Our way on a referendum or the Hellenic highway out!

"There's your answer, George!", says Evangelos

Not content with berating George Papandreou on his chancy referendum, the dynamic duo, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, now say he can only have one line in the proposed referendum. That is "Does Greece stay in the Eurozone or leave it?". Nothing about bailouts or bossy foreign leaders. Of course, the Greeks do have a lot to blame for this themselves. Never very good at balancing the books, they profess loyalty to the idea of being in the Eurozone but have little understanding of how to spend or save euros judiciously. And now the referendum hangs in the balance as the Greek parliament decides on whether to give Papandreou a vote of confidence. Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos has given George Papandreou's plans for a referendum on the euro a resounding "NO". Maybe he has plans?

But Greece's present difficulty isn't my beef with this horrendous mess we are in. No, I can't stand the lack of democratic process. The EU is an edifice built up on the whims and fancies of political leaders rather than the hopes and desires of the people. When the people do get a say, they are expected to say "YES" to the political masters and mistresses in everything they do.

So I have no issue with the Greek people having their say. The European Union is not a "common market" anymore. The playing field is not level. Mrs Merkel and President Sarkozy have assumed some form of leadership over us all. Who gave them such power and prestige? Probably Rumpuy Pumpuy in a rubber stamping operation! We do not have a common market as far as retailing is concerned. For example, a lot of French merchandise is far cheaper in France than in Britain. How come French mustard is three times more expensive in British supermarkets than in French ones. I hear Carrefour may be coming back via Ocado's website. Any chance we can be less cheesed off with the prices?

This is no digression on my part. It is symptomatic of the whole problem. There is political union without a proper political mandate. There is legal union, but virtually no European has properly agreed to this except the elite in Brussels. There is supposed to be economic union and free movement of labour, yet some countries are more equal than others. If anyone complains, we are told it's all an evolutionary process. Monkeys did better with that!

And on top of all this there is a single currency WITHOUT a single fiscal policy. Doomed to failure from day one. Mismanagement, poor judgement, bad leadership and a total disregard for democracy.

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Greeks rendering to Caesar

Think! Taxes! Paid any recently?

This contribution on the BBC website deserves a wide coverage, so I'm doing my bit. I can think for myself  says this -

Here's a really novel idea. How about we ask the Greek people to start paying tax? They could start with simple taxes like income tax and VAT and then devise a few others! Anyone who has ever visited Greece knows what goes on. Most of the time you will not get a receipt in a restaurant or a bar. Why is that? A shortage of paper?! How were they allowed to get away with it for so long?

How indeed! Perhaps the very large gentleman portraying himself as the finance minister of Greece can tell us all.

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Greek currency conundrum

Just a quick question? Are the Greeks bearing gifts or a pack of lies? Maybe somebody could help me. I find this roller coaster nonsense about the Greeks and the Euro hard to fathom. Are they putting their house in order or smashing as many plates as they can get their hands on?

As usual, more questions than answers!

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Bad debts and Greek urns - a European tragedy

I've just seen Judge Judy lambast a silly woman for paying a man (somewhat younger than herself) money on a monthly basis even though the man failed to repay the previous month's "loan". The hapless woman, after six months, decided to send a promissory note to the man. He decided not to sign but ask for a further loan, which she paid him. When no repayment was due she thought Judge Judy would settle the dispute. Not likely! The woman was told she was dimwitted and the man, who presented himself as the woman's paid "boy toy", was described as a "not nice person" by her honour.

This legal ding-dong had me thinking about Greece begging for money. The Greeks have apparently spent beyond their means, no doubt trying to find favour with the European Commission and its desire to bail out those who haven't paid the previous bailout. All the EU bigwigs are patting each other on the back but the crisis hasn't gone away. It's just been squeezed, elongated and generally made to look like something completely different.

I don't quite know who is supposed to repay the debt. The Greek people, or at least 70% of them, are saying they are not. I can't see the Greek government raising enough in taxes to pay back €100 billion. I assume some level of interest is included in repayments. It's all like a financial merry-go-round, with the horses looking very much in need of a new coat of paint. It's all going to benefit those who can make money out of debt and ruin those who have to be sacrificed at the altar of EU statism.

No wonder they needed those tanks on the streets of Brussels yesterday. They're scared witless what the people might do next.

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UK £1 billion offering for Greeks

I thought we were strapped for cash, yet Britain is loaning the Greek government £1 billion to tie it over until the final collapse happens. This dosh is via the IMF, but will we ever know where it is actually coming from? Certainly not from taxation. That's all going to pay our deficit. Perhaps it's being printed in a secret room in the bowels of the Treasury. No, impossible and a waste of time. Somebody just pushed a computer button!

Also today a German banker was quoted as saying that, if the Greeks did default, "ze gates of ze Hell will be wide open!". Blimey, Lucifer, Beelzebub and assorted demons running amok all over Europe. I thought that was already happening.

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My Big Fat Greek Bankruptcy

Tartan clad Greek protests against cuts

Not an original slogan, I admit, but one that is truthful none the less. Bankruptcy is on the Hellenic horizon. Greece is now caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock appears to be the Greek people, fed up with conniving politicians who have been fiddling the books as much as the Eurocrats have been. After all, the European accounts have never been signed off, so they are the last people on earth to speak to others. The hard place is the Greek parliament, full of political parties that are demanding austerity that none of their voters is prepared to accept.

