor, on whom the EU and the world looked for action, could only publicly wring her hands and declare it was all "exceptionally serious".

The revised budget for Ireland is due to be published today, whether it eventually passes into law or not next month, my guess is that the IMF/EU rescue package will not arrive. The now relatively small amounts available to the EU Group under the supposed shock and awe package agreed last May must now all be hoarded for Spain!

French publication accuses Chancellor Merkel of terrorising the markets!

The headline, albeit in French is readily understandable in English, read here.

The conclusion to the same article may need some translation however, my version is as follows:

"In effect she has already made effective across the eurozone, and on the markets a model of 'centralised economic government'. Pay attention, it is on the German model."

Reuters gives a good summary of the ongoing chaos in Ireland, linked here, while Bloomberg TV this morning had an interview with a very senior Rothschild - bondholders must be getting fearful over a possible future shearing (haircut no longer seems an accurate term for the likely coming procedure!)

EU threatens Irish voters

The Irish Times has the report, linked here, from which comes the essence in these quotes:

While it is the practice of European authorities not to comment on the internal politics of member states, three well-placed sources said it was clear it would not be possible to agree a bailout programme with a caretaker administration.

“From our perspective, it is important that the Government is able to represent Ireland in the talks,” said a senior source.

“It would be very unpleasant if there was nobody to talk to. That would be very irresponsible.”

To bring down the Government at this point would make a difficult situation much worse, the source added.

EU officials, spokespeople, Commissioners and MEPS must soon learn that without the consent of the voters of the former nation states of Europe they are nothing and are owed nothing. While at the site of the Irish paper take the time to enjoy the cartoon, linked here, which appears on the front of the print edition this morning and illustrates the hapless Irish leader torn between the EU and the IMF.