EU BRIEF EC president Barroso urges deeper economic integration Europe Eurozone leaders split over revision of second Greek bailout; The Greek parliament yesterday voted to approve the new property tax aimed at raising an extra €2bn a year, although reports suggest the vote sparked riots in Athens. The move will allow the EU/IMF/ECB review mission to return to Greece today, with a final decision on whether to release the next tranche of Greek bailout funds not expected until mid-October. Meanwhile, the Bundestag will vote to approve the expanded EFSF tomorrow and although the proposal should pass with opposition support, it is still unsure whether Merkel will gain the majority support from her governing coalition which she has demanded. The coalition can stand to lose up 19 votes and still maintain a majority, however, with the number of junior coalition FDP MPs planning to abstain or vote no still uncertain, the outcome is yet to be assured. Handelsblattreports that the Slovakian parliament vote on the expanded EFSF may be delayed until 22 October or later, and is not guaranteed to pass, with the parties again failing to reach a compromise on the topic last night. Finland will vote on the issue today, and is expected to approve the proposal, while Slovenia passed the plan yesterday. Debate continued over the state of an increased eurozone bailout fund, with a clear proposal yet to emerge. French Finance Minister Francois Baroin said, “It is out of the question to put forward, three days from the Bundestag vote, the issue of whether we should increase the fund…Let’s not open Pandora’s box on something that is a red flag for Germany.” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble also termed proposals to increase the fund or even leverage it as “stupid”, according to the Telegraph. On Dutch blog De Dagelijkse Standaard, Open Europe's Pieter Cleppe discusses the trade-off between keeping the monetary union together or breaking it up, arguing, "One difference is all too clear: the cost of a break up, as high as it may be, will be a one-off cost, while the cost of keeping it together, through sharing wealth, is more or less permanent." Barroso: Commission would support treaty change to speed up integration; Barroso rebuked eurozone nations for delaying the ratification of the expanded eurozone bailout fund (EFSF), arguing that "the pace of our joint endeavour cannot be dictated by the slowest”, and that the Commission was willing to envisage Treaty changes to reinforce the credibility of its decisions, specifically to remove “the constraint of unanimity”. He also argued for the introduction of joint debt, in the form of “stability bonds” which would ensure both integration and discipline, saying, “Once the euro area is fully equipped with the instruments necessary to ensure both integration and discipline, the issuance of joint debt will be seen as a natural and advantageous step for all…Some of these options can be implemented within the current Treaty [such as stability bonds], whereas fully fledged 'Eurobonds' would require Treaty change.” Barroso also called for the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) in the EU and between the EU and third countries, arguing that it is “only fair to tax financial activities”, given that taxpayers had contributed €4.6 trillion to stabilise the financial sector during the crisis. Barroso claimed the tax would bring in revenues of €55bn, although theFT reports that the Commission’s own study had found that the tax could potentially dent long-term economic growth in the region by between 0.53% and 1.76% of GDP. Barroso also called for more integration between EU member states, including greater political union and more pooling of efforts in the defence sector, and urged national governments across the EU "to show a bit more pride in Europe…I want to see and hear that pride in being European". Eurozone comment round-up On the WSJ’s Real Time Brussels blog, Stephen Fidler notes, “It appears that the only way to bulk up the EFSF convincingly through leverage is for it to gain access to ECB funding, directly or indirectly. That leads to the question now being asked by some analysts in Brussels: Why, if the expansion of the EFSF depends entirely on the ECB’s balance sheet, wouldn’t it make more sense for that balance sheet be used to buy government bonds directly, cutting out the middle man?” In the Irish Independent, David McWilliams argues, “Expect the Greeks to be allowed to default in some form in the next few days…if Greece can default on its debts, why not the Irish banks on their bondholders?…This would save us tens of billions of euro. After all, the ECB is on the hook in Greece, and it is also on the hook here. What is good for the Grecian goose must also be good for the Celtic gander.” On his BBC blog, Paul Mason notes, “Internally, the euro is the one major currency that has no strategy to save itself or defend itself. Internally, the idea of expanding the EFSF through leverage, had to be pushed by the US and IMF. It was not thought up in Berlin and it will be resisted in Berlin. Externally, the eurozone also has no strategy. It does not and cannot respond to the Swiss move, or to American QE.” In the FT, the leader of Liberal MEPs Guy Verhofstadt writes, “It is time to consider the merger of the functions of the Presidents of the Commission and European Council…Once the euro is back to full health, there should be a single representation of the eurozone in international financial institutions.” De Telegraaf reports that Dutch Europe Minister Ben Knapen has told Dutch MPs that he will campaign to ensure that EU agricultural subsidies are only provided to active farmers. The article cites Open Europe's finding that Swedish King Carl Gustav XVI received €1.6m in EU farm subsidies over five years. The Telegraph reports that MEPs are planning to spend £26m on bigger offices that