Saturday, December 31, 2011

Are Golliwogs behind the latest Tory confusion over the EU?

Was it a veto or not, is it a referendum lock or not? The British Conservative Party leadership has been clueless over Europe since they removed Margaret Thatcher for not handing the nation to the EU.

Roger Helmer looked as if he had played a blinder last October, when he resigned as an MEP for the Tories, for while 2012 seems unlikely to yet bring physical violence against sitting MEP's in the UK, as seems a danger for 2012 elsewhere in the EU, having quit in 2011 could well prove the smartest move of recent times for any involved in the particular expenses, pensions and perks gathering racket that has been the European Parliament over the past years!

Guido Fawkes stirred things up about this indecision, earlier today, by suggesting it was all connected with the latest plan to feminize the Tories, as I reported below, but now, more mundanely, it appears from this report from the BBC, that the delay is caused by another one of the modern Cameroon Conservative's concerns - Golliwogs! A quote:

Under the Conservative Party's constitution, Mr Helmer's seat will be offered to Rupert Matthews, the candidate who was next on the Conservative Party list for the East Midlands at the 2009 election.

On Wednesday, the Tory party in Westminster said it was continuing to look into reports that golliwog dolls featured on the front cover of a book published by a company of which Mr Matthews is a director.

If I was Mr Helmer, or indeed any other sitting MEP, I would not let these things drag on for too long into the New Year, when the National Politicians start pointing fingers, as the economic crisis worsens, having stood down might be the one and only decent defence for the sycophants of Strasbourg!

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Tory MEP resiles from resigning at moment of midnight!

Guido Fawkes carries the news that Roger Helmer will not now be resigning. I wonder if he will soon be wishing he had?

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How Germany removed the Italian Government

This linked article, from the Wall Street Journal, has much detail previously undisclosed, on the unfolding of the Euro crisis over the past year; today rhankfully closing, which is a must read with some telling graphics, linked here.

What Europeans must now ponder is where they can go next, their leaders having so comprehensively proved themselves incompetent, blind and arrogant over so many years and having followed a false dream and obvious illusion for so many decades, so that every level of public service now seems occupied by brain-washed fonctionaires incapable apparently of discerning common sense from crass stupidity!

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Friday, December 30, 2011

Spanish problems slowly revealed!

Spain announces, lowered growth, larger deficits, surprise tax hikes and further spending cuts. The new government then departed for the New Year Holiday weekend. Reuters detail.

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Der Spiegel exposes the EU's Euro Lies. Mass resignations required!

The article is here. Visit the page where you can see the horrendous graphic of the present capital requitements of the EU's banks, if you have not such time then consider the following quote, with facts constantly spelled out on this blog for two long years, but now from Germany, the ultimate payee country itself:

Simply put, without a common currency, Greece's problems wouldn't have spilled over into Spain and Italy. And, without this risk of contagion, politicians and central bankers wouldn't be staggering from one crisis summit to the next, ever driven by the fear that the currency union might break apart.Without the euro, Greece could recover more easily. It could devalue its currency and thereby make its national economy competitive once again.

Indeed, without the euro, Greece wouldn't have ever gotten into this calamitous situation in the first place. The fact that it was a member of the currency union was the only thing that allowed the country to borrow money at such favorable rates and get itself up to the neck in debt.

The article, even then goes on into a second part, to admit that the entire bail out procedure for Greece has been an illusion! Again exactly as this blog has been drumming on about day after day, week after week, month after months after years! Another quote:

With debts amounting to 150 percent of GNP, Greece is de facto bankrupt. Over the course of 2011, even the leading representatives of the euro zone finally accepted this fact -- after having claimed its opposite a year previously.

This explains why the first bailout package for Greece was, to put it mildly, based on an illusion.

So serious financial fraud has been perpetrated against the people of the EU, as long alleged by this blog, mainly from the meeting room of the Heads of State in the Council of Europe, from which the appointed President of the Council, Herman Van Rompuy now has the gall to send out New Year Greetings and suppose a happy future for his new grandaughter, one of the new generation, he and his fellow tricksters have quite deliberately openy robbed. This gut wrenching performance is on video linked from one of the other posts made below earlier on this blog this afternoon.

How the Heads of State and political leaders of the EU member countries can sit in their palaces and chancelleries of Europe this coming weekend and celebrate the new year, is quite beyond me - they should instead be preparing to resign en masse!

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Thatcher and the death of democracy from the ECB



Extracts from Maggie Thatcher's final Commons speech, at 2 minutes 30 seconds in to the video, record her contempt for the proposed ECB. Contempt now too clearly proven fully justified!

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Ten years of failed money - The Euro

Reuters has a report of the disaster that is the Euro with several of the culprits offering their explanations, read it from here.

In the UK we must look to removing those traitors who replaced Thatcher and thus allowed our country to be swamped by the EU, to become what it is today:

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Von Rompuy as Zeus


Le Zeus Van Rompuy kidnappant la démocratie 

Hear the totally shameless man himself. Herman Van Rompuy, here addressing the disenfranchised people of the EU, from the very place where the plots against their former democratic rights and one time prosperity are steadily anf progressively destroyed in secret!

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ECB Balance sheet.


H/T Acting Man

Their conclusion on collateral:
We will soon find out whether the ECB's recent measures on expanding the pool of eligible collateral will indeed have the desired effect. It is clear that for weaker banks in the euro area the decision to allow the pledging of 'other credit claims' held on the balance sheets of commercial banks could be a life-saver. Unfortunately this also means that inefficient institutions won't be weeded out, but instead will continue to be a millstone around the economy's neck.

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3 High-Profile MEPs question basic concept of the Fiscal Compact Treaty.

The MEPs, Guy Verhofstadt, Elmar Brok and Italian socialist MEP Roberto Gualtieri have queried the referral of member states to the ECJ, 'in a document seen by The Irish Times, they question the proposal to give member states the right to take action in the European Court of Justice against countries that do not introduce a “golden rule” binding them to run balanced or surplus budgets and to limit their national debt.
“At best it is questionable whether it will work; at worst it will pitch member states against each other, which will be the start of the end of the union,” said Liberal group leader Guy Verhofstadt, a former prime minister of Belgium.'

The entire Irish Times article, may be read from this link.  Clear signs that the real intent of the EU Parliament will be to kill the whole treaty stone dead (deficit financing being the lifeblood for this den of drooling and corrupt vampires) comes in the final paragraph of the newspapers article as follows:

The MEPs say the treaty should automatically lapse after seven years and that participating governments should move within five years of its enactment to integrate its provisions into the existing EU treaties.

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Ottermouth Haven

1949 - Ode to the Welfare State

H/T Acting Man




















The time when Europe will run out of cash has arrived!

In 2012 people will notice.

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Some questions for EU fanatics of the BBC from John Redwood.

The following is an extract from John Redwood's Diary, linked here:


Why not interview the enthusiasts for the Euro scheme and ask them how much more damage they want to do? Are they pleased to have brought the European banking system to its knees, to dependence on artificial injections of cash from the ECB? Did they learn nothing from the diaster of the ERM? Why is the Euro scheme different? Do they regret cobbling economies together that were performing so differently? Have they any idea on how to channel the German surpluses to cover the southern deficits? Was it part of the plan to create a world where the EU sends in technical administrators to distressed EU countries to put through large cuts in public spending? Did they realise they were creating a mutual austerity machine?

Do they think the industrial companies will hang around in western Europe to pay the high energy prices they impose in the name of anti global warming? Does making them conform with the growing libraries of rules help, when they can go to cheaper and easier jurisdictions to make their goods? Are they yet alarmed by the amount of industry that has decamped to Asia and Latin America?

