Eyes wide shut

Friday, January 23, 2009

Eyes wide shut

Ho hum! The dead tree media is exulting in the admission from Gordon Brown on the Todayprogramme that he never saw the recession coming. "We believed," he said, "there was a possibility of institutional failure in the banking and financial system so we did all sorts of exercises, simulation exercises. But what we didn't see, and nobody saw, was the possibility of complete market failure, that markets seized up across the world." 

This is against the background of official recognition that the economy shrank 1.5 percent in the last three months of 2008. That "plunge", says The Daily Mail, cited as "the largest since April to June of 1980," has "outstripped experts' forecasts by 0.3 percent and fuelled fears the recession will be long, deep and very painful."

When this is added to a 0.6 percent slump in the previous quarter, it puts Britain in a technical recession for the first time since the 90s and its eighth since 1945. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth. 

Alistair Darling has also joined the ranks of the "new blind", admitting the downturn had been "sharper" than expected. In his Pre-Budget report in November, he predicted the economy would grow in the second half of 2009 and between 1.5 to two percent in 2010. The official forecast is now for a decline of 0.75 percent to 1.25 per cent in 2009.

Meanwhile, Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority chairman has piled in, accusing Brown of failing to spot that that the credit and housing boom had left the economy "fraught with systemic risk". He suggests Brown has to take his share of the blame. But Turner also says that "finance ministers" across the world are to blame for failing to identify the dangers of sub-prime mortgages and soaring debt.

And now "experts" fear growth could slide two per cent of even three this year in what would be the biggest economic decline since World War II.

However, all is not lost. According to The Telegraph, Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, is blaming bankers and previous Tory governments for the economic mess. "This recession," he says, "is not bad luck or an inevitable swing of the pendulum. Its cause is irresponsible behaviour by banks and financial institutions taking advantage of the deregulation started by Mrs Thatcher and President Reagan, and continued to a greater or lesser extent ever since."

Somehow, it was always going to be that. Tory "deregulation" is always the source of all ills, and pinning the blame will, of course, herald and legitimise calls for more regulation. But, it appears, when our masters are totally blind, they might have a little difficulty reading any new rules, much less understanding them.

What was that about the land of the blind?

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Are they getting worried?

Strictly speaking, civil disorder in member states is none of the business of our supreme government in Brussels. Maintaining law and order on the streets is a matter for provincial governments.

However, the ever-watchfulBruno Waterfield tells us that the euroweenies have called for "emergency talks" to discuss the groundswell of social unrest and violent street protests that have spread across Europe.

So far, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Greece and Iceland (is that Europe?) have all faced social unrest and rioting as unemployment soars and – so Bruno says - as many European countries have been forced to impose severe cuts to government spending. Thus, the March European Council is to examine the increasing unrest, regarding it as one of the "major challenges" for the Spring Council.

Sarkozy has already raised the spectre of "May 1968" protests spreading across Europe, although it is hard to take that seriously. There is nothing like the undercurrent of "revolution" that prevailed then. There is no ideology that is driving the crowds. They are just pissed off with their rulers. Which gives the demonstrations a nihilistic tinge.

Anyhow, what the euroweenies are considering is "intensive sharing of information", which include "regular updates" on the situation in various European countries. What they can get from that, which cannot be got from open source, is hard to imagine. Usually, in these sorts of situations, the official channels are the last to know what is happening.

However, there is some sense in what one EU official is saying. "People," he observes. "obviously are seeing what is happening in other countries in the rest of Europe, such as Greece, and they thought 'Why are we so calm?'" They are particularly worried about developments in Bulgaria where hundreds of Bulgarian protesters have clashed with police, smashed windows and damaged cars in Sofia when a rally against corruption and the economic crisis turned into a riot last week.

There is a point there. Considering how badly our rulers have managed our national affairs – here not least – we should all be out in the streets ripping throats out and racing tumbrels to the nearest public guillotine.

Perhaps it is too early yet, as most people – especially the bloated public sector – are not really hurting yet. It needs more time. Possibly, that is what is really worrying the euroweenies. They suspect its coming, but they can't work out when.

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

This will not surprise you

An interesting link sent to me by Anglican Friends of Israel together with a translation of the article. Perhaps, some of our readers who know Hebrew can attest that it is accurate.

Yossi Bar (Maariv-Hebrew) The Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra Thursday quoted adoctorat Shifa Hospital in Gaza City saying that, despite Hamas and UN claims, most of those killed in Gaza were young men who were members of terror groups.

"The number of deaths was between 500-600...most were young men between 17 and 23 who were recruited into the ranks of Hamas, which sent them to be slaughtered," he said.

Journalist Lorenzo Cremonesi confirmed that only 600 people were killed, and not 1,300 as was widely reported, based on hospital visits and discussions with families of the victims.

"It was strange that the non-governmental organizations, including Western ones, repeated the number without checking, but the truth will come to light in the end," said the doctor.

"It's like what happened in Jenin in 2002," he said. "At the beginning they spoke of 500 dead; afterwards it was clear there wereonly 54 dead, at least 45 of them fighters."

The UN and NGOs less than honest about Gaza and casualties there? Well, colour me surprised.

Mahmoud Habbash, the Palestinian Authority's Minister of Social Welfare has accused Hamas of stealing trucks with humanitarian aid that was meant for the people of Gaza. Curiously enough, UNWRA who were supposed to take charge of the aid and distribute it, have not made any comments on the subject. The accusations add that some Hamas members have been selling the aid off.

Mr Habbash has also accused Hamas of murdering and torturing Fatah activists. Hamas has admitted this, explaining that they were rounding up and doing nasty things to people who were openly collaborating with Israel.

This is confirmed by Reuters who, not unexpectedly, cite the figure of 1,300 Palestinians killed without bothering to check. It may be true but is unlikely and minimal checking might be a good idea. Of course, Hamas reasserting its control over Gaza is what all those demonstrators wanted so they ought to be pleased. Then again, they were bemoaning the killing of Palestinians. So, I take it, there will be more demonstrations against Hamas because of it killing and maiming other Palestinians? Probably accompanied by large squadrons of flying pigs.

Richard Landes writes about the Gaza figures on The Augean Stables. He also has a fascinating posting on the coverage by the MSM of wartime casualties. Oddly enough, it seems completely distorted and inaccurate. But the best one is this: the terrible poisoned gift, which European anti-semitism has given the Palestinians - the inability to escape their own problems and to be ruled by Hamas murderers.

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