will only be occupied during the eleven annual four-day plenary sessions held at the European Parliament's second seat in Strasbourg. Writing in City AM, Ian Powell, Chairman and Senior Partner at PwC UK, argues that the European Commission’s plans to shake up the auditing industry could “create severe disruption and undermine quality and confidence”, and calls for more input from UK firms in shaping the proposals. Bloomberg reports that the European Parliament has voted to grant the Palestinian Authority direct duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market for farm and fisheries goods from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Yesterday’s Evening Standard reported that Labour leader Ed Miliband is being pressured by backbench Labour MPs to back a “game changing” referendum on Britain's EU membership as a way of splitting the Coalition Government. The European Commission has called for a ban on cod fishing for the whole of next year off the west coast of Scotland and in the Irish Sea, in an attempt to replenish stocks. Richard Benyon, the Fisheries Minister, said, “Today's proposals make clear the urgent need to radically reform the Common Fisheries Policy.” Writing in EUobserver, Roland Vaubel, Professor of Economics at the University of Mannheim in Germany, highlights that a recent study has found that at least 39% of EU Commissioners “become representatives of some private interests after leaving the European Commission”, joining either a “company or an interest group association or [establishing] a consulting business of their own.” The European Parliament has this morning given the green light to the set of six pieces of legislation strengthening economic governance in the eurozone and the EU, the so-called ‘six-pack’. New on the Open Europe blog Does Labour have an EU policy? Following are highlights from European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso's State of the Union speech in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. The sovereignty of the German state is inviolate and anchored in perpetuity by basic law. It may not be abandoned by the legislature (even with its powers to amend the constitution)," he said. I Was Hacked Too – Kelvin MacKenzie Sally Bercow says… ‘I love annoying people – it’s just the way I am’ I work my nuts off to pay very high levels of tax. My money then gets given to the son of a millionnaire, who uses my money to buy an Ipad. He then stands on a conference platform to tell me how evil I am. Rory, give me my fucking Ipad back you ungrateful little shit.Open Europe
Bild: German government privately expects a Greek default by December
The FT reports that, according to senior European officials, splits are opening up between eurozone leaders over whether to revise the second Greek bailout package. Germany and the Netherlands, along with up to five other eurozone members, are leading the calls for bondholders to take bigger write downs on their holdings of Greek debt, while France and the ECB are fiercely resisting such a move. The news is likely to dampen the recent market rally in Europe, especially for European banks. Reuters reports on concerns that the completion of the EU/IMF/ECB review mission in Greece will reveal higher funding needs than estimated under the second Greek bailout plan. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said to Greek state TV NET, "We have to wait and see what the troika...finds and what it will tell us [whether] we will have to renegotiate or not." Bild reports that the German government privately expects a Greek default by December. According to an unnamed source, Merkel told CDU MPs in a meeting recently, "We are trying to avoid a Greek insolvency. I can however not exclude this any longer.”
FT FTD CityAM Guardian Reuters FT 2 CityAM 2 Telegraph WSJ 2 European Voice NY Times Irish Times Irish TimesTelegraph Irish Times BBC El País 2 Independent BBC 2 FT 4 CityAM 4 WSJ Guardian Irish Independent NY TimesFAZ FAZ 2 Handelsblatt Le Monde Le Parisien Le Figaro Reuters France Irish Times FT 3 CityAM 3 Repubblica FT 5EUobserver Independent 2 Le Figaro El País Times Times 2 Reuters Il Sole 24 Ore Corriere della Sera: Trichet BildFAZ SZ Zeit YLE YLE 2 Elsevier Handelsblatt Libération Handelsblatt Les Echos Standaard Le Point Reuters FranceLes Echos Le Figaro CityAM 5 WSJ 3 FAZ Slovak Spectator Sme Le Point Dow Jones Handelsblatt Europolitics ORFWelt Times 3 De Dagelijkse Standaard: Cleppe
Barroso calls for pooling of debt at the eurozone level
President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, delivered his annual ‘State of the Union’ address to the European Parliament this morning in which he said the EU faced the biggest challenges in its history. He insisted that: "Greece is, and will remain, a member of the euro area", argued that monetary union needed to be completed with an economic union, and announced that the Commission will present proposals for a "single, coherent framework to deepen economic co-ordination and integration, in particular in the euro area" in the coming weeks.
BBC FT FT: Plender Telegraph Welt Handelsblatt ARD Le Figaro Il Sole 24 Ore La Stampa Europa PR
In City AM, Juliet Samuel argues, “Markets and euro politicians are tying themselves in knots over one very simple problem: how to convert junk bonds into triple-A rated bonds…Whatever the details, the aim is the same: Brussels wants to underwrite Greek debt with German cash – all without letting the voters know.” In Le Monde, French economists Augustin Landier and David Thesmar argue that in order for Eurobonds to be introduced, “a European institution under German domination will have to be able to veto budgets deemed as deviant, against the opinion of national parliaments…Now, voters are opposed to this big step towards federalism, and politicians know it. The road to Eurobonds is therefore sci-fi: it leads to stalemate.”