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Harvard Economics Professor tries to explain the Euro for the French.

Professor Martin Feldstein writing in Project Syndicate, linked here, has tried to explain some of the present problems of the Euro currency for the French, whom he states " Don't Get It".

Two paragraphs set out the main thrust of his case which, puzzingly for me, seems to ignore the growing incongruities within the ECB and the mystery as to eventual liabilities for the staggering debts and worthless assets it is now accumulating:


If investors are unwilling to finance the French budget deficit – that is, if France cannot borrow to finance that deficit – France will be forced to default. That is why the market treats French bonds as riskier and demands a higher interest rate, even though France’s budget deficit is 5.8% of its GDP, whereas Britain’s budget deficit is 8.8% of GDP.

There is a second reason why the British situation is less risky than that of France. Britain can reduce its current-account deficit by causing the British pound to weaken relative to the dollar and the euro, which the French, again, cannot do without their own currency. Indeed, that is precisely what Britain has been doing with its monetary policy: bringing the sterling-euro and sterling-dollar exchange rates down to more competitive levels.

The Professor concludes with a suggestion that it is policies at home that France should be considering, (as urged on this blog) as follows:

France should focus its attention on its domestic fiscal problems and the dire situation of its commercial banks, rather than lashing out at Britain or calling for political changes that are not going to occur.

Martin Feldstein, Professor of Economics at Harvard, was Chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers and is former President of the National Bureau for Economic Research.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2011.
www.project-syndicate.org

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Wednesday, December 28, 2011

ECB worth nothing but 2,730,000,000,000 worthless euros. Is this a record for nothingness?

The ECB’s balance sheet soared to a record 2.73 trillion euros ($3.55 trillion) after it lent financial institutions more money last week in an attempt to keep credit flowing to the economy during the debt crisis. Bloomberg

Link to report.

If pounds, dollars and yen are supposedly worth a certain number of euros, can they then be worth anything too? Presumably the answer to that is - only what they are worth after you discount any euros they hold to their real value! Is that what Europe's banks have grasped? (See this blog's earlier questions posted today!)

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Is a beach bar called Built on Granite the safest place for your liquid overnight assets?

If the beach bar was of rotting plywood and in plain disrepair, barely standing between the low and high water tidal marks, on clearly shifting sands, angled and tilting above a similarly rotting wooden deck but named "Solid as Rock" and a sign trumpeting  "Under the new management of Signor Draghi" together with further blazoned assurances of previous good management by a Monsieur Trichet formerly of Credit Lyonaise, would you still deposit your valuables, behind the bar for security, before departing inland for the night?

Such is what European banks are reportedly doing in record amounts, see the report from Nasdaq, linked here.

What a strange world we live in when security is sought from what appears to be one of the biggest confidence tricks and clearest charades of all time!

See also my first posting of this morning, beneath this, with a similar pertinent question!

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If I was called Mr Fabulously Wealthy, would you lend me all I wished for Luxuries?

Just because the ECB calls itself the European Central Bank does not mean it is good for money it raises. Would other Central Banks, all backed by their long-suffering and serf-like tax-payers, lend funds to the Lunar Central Bank, or given the presence of bacteria on a planet such as Mars the Bank of Mars. We should all hope not!

Why therefore do Central Banks back the ECB, when Europe has neither taxpayers nor demos, and few taxpayers will soon be elsewhere solvent across Europe to be found to be willing to ever back it, as the EU is disbanded and trodden into the dust of history to be  hopefully quickly forgotten and completely unmourned?

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Tuesday, December 27, 2011

French Government, through EDF, set to grab more of Italy's power generation!

Large parts of Britain's old Central Electricity Generating Board have long since disappeared into the maw of the German and French utility companies such as EDF, due mainly to the longstanding treachery of our own politicians such as Nick Clegg.
In Italy, at least, they first had to remove the people's elected representatives and appoint the puppet Monti governments before being able to grab a controlling share, read here.

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BBC declares Nigel Farage as Top of YouTube Pops

The quote from the BBC page is as follows:


Mr Farage has amassed 2.6 million views for his top five clips posted on YouTube, all of which are outspoken speeches in the European Parliament.
The speech in which he likened the new president of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, to a "damp rag" and claimed no-one knew who he was - a tirade for which he was later fined and forced to apologise - has been watched nearly 865,000 times.
In other clips all viewed more than 350,000 times, Mr Farage takes Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy to task and suggests the "game is up" for European integration.

This blog regularly carries these populer clips, a more recent one with both Dan Hannan and Nigel Farage is here:

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Treasures from the threads - Number 70 "Monti as PM a sick joke".

An article in the Washington Post, linked here, on the struggle ahead of Italy attracted this fully justified attack:


blert
3:28 PM GMT+0100
Calling Mario Monti a "prime minister" is some kind of sick joke. How can an unelected technocrat be appointed leader of a supposed democracy?

Monti may have the power to alter Italy's economy, and he may have the backing of Brussels, Germany, and others who are now pulling the strings in Europe, but pretending this man is a prime minister or that he is anything other than a pawn is downright Orwellian.

One would have hoped that a newspaper published in Washington DC might have known better, and not thus provided its unspoken assent to the machinations now underway in the EU.

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Clegg set to extend his EU treachery.

The Deputy Prime Minister and EU plant at the heart of the government is preparing to further his efforts to ensure this country loses what little autonomy it still retains.

The London Evening Standard is reporting this afternoon, linked here, that Clegg plans a meeting " of liberal-minded ministers from other European states in London on January 9 to build common ground." Thereafter he plans to take the campaign to the European mainland itself, where Clegg has always clearly felt more at home!

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Athen's Olympics contributed to the Greek Financial Collapse

In an ominous warning for London on the eve of the 2012 London Olympics year, already likely to see the collapse of the Euro common currency and widespread recession and depression across the world, a report in the Greek press today sounds an ominous warning.


The 2004 Olympic Games in Athens did aggravate the Greek debt to an extent, the head of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, said in an exclusive interview with Kathimerini.
“You can fairly say that the 2004 Games played their part. If you look at the external debt of Greece, there could be up to 2 to 3 percent of that which could be attributed to the Games. It could have been staged at a much lower cost, as there were delays that rendered double shifts necessary, and having people work at night does cost more,” said Rogge.


Most thinking people foresaw what was would occur in Greece after the Olympics, the same situation exsists in Britain today, yet the Coalition Government remains similarly blind to the reality of impending impoverishment.

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The importance of Ireland!

The Queen made much of the importance of the changed relations between Britain and Ireland in her Christmas message to the Commonwealth. This will be further emphasised by the Prime Minister in an interview with the Irish State broadcaster RTE today. Just how important can be gleaned from the article linked here from the Irish Times today. It is titled "Schäuble adamant about EU tax on financial transactions"

In the coming battle for our countries to regain their democracy and autonomy, we will need to stand as equal partners with Ireland one inside the construct planned to be formed by the proposed fiscal compact, and the other without!

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Monday, December 26, 2011

The Steelyard & German gains from 10 years of the Euro.

There is a good assessment of the gains made by Germany in the economic sphere following ten years of the circulation of euro notes and coins, this morning in AsiaOne news, linked here. Some quotes:

"With a single currency zone, all the uncertainties about exchange rates (within today's eurozone) disappear," Henrik Uterwedde, deputy director of the Franco-German Institute in Ludwigsburg, pointed out.

For Germany's car industry which boasts heavy hitters such as Daimler, BMW and Volkswagen, this has certainly been good news.