The end game may be on Tuesday, it may be a week on Tuesday or this time next year. But the final result will be that Greece will default on their debts and the Euro bigwigs should get that one ringing between their ears. Financial deafness is seen as a virtue in Brussels.

David Cameron says the Eurozone should not fail. It will fail, because it is running a single currency in seventeen separate states, each with its own taxing agenda. You can't have a federal currency in a mere alliance of nations. Quite a few Eurocrats see this and are maneuvering  for a more federal Europe. Without referendums, of course.

Maybe Greece will be a turning point in European politics. The hope is that they don't go down a blind alley but take to the open road for a bright new future. With drachmas and ouzo aplenty.

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Greece and Ireland - Two giant ponzi schemes

Here' a nice piece about the giant ponzi scheme in Greece. Greek politicians do not see the debt as being debt. They see it as income. So says Steven R. Earle in the Financial Post of Canada. "The problem with much of the opinion surrounding the Greek financial crisis is that few writers actually have any experience in Greece, in dealing with its politicians, its bankers, its systems, its cultural proclivities and its people," he says. He does, and his article makes very interesting reading. Eric Morecambe used to joke "How much does a Greek earn?" but I bet he'd be sobered in a second by such stuff.

And ponzi schemes are not just for the Greeks. The Irish have got a giant ponzi scheme going too. Rob Lyons writes in Spiked about how Ireland became a giant ponzi scheme. Well, if you can make money out of thin air, is it surprising that the wheels have come off these wagons.

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Should Moody's be downgraded?

I saw Raymond NcDaniel, the Chairman & CEO of Moody's, being quizzed by the venerable interrogators of this financial committee, the FCIC, looking into the banking crisis and all things connected with it. When asked if any due dilligence was done over the subprime fiasco, McDaniel looked somewhat perplexed. After a bit of waffle, I think the answer was a basic no. It was likened to just going through the accounts of the Dairy Queen rather than sipping the blizzards on offer. Warren Buffet was sitting next to him, and Buffet owns the Dairy Queen.

Moody's have made a mint making rating the creditworthiness of other peoples' businesses their own business. They even take a considered opinion of the state of countries. They don't rate Greece too highly at the moment. They've just notched them down another peg. But what is the real purpose of Moody's and others like them? How come they were so undue in their own dilligence when it came to the subprime racketeers? Is it because McDaniel hadn't heard the word "derivative" before? This fancy word conjured up by bankers in order to turn bad money into good.

I like the way the questioning went, but I doubt it will do much. Both McDaniel and Buffet came across as completely devoid of any real sense that this financial disaster was much to do with them. And that's the problem. They don't really live in the real world. Far better for the committee to go down to the local Dairy Queen and ask the blizzard sippers what they would do to straighten things out. Now that's direct democracy for you!

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Frau Merkel's Greek island real deal

The Greeks are in difficulty. Not only are they up to their eyeballs in debt, but they are getting further into the clutches of the EU mandarins. Nigel Farage was not wrong when he said Greece had become a subservient statelet of the European Union. Now the German Chancellor has come up with a good wheeze on the financial front. She's had a look at the map and spotted that there are plenty of Greek islands so why not flog off a few for extra cash?

Frau Merkel reckons the Greeks should sell uninhabited islands of which there are 227. I'm not sure if such real estate is worth much. Who would buy such an island? Richard Branson? The latest lottery winner? Or maybe Lord Ashcroft, to keep up his non-dom credentials? Definitely no doms on those islands.

Personally I think this crazy idea just about sums up the arrogant thinking of the EU machine politicians. It's gone past the absurd into the realms of fantasy. If implemented this could set a very bad precedence, leading to all manner of dodgy deals. Gordon Brown could be flogging off our islands including the inhabited ones. It's got an Ealing comedy flavour about it. Passport to Pimlico? Frau Merkel wants to see your visa!

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Genitals of Briton given Greek-style torching!

I have noticed recently that young British men abroad are becoming increasingly loutish. Some are prone to drunken behaviour leading to street vomiting, others just see the young women of the locality as suitable targets for perverse innuendo of a sexual nature. Nothing remotedly charming about any of it. One wonders why so many people attempt to come to Britain when the exported manhood is well past its use-by-date.

In various cities of Europe inebriated young men, and sometimes women, act like alcoholically-charged vacuum pumps. It is little wonder local mayors want them out. Now there is a case where a Greek woman dowsed a Briton's genitals with alcohol and set fire to his crown jewels. She says she did so after being sexually harassed. I do not condone in any way what the young woman has done, but I have some sympathy for her. Perhaps this may be a message to young British males? Maybe. How would they like it if a drunken Greek molested their nearest and dearest female relatives? Not a lot, I suggest. So what makes it right the other way round?

The one mindblower in this story is the response from the Foreign Office. A spokeswoman said, "We can confirm that in the early hours of Tuesday a 23-year-old British male national was assaulted in Crete. We understand he suffered burns on his chest and abdomen. He has been receiving consular assistance." Chest and abdomen? With that kind of understatement one can appreciate how easy it is for ministers to get the wrong end of the stick with regards to Afghanistan!

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