Since the euro was introduced, German carmakers have saved between 300-500 million euros (S$500-850 million) annually on transaction costs, according to Juergen Pieper, analyst at German bank Metzler

Ferdinand Fichtner, economist at the Berlin-based DIW economic institute, highlighted the importance of the eurozone as a marketplace for German goods.

"About 40 per cent of its exports are destined for the eurozone and 20 per cent for the rest of the European Union," he said.

It is somewhat surprising, given the substantial nature of these gains, the dangerous games the German government seems recently prepared to play with the underpinnings of the common currency, which is why a research on the history of the Hanseatic League, provides such fascinating reading over this holiday period. Here is the Wikipedia entry on the Steelyard, the German factory in London, eventually removed by Queen Elizabeth the First, in 1598, predictably re-opened by James I, but never subsequently regaining its same power or influence.

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

The Queen's Speech

Merry Christmas to All

I wish all who visit this blog a very merry Christmas.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

German trading practices from the Hanseatic League.

I have selected a quote from a book written in 1889, long before the two world wars and during a period of great pro-German feeling in Victorian Britain. (As proof see W.T. Stead's Europa, 1899 link here). In so doing I hope that this account of what occurred in Bergen over hundreds of years will not be put down to war induced jingoism. Significantly the Norwegians have sensibly remained out of the EU since the people overturned the entry terms negoiated by their leaders!

The book titled "The Hansa Towns" was written by Helen Zimmern, first published 1889 by T. Fisher Unwin, London and republished by Elibron Classics 2005 Paperback version ISBN 1-4021-8483-2. I am quoting from Chapter IV on page 137:


Their purpose, simple enough in conception, was carried out with a disregard of other claims than their own, and often a violence which made them encounter resistance, and which in the end was largely the cause of their fall.

The political agitations and confusions which disturbed the Scandinavian kingdoms early in the fifteenth century were astutely utilised by the Hanseatics, who, having their settlements at Bergen and Scania, were able to keep out the Dutch and the English, then just attempting to begin a rivalry with them in the northern trade. The Dutch were easily disheartened. Not so the English; and we read of instances in which the Hanseatics and English acted towards one another with a savagery which proves that commercial rivalry can excite hearts as bitterly and furiously as poltical or religious fanaticism.

No matter at what cost, monopoly the Germans were resolved to have, and they succeeded in forcing the kings of Denmark to place an interdict on English trading. This prohibition corresponded to another that they had extorted according to which all merchandise coming from the extreme end of the Norwegian kingdom was obliged to pass through Bergen. The purpose of the latter regulation was to concentrate all the productions of the country at a single point; thus offering to the Hanseatics the first refusal of goods, and a power of dominating the market.

Indeed nowhere did their imperious and self-seeking policy show itself in a less amiable light than in the dealings of the Hansa with the poor inhabitants of Norway's sterile coasts. The history of their factory at Bergen is from its earliest foundation the history of a relentless despotism, disfigured by violence and breach of faith in treaties.



There is of course more, much more, too much so for quotation here. Further reading online is possible from another source online, pages 237 to 243 linked here.

What we should learn from this history should be obvious. So mis-educated and confused are the leaders of our political parties, however, that I am not yet sure that even now they have seen it! Even after what has happened to Greece over two long years, the fate of its democratic government; Portugal, the broken people of Ireland and now the removed elected Government of Italy. It follows a pattern, if European countries with their land borders refuse to see it, we in Britain should, buy the book I have quoted above, read the difficulties we had in removing the Germans from the site where Cannon Street station now stands, read the draft treaty prepared after the 8th/9th December EU Council meeting, linked here, consider this passage, repeated from above "... breach of faith in treaties"!

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Friday, December 23, 2011

Winding down to Christmas.

Cameron's EU Confusion by Reuters

An interesting report on the mess that may well reflect the chaos that is apparently inside Cameron's head is linked here.

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Re-creating the Hansa with the EU Fiscal Compact

The following quote I came across is of interest, the article is linked here it tellingly ends as follows:

The Hansa had fulfilled its great historic mission. It had impressed the stamp of German culture upon the North; given German commerce the supremacy over that of all other nations; protected the northern and eastern boundaries of the empire at a time when the imperial power was impotent and the State disrupted; and maintained and extended the prestige of the German flag in the northern seas. Said a great German writer: "When all on land was steeped in particularism, the Hansa, our people upon the sea, alone remained faithful to the German spirit and to German tradition."

Are we today seeing an attempt to recreate the Hanseatic League, which sometime took trading ventures and turned them into instruments of oppression? The story of the people of Bergen should be read by all contemplating signing up to the treaty proposed on the 8th/9th December 2011, at the EU Council Summit.

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Irish Referendum Comments on Fiscal Compact Treaty

"We have journeyed to you, comrade Stalin, as our great friend in order to report our consideration on the course of events in Poland and check on the correctness of our evaluation of the political situation in our country."

Boleslaw Bierut, President of Poland in 1946 
 

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77% of Institute of Directors want LESS EU

The poll results reported in the Daily Mail this morning prove Britain's businesses do not support the manipulations of Clegg, with 85% believing the EU measures at the 8th/9th EU summit would solve the crisis and only 19% believing PM Cameron was wrong to reject joining the Fiscal Union. The link to the report on the poll's findings is here.

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Winding down for Christmas





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World's illegal immigrants may enter EU through Greece

The EU has banned repatriation of illegal immigrabts to Greece, if that is their country of first entry to the EU, as Greece cannot afford it, read here.

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London Evening Standard reports Clegg splitting the Coalition

Downing Street is reacting coolly to attempts by Liberal Democrat leader Clegg to sign Britain up to the EU Fiscal Compact, read here.

Cameron as he has proven time and again, cannot be trusted on the EU.

The Fiscal Union will be the final destruction of this country's soevereignty, independence and democracy. Selling out so that the City's taxes can be spread for the benefit of Clegg's continental allies and relatives was not why David Cameron was elected to lead the Conservative Perty, especially as he succeeded on a strong anti-EU campaign and promise to quit the federalist European Peoples Party.

Conservative Party members have a particular cause to impress upon the Prime Minister that "playing down" this treaty matter will NOT do!

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Hanseatic League /Battle of the Bulge/EU Fiscal Compact

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The Still Enduring Evil of the EU and its Euro Currency.

Nine years ago today, I posted on the Financial Times discussion forums on the topic of "Will the stronger euro hurt eurozone recovery"

"As to the long term outlook for the Euro, I remain in the extreme pessimist camp, however it could survive for many decades in a pan-european, autocratic, siege-economy superstate with foreign travel restrictions and rigid controls on personal liberties and freedom of movement. But why wish for that, let the Euro die speedily and lets get on with enriching our lives with all the great things the continent of Europe still has to offer."

It is almost as if Euro Group leaders have dug out that post and with their proposed new treaty and actions in Greece and Italy are following it to the letter as a blueprint rather than the warning intended!

Yet there is more, for later that same day, nine years ago today, I also included the following paragraphs in a posting to the same forum as follows:

"Eurosceptics as we realists are repeatedly called wish for an equally happy and prosperous continent as those of you who write as if all virtue flowed from the EU and its institutions. Because we disagree about the route to travel does not mean we cannot agree on the destination.

Similarly, to report on something happening does not mean one either welcomes it or willed it. When I earlier predicted Eurozone stagflation and possible recession I was pilloried. Now it has occurred I am accused of having willed it upon the economies involved.

My hope is for a prosperous Europe where individual freedoms and liberties remain unthreatened for all its citizens. I question whether the path we are on will take us to such a destination.

As things are now deteriorating so rapidly it is occasionally tempting to take refuge in the 'worst is best' scenario I used some weeks back. The fact that I can still be plunged into almost total despair over such idiocies as Friday's fisheries agreement without clutching that straw, demonstrates that I have not totally lost faith in Europe coming to its senses.

Ther touching speech by the Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen at the conclusion of the European Council's Enlargement summit just over a week ago, was almost enough to make one weep, such obviously sincere misplaced idealism from a seasoned politician of a small country. Boy! Is someone going to enjoy having Denmark for lunch, if they keep electing leaders like him!"

A good account and enjoyable read of the long road to our present sorry state is also on John Redwood's Diary blog today, linked here.

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Clegg plotting with Germany to overturn Cameron's NO on Non-EU Treaty!

The Sun scoop is linked here. An editorial from the same newspaper is here, also from the same source Open Europe. The newspaper rightly predicts:

"If the PM did sign a new treaty it would spark fury from Tory Eurosceptic MPs."

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Why does Clegg wish to remain Deputy PM of a "Pygmy Country"?

Lord Tebbit in his Telegraph blog this ,morning turns his attention to the shallow opportunist who remains, for the time being, the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, it is linked from here. It concludes that Clegg is worse even than was John Prescott, but for me this passage carries the essential facts on Clegg:

One has to start by trying to understand Mr Clegg. He is British by passport rather than much else. He describes himself (accurately) as European rather than English. He sneers at the country of which he is Deputy Prime Minister as a "pygmy country".

The question posed in the penultimate paragraph of Lord Tabbit's quote, should be one the whole country should be able to ask, with a referendum being urgently provided for their response, just as promised by Mr Clegg in April 2010, as I posted and linked on this blog yesterday:

So we might ask our Deputy Prime Minister: "What about the Eurocrats?" Are they not a closed society in which power is entrenched in the hands of an unaccountable elite? Indeed, so much power that they have recently carried out coups d'état against the elected governments of Greece and Italy.

H/T Witterings from Witney

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No Mea Culpa from Sir Gus O'Donnell

The man who, one imagines, slimed his way to head the Civil Service and take responsibility to preside over 44,000 civil servants as they devised devious tricks and absurd regulations to utterly destroy the decent underpinnings of Britain's society, offers no apologies for his actions in a long article in the Daily Telegraph this morning.

On the BBC Radio 4 news bulletin at seven am this morning his words were reported fittingly alongside a report on the utter collapse of the country's adoption system, which the Guardian also reports as follows:

According to the latest government statistics, children wait an average of two years and seven months before being adopted, while this process takes more than three years in a quarter of cases.

Potentially suitable adoptive parents are often turned away because they may not be the right ethnic match, are overweight or may have smoked.

O'Donnell, see Wikipedia here, was born in 1952, so will only be 59 on his retirement, robbing the taxpayers of years of extra service from an individual in whom they have certainly invested huge sums of money. We will no doubt soon learn where that experience, together with who knows what valuable contacts, will be offered and taken up for hire.

The country of course will be left with his similar successors to take on the huge disaster he has left in his wake, they themselves presumably, will be mostly engaged in forming contacts so that they too may soon follow the path well-trodden by so many of the Knights whom they succeed!

Shameful indeed, I hope I will live to see them brought to account!

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Ex-Lehman Banker now in charge of Spain's wrecked economy.

Last evening I displayed a graphic of some roundabout ways fantasy money will soon find its ways to Italy, linked here, this morning we learn that Spain may well be ready to adopt similar complex manipulations with the new economy minister, Luis de Guindos, a former manager of ruined bank Lehman Brothers, being appointed as Economy Minister, in the new Government, sworn in yesterday, read here.

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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

EU Parliamentary hatred for Britain unleashed.

H/T The Boiling Frog, linked here.

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Italian Banks took almost a quarter of EU 1% fantasy funds!

The Reuters report is linked here. This image from Acting Man, linked here, might help one understand where the money might flow:


Backdoor bank bailout, Italian style: how to offload government buildings on the ECB's balance sheet and thereby ease both bank funding pressures and create a more favorable supply-demand situation for the government's debt – click chart for better resolution.

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Shouting down the truth.

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Nick Clegg, working with or for the EU?



The above first appeared in a Daily Telegraph link which concentrated on how Clegg foresaw Britain's future as permanently in the EU but with this quote:

However he said the Lib Dems, if elected, would let the public decide on the basic question of whether Britain should remain within the EU by holding a referendum when the subject next arose.

Surely he cannot pretend that the subject of the EU has not now arisen, perhaps he considers it as "disappeared" like his EU pension?

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Is Sir John Cunliffe an enemy of Britain? Clegg's pension!

Some very interesting questions are being raised in a posting from Douglas Carswell MP, linked here, not least amongst the many comments the report has already attracted, linked here. Background of Gordon Brown's EU handler, John Cunliffe is here?

Given the present situation, anybody in authority working for the benefit of the EU is clearly working against Britain's interests? Such is the weakness and false premises of the ludicrous first letter, carried by the Daily Telegraph of yesterday, linked here.

If working for the EU is still really considered to be synonymous with working for the nation's interests (ie the British interest) - then why is that the Deputy Prime Minister had the existence of his EU pension declared as no longer  existing, as now revealed in the House of Lords? (See this blog's first posting of today below.)

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ECB creates almost Half a Trillion €uros in fantasy funds for banks!

Well all of those whoever worked hard to earn and save some real money, have just seen it yet further devalued by the crooks now running the West's economies.

Read a report from Reuters linked here.

Merry Xmas Bankers, no doubt most of it is heading your way in bonuses!

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What happened to Nick Clegg's EU Pension?

The Deputy Prime Minister of the UK, Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrat Party was for many years mainly dedicated to the advancement of the European Union, as such and for that direct service and subsequently as an MEP he would have been entitled to an EU pension. Yet it has apparently, albeit unsurprisingly been magically disappeared away, (no doubt to miraculously return at some point in the future). Note the following exchange of a written question in the House of Lords, linked here:

Pensions

Question

Asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch
    To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord McNally on 15 November (WA 140), whether the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Nick Clegg, is eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission; if so, when that pension will become payable; what will be its annual amount; and whether the terms of that pension constrain his actions.[HL13632]
Lord Wallace of Saltaire: The Deputy Prime Minister is no longer eligible to receive a pension from the European Commission.

Yesterday, this agent of the EU, buried deep at the heart of the British administration, answered questions for MPs. Unhappily it appears none asked him to explain this extraordinary response to Lord Pearson's question, nor the premise for and circumstances of the disappearing of his EU pension.

H/T The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, linked here.

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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Britain's civil service corruption (continued) - HMRC.

My first post of this morning, linked here, was on the topic of our thoroughly rotten upper echelons of the civil service. As trailered therein another posting on that topic was placed on the blog Orphans of Liberty, that has been published this evening and may be read from this link.

Interestingly today the mainstream media has been much concerned about the sickening mess that is our tax officialdom, HMRC, this report from Channel 4 News, being typical, as was Jeff Randall's contribution this evening on Sky News! So far the media has concentrated on only one side of the problem - leniency for big business - the harassment and victimisation of ordinary individuals, sometimes for what can only be purely political motivations, has yet to be properly aired or investigated.

Mr D.Hartnett, the head of the dysfunctional HMRC, of which the citizens of the UK both bear the horrendous cost and I presume, live under considerable fear of, will shortly, we must mostly all hope, be brought to account.

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Czech Central Bank Governor raises doubts on security for IMF Loan

The article quoting Miroslav Singerin in considerable detail was issued at lunchtime today in Prague.

This must be the most startling disaster of recent weeks for the International Monetary Fund, which has been visibly floundering since it was weakened by the circumstances of the departure of its former French head, Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his replacement by the exceptionally light-weight former French finance minister, Mme Christine Lagarde The following quotes will provide an idea of the grave damage now being inflicted on the IMF, one of the world's two main international organisations ( with the World Bank,) for defending against the growing EU related international economic crisis:


Writing in the business paper Hospodářské noviny (HN), Singer said in a two-page article that the risks attached to the Kč 89 billion (€3.5 billion) loan had to be seriously weighed up even though the IMF could be considered “an exceptionally safe” financial institution.

Singer warned that, if agreed, the new loan would double the Czech central bank’s loan exposure to the IMF from the current Kč 92 billion to almost Kč 180 billion, or from around 12 percent of the bank’s reserves to around 23 percent of them.


“I am convinced that at a time when unprecedented doubts have been cast over what were previously regarded as certainties, such an exposure to whatever institution should be cause for reflection over the risks,” he added
.
Thus should George Osborne think again before providing more UK funds for the IMF, even under the umbrella of the G20, in today's corrupt ansd chaotic situation, nothing is what it may once have seemed, as Mr Singerin says "unprecedented doubts have been cast over what were once regarded as certainties"!

How else can Spain and Italy be contributing so much to the €150 Billion new IMF loan, everybody surmises is partly for their future benefit?

On the prospects for new funding being repaid, the newspaper reports the following:

The IMF’s cast iron, or rather gold, risk-free loans reputation was also built on an unwritten rule that it gave priority to paying back creators, Singer said. “But that priority does not have any basis in the documents related to the [bank] agreements and is based on the usual practice between members of the IMF,” he added.

If the IMF started facing problems and had to call for increased contribution, around half of the burden of stumping up more money would fall in its main shareholders, the already heavily debt-burdened Japan, the US, and Britain, Singer said.

“I am convinced that if the IMF wants to increase its means and at the same time safeguard its exceptional financial trustworthiness, it should, rather than seeking new sources of loans, concentrate on boosting its capital, which in the end would mean increasing contributions,” Singer added.

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Britain's Corrupted Civil Service.

Now that our elected politicians are finally prepared to tackle the thoroughly corrupt European Union, by which we have been controlled for decades, brought on mainly by its own imminent and obvious self-destruction, is it not also timely, with the departure of Gus O'Donnell from the Cabinet Office, to tackle our thoroughly corrupted civil service, as suggested by Douglsa Carswell MP on 11th October 2011, quoted here:

Mandarins need to have a mandate


According to twitter reports, Gus O'Donnell, the most senior Whitehall mandarin, is to quit - and will be replaced by another Whitehall mandarin.
Hang on a moment.  Even mandarins need to have a mandate.
Before we are told which Sir Humphrey is next in line to preside over the machinery of government, there must be a public confirmation hearing.
As Coalition ministers have discovered, it is these permanent officials that really decide most public policy.  All too often, elected ministers end up as mere mouthpieces for the machine.
It is people like Gus O'Donnell at the Cabinet Office, Kim Darroch on the national security council, Simon Fraser at the FCO and other semi-anonymous technocrats who really decide how this country is run.  And,in my view,who have helped run it into the ground.
Incidentally, it is precisely because we have such a smug, insulated technocracy in charge that voters are left complaining that no matter who they vote for, things rarely seem to change.
Before the next technocrat is installed to preside over us, we need to have a Parliamentary confirmation hearing. No convincing answers, no job.
Requiring senior officials to answer publicly for what they do in our name might mean that those who make public policy start to appreciate what the public actually wants.
Posted on 11 October 2011 by Douglas Carswell

There will be more on this topic, on Orphans of Liberty later, and here on this blog during the coming Parliamentary break!

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Monday, December 19, 2011

More EU blame heading towards Britain

The tone of a report based on French sourcing in the Australian press, linked here, makes pretty clear where the Euro Group are heading next. Some quotes:

The source said the aim was still to reach the 200 billion euros target set by EU leaders at a December 9 summit, despite a British refusal to stump up its roughly 30-billion-euro share based on IMF quotas.
 

During the conference call, Britain's finance minister George Osborne set down clear conditions for any eventual aid, a London government official said, adding that the British Treasury "will not contribute to anything that is only available to euro zone countries."

The British government source added: "Nor will we participate in an increase in IMF resources that only comes from EU countries without the participation of other G20 countries" outside the EU.

Britain's finance minister George Osborne refused EU counterparts' pleas Monday for a 30-billion-euro ($USUS39 billion) loan to the IMF for use in stabilising the euro zone.
 

With a conference call still ongoing just after 6:30 pm (1720 GMT), a London government official said Osborne articulated the position of the British Treasury, which was that "we will not contribute to anything that is only available to euro zone countries."
If the figures being bandied about before the conference telephone call are to be believed AND reports that the Euro Group have approved the €150 Billion in extra IMF funding are also true, then France has just upped its commitments, already enormous, by anoth €30 Billion and Germany by another €45 Billion, assuming, of course that Spain and Italy will also meet their smaller proportionate shares of these new 150 Billions of funding!

How much longer can all this complete madness continue?

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Sweden requires new IMF funding for EU be on normal IMF terms

The report from Nasdaq is here. The telphone conference call on the supposed €200 Billion new loans to the IMF amongst EU finance ministers was supposed to conclude some time ago, other news will be posted on this blog when available.

Some clarity on Britain's stance comes in this WSJ report, which states towards its close:


The IMF official said there have been efforts to persuade London to make a minimum €30 billion loan to the Fund, but following Prime Minister David Cameron's move to veto an EU treaty change at the Dec. 9 Summit, that looks unlikely.
"The U.K. understands the need to give the IMF greater firepower, but it will consider a pledge at a different forum like the G-20. The politics behind a contribution that calls on the Bank of England to be part of a euro-zone member bailout are currently prohibitive," the euro-zone official said. "We all understood that by Mr. Cameron's stance at the last summit."

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Osborne, the banks and bankrupt Britain.

The statement by George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to the House of Commons this afternoon is linked here in full!

It is not good enough! It fails to address the problems, many of which lie within the UK Treasury, his Department, as I blogged this weekend, read here. under the title "Is there sedition in the UK Treasury?"

This blog believes the answer to that question is in the affirmative. Solving the resultant near-bankruptcy of our nation will not be possible until those responsible within the Treasury and certain Banks are brought to account and our enslavement to the EU is ended. The latter lies in the hands of our partners within the Euro Group of the EU,  needless to point out, they are presently doing an adequate job of bringing that particular matter to a head.

The problems within the Treasury must be solved as the Prime Minister, David Cameron, now best sees fit. In view of the absence of proper action from George Osborne, perhaps a change at No. 11 is now well over-due.

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Mr Westerwelle - Germans, Napalm and the Euro Currency.

The German Foreign Minister, Herr Westerwelle, is at the Foreign Office in London, a report on that may be read from here. I believe it is timely to repeat a posting of mine from April 2010, linked here, neither corrected nor edited, in full, as first posted:


Saturday, April 17, 2010

Germans, Napalm and the Euro Currency

Sixty-five years ago this week 1200 Flying Fortress bombers of the US 8th Air Force dropped napalm bombs on the last pocket of German troop resistance along the Gironde Estuary and the French town of Royan. Napalm is a form of jellyfied gasoline which sticks to surfaces such as skin and burns! Howard Zinn was a bombardier in these raids and subsequently wrote extensively on this raid, much of which, with other source material, may now be read on the internet. I have been researching a book (finally due for publication next month) in this region of France for much of the past year and have been pondering the motives behind this dreadful bombing raid for many months. Within days of the raid Hitler committed suicide and the Russians were already on the brink of obtaining total and unconditional surrender. La Rochelle, just north of Royan, which hosted the U-Boat pens of Karl Dönitz, who succeeded Hitler after his suicide, escaped total destruction by surrendering after the war was over. I have been left with the only logical conclusion as to the motives that the raid was intended to send a message to the German Officer class, along the lines of "look at that of which we are capable, do not mess with us again". A tough message for free democracies to convey, but a necessary one considering that twice in the preceding thirty odd years the German officer class had unleashed bestiality and brutality across the Continent of Europe on a nowadays, thankfully, almost unimaginable scale.This terror raid was later to be followed with the atom bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, where I believe the message was also roughly the same. (Napalm had been used with devastating effect on the suburbs of Tokyo the month before, so the effects were already known). Some may question my conclusion, Howard Zinn suggests it may perhaps have been considerations of promotion in senior Air Force ranks, I doubt that, for such a raid, at such a moment, a political message must have been intended and the raid was thus launched with political intent. I probably have less problems grasping the motivations as I was born in 1944, and the history is more immediate than it would be to those of a younger age. At sixteen I served in my first oil tanker, the Chief Officer then recounted to me how he had been rescued from the freezing North Atlantic on three separate occasions having been torpedoed by Dönitz's mass murderer U-Boat Commanders, once having been plucked from a sea of blazing gasoline within inches of his life. I suspect that in 1945 he may well have been in agreement with the message the napalm attack on the Royan Pocket conveyed to the Nazi leadership, whose jackboots had lain so long upon the throat of Europe. To the West of Royan at Berneuil, in the Charente Maritime is the German Cemetry in which lie the graves of 8,342 dead German servicemen. Not all died in the war or its final raids. Some died in mine clearance others untended in a Bordeaux suburb during a post-war cholera epidemic receiving back, no doubt sometimes undeservedly, some of the hatred their comrades in arms had sown. Further west still near Limoges, at Oradour-sur-Glane 642 inhabitants of one village, men, women and children, had been massacred in cold blood by a German Panzer division yet another illustration of the terrible price innocents always must pay when others believe they know what is best and have a better way! Last weekend, it has been variously reported, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was bounced by the Presidents of France and Italy - Nicolas Sakozy and Silvio Berlusconi respectively, into agreeing to accede to requests to bail out Greece. Such an action, as has been vigorously argued in Germany throughout the past week, would apparently be contrary to the carefully crafted constitution of the German State. Furthermore, in spite of the fact that the Greek political class appears to be begging for such aid, it would be a disaster should it be provided. (A blog posting regarding the unacceptability of such action, even by the IMF, given the pension disparity between Britain and Greece is linked here). Yesterday the European Commission, issued a Press Release marked "Rapide" demanding Economic Governance for the EU to be run by the unelected Commission and the appointed EU Council President Van Rompuy. The EU is detested across the union by its own people as has been made clear in referendum after referendum. It is supported mainly by those in its pay or the inner circles of those in power in its former nation states and all their hangers-on. It is widely known as non-democratic and corrupt. Its Parliament is a mass of time-serving, expense gobbling pygmies who consistently regulate in matters they do not understand for want of anything better to do. We cannot allow the EU to impose the views of the economically strongest states on the less economically adept states, as such can only ultimately be imposed by force. Europe does not want another jackboot on its throat as ALL Europeans must now remember the price to be paid in removing it. Read all there is in the raids on Royan! Consider the German launched missile attacks on Southern England when Germany already faced certain defeat! This blog begs the good people of Germany and democrats everywhere to work to prevent a subsided, strings attached Eurozone or EU bail-out for Greece or any other of the PIIGS. Devaluation under IMF control, following Euro withdrawal, can save Greece just as it did for Argentina. The Euro is not worth saving when despotism is the certain price. The Euro, in fact cannot be saved now anyway, the economic facts are too stark. Therefore throwing away the freedoms of the people of Europe will be thus even more pointless. Instituting economic control across the EU, as demanded by the EU Commission yesterday will require force? They forget they have no consent nor any votes from the citizens of the EU!

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Kim Jong-il Dead

It is always particularly satisfying when the world has one particularly evil bastard less, just before Christmas!

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Britain and France today share a BIG 30 Billion Euro question

The recent spat between Britain and France as to which economy is the most ghastly, today gets some sensible analysis from David Marsh on Market Watch, linked here.

Serious business must resume today in the two countries respective treasuries as both nations must decide whether they must each throw some €30 billion extra down the drain, in the form of a bilateral loan to the IMF, in another vain attempt to save the doomed single euro currency. A radio report from the BBC on this will be linked here shortly. (Update: BBC is not providing a link to its 0724 GMT broadcast, Irish Times coverage on the teleconference call is here)

The IMF has historically never failed to recover funds loaned by itself to countries in trouble. The IMF, however, has never before tried to prop up a currency that cannot be devalued and does not constitute the currency of a fully sovereign state. That is the reason both Britain and France would be correct to refuse the advance of these extra amounts in the form of bilateral loans, disconnected form normal IMF funding requirements and restrictions.

Read other comment from here.

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

The bloody IIEA

Almost every web site I visit over the past two or three day has confronted me with a huge advert for something called the IIEA, clearly an EU sponsored site, which when clicked will deliver you here.

Cannot some technical whiz not find a means to remove this nuisance, it even appears on sites and blogs of usual good sense!

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Euro Zone - its 'Whole' now less than the sum of its 'Parts'!

A good article is linked here, from Seeking Alpha, written by Joe Eqcome and titled, "Why the Eurozone will ultimately fracture".

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A Canadian view of the EU split.

Harry Sterling is a former diplomat based in Ottawa, he has this column in the Calgery Herald, titled  "Britain takes a risk in jilting European Union partners".

The writer makes some interesting points but is hampered by events that have occurred since the column was written. The first draft of the proposed treaty, now in circulation and linked from this blog last evening, again from here, requiring ratification by only nine euro members, with no provision for the treaty to lapse should the remaining eight never ratify, rather exposes the motives behind the plan.

The flimsiness of the proposals and general lack or seriousness or substance, its complete absence of any terms designed to even address the existing economic crisis and the ongoing disintegration of the IMF €200 Billion loan package, together tend to drive one to the conclusion that the significance of the events of 8th and 9th December in Brussels, have been grossly exagerated.

I imagine that very soon, like so many earlier Council outcomes in the present crisis, from the Euro Group, this too will best be quickly forgotten!




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Ireland relegated to status of "Concentration Camp" & Fisheries scandal!

A columnist, James Fitzsimons, in the Irish Independent this morning, linked here, describes his oppressed country as follows:

Bowing to the superiority of its EU paymasters, Ireland has been relegated to the status of little more than a concentration camp. Oblivious to the injustice of its actions, it doles out whatever punishment its taskmasters demand for our society.

A grim warning indeed for all those who will have us continue to remain within the doomed EU.

What is written about the destruction of fisheries applies equally to Britain as it does to Ireland, a sample is here:

cannot land anything they catch. Instead they must dump their catch back into the sea, where it dies. What a waste. Dumping the catch is not the only control and it is certainly not the best one. It is something that was thought up by overpaid bureaucrats who are too far removed from our financial problems to see the stupidity of this.

Scientists may support this initiative, but that doesn't make it right. If our fishermen could sell the cod that entered their nets, they could pay tax and we would all be better off.

The entire value of illegal foreign catches should be given to the Irish State. We could use it to reduce our national debt.

Even if fishermen cannot be allowed to profit from the sale of cod, the proceeds from the catch should go to the State and our fishermen should be compensated for their costs. That would be better than what is happening now. It is criminal to destroy these valuable resources to pander to the whims of incompetent Eurocrats.

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Clegg, Treason and Xenophobia

The leader of the Liberal Democrat party and Deputy Prime Minister is reported in an interview in The Guardian, linked here, as follows:

 He (Clegg) says it is significant that the EU council has granted the UK observer status at the meetings of the new group. Equally, he is firm that Britain will not block or legally challenge the 26-strong group from using institutions such as the commission and the European court of justice. "We have made some very big steps in the last few days. If you get behind the headlines of the big domestic argy-bargy in Britain, we have signalled we are happy for them to use EU institutions.

The article was datelined Friday 16th December and timed at 18:33 GMT.  This may be significant in any enquiry set up to establish whether this known EU sympathiser has exceeded either his authority or legality, should he be found to be the individual who made such an ill-judged and legally impossible assertion.

Clegg has also named Nigel Farage and Alex Salmond in a wide-ranging attack against xenophobia (the hatred or fear of foreigners) during this weekend. I feel certain the leader of UKIP and the Scottish Nationalist parties need no help from this blog in defending their policies. Clegg, in his attack on all Eu-realists, should be made aware that sensible diplomacy involves the protection of one's country's interests against the designs of foreigners whose objectives are often the opposite. Selling out your own nation's interests for the main benefit of foreigners, is on the other hand, treason.

Eurosceptics weary of the intentions of foreigners, whose fears are now proved to have been entirely correct in recent days, would be quite correct in demanding the Deputy Prime Minister retracts for the clearly false slur against their intent and motivation!.

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Is there sedition in the UK Treasury?

Is there sedition in the UK Treasury?

December 17, 2011 No Comments
By
Sedition as used in this post’s title, I here presume is defined as follows: “ an offence that tends to undermine the authority of the state”.
My reference is a document prepared by Mark Hoban MP Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 25th May 2011, when he wrote to the Rt Hon Lord Roper on the subject of , “The future of economic governance in the European Union” on a report from the Lords Economic Committee.
This document was yesterday linked from the web site, linked here, “Talk Carswell” of Douglas Carswell MP on 16th December 2011, at 14:29 after moderation, and is also available from here. The following are a few of the points all related to plans for the Euro Group of 17 countries to join together in a block, the end result of which would certainly and in my view undeniably be, to operate against the interests of the UK, while still bound by the EU Treaties and while seeking to trade on equal terms within the EU Single Market.
“Although markets can penalise member states with poor fiscal policies with higher interest rates, which increase their cost of borrowing, the Government believes that the EU is right to improve its own sanctions regime for euro area Member States.”
“We share the Committee’s assessment that the efficacy of this regime will depend greatly on the degree of political will in the Council. However, the move towards reverse majority voting, requiring a majority of Council Member States to overturn a sanction proposed by the Commission, should help to reduce the chance of Member States at ECOFIN making political trade-offs in order to escape sanctions under the Stability and Growth pact.”
NB Here the Treasury use the crucial term “reduce”! They thereby accept that the new arrangements continue to pose that risk; therefore, they should thereafter have opposed the Euro Group moving towards enhanced economic governance, not promoted it as then became the situation!
“It was also evident that most elements of the draft Directive would not be problematic for the UK, as our existing framework already meets or exceeds many of the specified standards”
NB note again the terms “most” and “many” clearly prove that Britain will be affected by the Directive!
In the section on what is referred to in the document as the Euro Plus Pact, which has since become the framework agreement suggested be applied to the 26 Member States other than Britain as per the 8/9th December Council meeting, Mr. Hoban states the following in his conclusion:
“The single market is widely regarded as the EU’s greatest success, and the Government will be following developments closely to ensure that the UK cannot (be?) excluded from any benefits that result from measures in the Pact, such as greater liberalisation of certain measures.”
Subsequent statements from the Treasury, particularly by the Chancellor, George Osborne himself, indicate that keeping these objectives in mind as the summer, autumn and winter of 2011 progressed, did not then continue!
David Cameron has recently also addressed concerns over enhanced economic governance among the Euro Group countries, adversely affecting the UK. Since Gordon Brown first arranged the sale of Inland Revenue Offices in the UK to tax avoiding entities in the Caribbean, through to the rescue of RBS, it has been clear the UK Treasury and its full-time employees have been working contrary to the interests of UK taxpayers! Is it not time something was done about it?

(I first posted the above on the Orphans of Liberty blog last evening)

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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Limit breakers for Deficits and Debts of the G & S Pact 2000/2010

H/T Acting Man

Now read my earlier postings on the fantasy that the new treaty will be adhered to, least likely by the largest breakers of the original growth and stability pact!

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G&S Pact, The Non-EU Treaty & EFSF Presentation

Article 14, Paragraph 2, of the draft of the "International Agreement on a Reinforced Economic Union", linked here, states the following:


This Agreement shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the deposit of the ninth instrument of ratification by a Contracting Party whose currency is the euro.

EUobserver reports in an article, linked here,that the majority of French people are opposed to this Treaty. The Upper House of the French Parliament have stated they will never pass the so-called "Golden Rule". The front-running socialist candidate for next years Presidential election in France has stated he does not agree with the terms of the draft Treaty and will seek to renegotiate them.

It threfore appears likely that France will not be among the nine countries initially ratifying this Treaty, nor most probably will it ever do so!

Last evening, I posted on this blog, see here, an image of an exchange touching upon the Growth and Stability pact, that took place nine years ago. Back then I wrote, in a submission to a discussion forum run by the Financial Times, as follows:


"Events are already proving that brute force will be the only way of enforcing the terms of the Growth and Stability pact on the EU's smaller members. These latter, as can already be seen, will be the only ones to be held to the letter of the agreement."

It appears that my earlier warnings, to the effect that France and Germany, if convenient only to them, will similarly find ways around their commitments under the new Treaty, might prove unnecessary, as it now seems that they may not even have to bother to ratify it, if they play their cards craftily enough!

For more laughs (as our source Acting Man points out) during your weekend, a new version of the EFSF terms are available in a fancy presentation format linked here. Note Italy is now standing behind this fund to the extent of 19.18% of the total funding, while Spain, whose banks finally seem to be about to face the real losses of the property price collapse, read here, will meet 12.75%

Anybody else wondering how Spain and Italy can sign up to the "Fiscal Compact" by March 2012 and still meet all these commitments and obligations? Maybe they too are planning not to be among the initial nine signatories?

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US weighs risks of Europeans defaulting on IMF and Fed loans!

The Washington Post has an interesting blog item for its readers this morning, linked here.

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EU €200 Billion Bilateral IMF Loan agreed 9th Dec in Tatters

EurActiv has a thorough report on the complete shambles one week on linked here. To fully understand the level of incompetence now on open display at the highest levels of the EU, it is probably best to read the report in full, but the following selected quotes will provide the flavour and proably impart sufficient despair for what should be a festive weekend:

Germany said it had secured its €45 billion share, but made it clear that it would transfer the amount to the IMF only if countries outside the eurozone join the operation and if the Bundestag approves the operation.

The eurosceptic Czech President Václav Klaus said the country shouldn't contribute. Czech Prime Minister Petr Nečas said he opposed the €3.5 billion contribution....

In Slovakia, Jozef Kollár - a leader of the centre-right Freedom and Solidarity in the government - said he had an "overall negative" opinion of the plan....

Hungary reportedly won't contribute because it is still repaying the IMF for past bailouts....

One must wonder how it was, that while the world watched the supposedly crucial EU meeting at the end of last week, no preparation appears to have been made and the only concrete measure aimed to solve the immediate liquidity crisis now, only eight days later, lies in tatters. The longer term "fiscal compact" for the moment seems to have been equally badly prepared. There will be much more on that, both here and on Orphans of Liberty, from me over this weekend.

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Torrent of EU bad news from WashingtonPost

This blog winds down at this time, I leave you with this link, headlined as above, here.

Enjoy your weekend, the EU crisis will continue, therefore so too will we!

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Italy's purchased politicians pass placeman Monti's EU package

EU appointed Italian Premier Monti, ex-EU Commissioner, easily won the confidence vote of the EU purchased parliamentarians in the Italian lower parliamentary house, anxious no doubt, to ensure they would not quickly fall victim themselves, to the kind of penury they were so keen to pass into law at the behest of the EU appointed Monti and his cabinet of so-called technocrats.

Yesterday I posted an image from nine years ago of an exchange about the threat to democracy from the EU with quotes from Sir Winston Churchill. Co-incidentally, nine years ago today, ie 16th December 2002, I had posted about the dangers of the EU controlling police and armed forces, and suggested a scenario that could in the future be played out on the streets of a Northern Italian idustrial city. I will post the entire image at the foot of this posting, but quote here that particular paragraph as it is so strangely apt today:

"Can he not foresee a situation where unrest caused by a severe economic crisis, bringing protesters on to the streets of say some North Italian industrial city, gets so out of hand, that the local police and carabinieri and maybe even the the Italian army (possibly because of feelings of sympathy with the protesters) are unable  to restore order, that it might not be contrived that the then Italian prime minister might feel compelled to call for help from the ERRF ie Frans wonderful EU police force. Especially as the policies causing the unrest would have been drawn up and enacted by Brussels, possibly even, without Italian consent...."


(Emphasis added to the last sentence by Ironies Too blog editor 16/12/11)

Who would or could have guessed, only nine years ago that Italy and Greece would today have EU appointed prime ministers, both former high-ranking eurocrats, with their countries' economies almost entirely destroyed by their own EU policies? Here is my full postinng from the Financial Times Forum of only nine years ago today!


The picture I drew for Italy at some distant future point, now looks positively benign compared to the stark reality. Never forget that all this accords with the longstanding EU project masterplan - consolidation of centralised power through crises!

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Feltham turnout of 29% is poke in the eye for our Parliamentary porkers

Only 29 per cent of voters turned out to vote this week for a by-election in a Westminster constituency, once the main law-making chamber of a free and democratic country ruled by its own law. Read here.

29% speaks volumes on exactly what the already elected political classes have inflicted upon our parliamentary democracy. Who would wish to associate themselves with a process that creates brain dead, green-leathered expense-blowing couch potatoes, beholden and subservient to Brussels? Look how they spent yesterday, from Hansard linked here, and that before departing on an extended Christmas holiday, while the worst financial crisis for decades, caused by their abdication of authority and legislative power to foreigners in the EU, swirls all aound the heads of the people across the country.

It is a miracle that as many as 29% of potential voters could be found to vote another complete and utter waste of space and taxpayers money to join all the others at the trough.  If you see one in your constituency over the holiday season (unlikely as thay will probably be on the ski-slopes or a palm-tree fringed beach,) try pointing out some simple home truths! Explain that seven out of ten voters now prefer to stay away from their kind!

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Ireland - PIIGS Pin-Up suffered 1.9% growth fall in 3rd Quarter

The bandits of the EU have liked to point to Ireland as an example of the success of their colonisation capmpaigns disguised as Bail Outs. They will struggle to continue to do so after these growth figures from Ireland, read here.

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French Finance Minister Baroin joins attack on Britain's economy.

France 24 has the report, together with much of Britain's MSM, linked here.

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EU Danish Presidency 2012

The web page for the Danish Presidency is now active, linked here.

Unhappily, in the press conference, live here, the further greening of the EU was mentioned as one of the main areas for activity.

The press questions are underway, I will update here later if surprisingly anything of the remotest concern to EU citizens arises!

One question was on the lack of openness in EU proceedings and democracy in general. The very young Dane, (Update - apparently one Nicolai Wammen Danish Europe Minister) who apparently will chair many of the meetings, talked of "Trust" in his response stated citizens were not concerned about procedures but only the results. Arrogance triumphant and shamelessly flaunted!

"Will Denmark have a referendum on the Fiscal Compact?" was another interesting question put. The reply was that the 9th December agreement? will be handled by Von Rompuy not the Danish Presidency and Denmark itself has not decided and will not until it sees the whole package. At least he seemed aware thatDenmark holds a Euro opt-out, which he specifically mentioned which was mildly encouraging!

At 1212 CET  the participants adjourned to a buffet, no austerity there then!

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Treason (continued) France gloats.

Giant French and German companies, usually run hand in glove with their Governments, including in particular energy and water utilities, cement manufacturers etc., have with the active connivance of bent British politicians, seized control of vast swathes of the British economy over recent years under camouflage of the Common Market and later the EU.

Now they seem able to gloat, witness yesterdays attack by the head of the Banque de France and member of the Governing Council of the ECB, Christian Noyer, read here. Worse their broadcasters seem to be enjoying our plight and broadcasting the results in English:



It is our British politicians and traitors we must now bring to account, the better for the truth behind our impoverishment to be fully revealed and thus reversed!

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Dutch to splurge €17 Billion on doomed Euro currency!

Soon all our near neighbours will be non-democratic and bankrupt. The announcement in the Dutch Parliament yesterday seems to have been accepted as a virtual fait accompli by the Dutch, read here!

I first heard these reports yesterday afternoon, but could find no link so left the grave news unreported on this blog. The report concludes as follows:

Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad reported on Thursday that the opposition Labour Party - the second largest party in the country - would support the deal even though it considers the agreement weak. MP Ronald Plasterk labelled it a "rotten construction".
Backing from the Labour Party was crucial as Geert Wilders' Freedom Party - which supports the minority conservative and Christian Democrats coalition government from the parliamentary backbenches - voted against the package. The Socialist Party also rejected the IMF deal.

It seems clear self-governance has already ended in Holland, after all would any free and independent people living in a democracy, vote for a structure or organisation which has imposed this oppression on a supposed trading partner and ally, and devote 17 Billion of whatever currency in the same cause? No wonder one Dutch MP called it rotten, the surprise must be there were enough of the opposite view to push such scurrilous wasted through!

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EurActiv confronts the prospect of an Irish referendum on euro's continuation.

The article follows a press conference in Paris held by the Irih Minister for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, linked here.

Reading between the lines and combined with other background on Ireland which I linked twice from this blog yesterday it seems clear that Ireland will not be signing up for the fiscal compact, non-EU Treaty. Discounting France and Germany, I would put Britain, Czech Republic, Hungary and Ireland in the non-signatory side, with Denmark, Finland and Sweden as doubtfuls. So the Euro countries joining France and Germany presently stands at 13 (including Greece, if it can still be considered a nation by signaing day, read here,) while the non-euro countries will probably fall to zero.

Island nations generally, will be unlikely to be able to contemplate the complete handing of their sovereignty to continental powers, so Malta and Cyprus will surely soon fall away, thus it is possible to imagine that the balance of numbers will soon appear very different from the EU flaunted 26 versus 1!

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RIP Christopher Hitchens 1949 - 2011

“Beware the irrational, however seductive. Shun the 'transcendent' and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don't be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do not live for others any more than you would expect others to live for you.”
Christopher Hitchens              Wikipedia

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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Czech Republic and Hungary effectively rule out joining "Non-EU Treaty"

So now France and Germany have only twenty-two countries ready to join them in their so-called "fiscal compact", or non-EU Treaty as this blog has dubbed it pending a proper title. Perhaps the Treaty that Never Was, will be the most apt come the New Year?

The Wall Street Journal report on the Hungarian and Czech decision is linked from here.

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