FT Editorial FT: Bremner FT: Wolf FT: Verhofstadt CityAM: Samuel WSJ: Fidler WSJ Review&Outlook WSJ Heard on the Street Guardian: Jenkins Irish Independent: McWilliams Irish Times: Beesley BBC: Mason Independent: PattersonLe Monde: Landier & Thesmar FAZ: Rueb
Telegraaf Open Europe research
Telegraph
City AM WSJ European Voice EurActiv City AM: Powell FT Editorial
Bloomberg Public Service Europe El Mundo EUobserver
Evening Standard
Independent
EUobserver
EP press release
Open Europe blog
ON ECONOMIC UNION:
"We need to complete our monetary union with an economic union. It was an illusion to think that we could have a common currency and a single market with national approaches to economic and budgetary policy."
"In the coming weeks, the Commission will ... present a proposal for a single, coherent framework to deepen economic coordination and integration, in particular in the euro area. This will be done in a way that ensures the compatibility between the euro area and the European Union as a whole."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/28/eu-barroso-idUSL5E7KS0LH20110928
So much for being the driver of change and the keeper of the European dream. But who can blame him. It is a pity that the Irish Government had no such resolve when it came to signing away the bank guarantee and selling out this and future generations.
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/letters/europe-must-save-its-burning-bacon-2889135.html
The Moral Case Against the 50p Tax - ASI
Fisking Ed – Charles Crawford
Ed Hit Himself With a Hammer – Dan Hodges
Had They Known They Would Have Booed Him – Christina Odone
Kerry the Missing MP – Simon Clark
Hemming’s Pussy Trial – Mail
A Suicidal Speech – The Commentator
Planet Ed – Paul Waugh
Ed’s Child Star’s Millionaire Past - Mail
Ireland Has Problems, But Austerity Ain’t One – ASI
Banker is Miliband’s ‘True Face of British Business’ – Bloomberg
Italian Bloggers Protest Over “Right to Reply” Bill – Guardian
Blackpool Shale Gas Is Britain’s Golden Opportunity – GWPF
Psycho Politician Tried to Avoid Speeding Ticket Blame - Mail
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
“We need to complete our monetary union with an economic union. It was an illusion to think that we could have a common currency and single market with national approaches to economic and budgetary policy. Let’s avoid another illusion that we could have a common currency and single market with an inter-governmental approach.”
His comments coupling the euro with the single market in terms of removing national vetoes over economic policy will alarm Britain.
The Treasury and Foreign Office are worried that closer union for the eurozone will lead to the erosion of a single market run for the benefit all 27 of EU's nations rather than as the property of the 17 single currency members.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8793520/EC-president-Barroso-urges-deeper-economic-integration.html
And who was the young man charged with pushing Blair’s pro-European message and communicating the work of the campaign to take us into the euro? 
Posts
Thanks Huhne,wewill have revenge tho.
We will have revenge on them all.
Never you tell ‘em a lie!
Unfortunately by the time people realise the only way to save our nation is to vote UKIP our nation will be destroyed beyond repair.
It could well be too late already, but still…
what the fuck, they can’t be any worse, VOTE UKIP.
You’d think after a century of Fascism/Communism etc people would learn. It’s not the overall plan that you have for society that is wrong, it’s having a plan at all.
I was the one who told Gordon to construct the 5 tests that kept us out of the Euro!
Now I see the frogs and krauts want to impose SEVERE austerity upon the poor Greek people. Everyone knows that cutting too far and too fast will never get the Greek economy out of the deep doo doo it is in. The Euro countries should give them the money without any strings. It is only by
pumpinginvesting money into the Greek economy that it will grow and allow all those nice Greek people to repay their debts. After all it is not as if they’ve been living beyond their means is it?If I was Chancellor in a Millipede government I would encourage the Euro countries to invest in Greece. I’d even borrow some money and invest it on behalf of all UK tax payers in the Greek economy. No strings.
The way to fight back against the NWO might not be political at all. This clip carries a few excellent suggestions -
http://bit.ly/iunxAg
Guido, get ride of these friggin’ thumbs. They take an eternity to load the page and add nothing to the blogsite. As I’ve said elsewhere, only those sad twats who spend their lives on Twitter can think they benefit the site. I’d bet my pension that to most of the regular users of this blog find them extremely annoying and pointless.
Excellent innovation the thumbs. With one click enable me to let Billy know when his comments are botox and occasionally when they are interesting or even humorous.
Thank god we didn’t join the Euro. Having our own currency is turning out to be a lifesaver.
I want us to stay in Europe though.
The Euro as a farmyard parable
People never learn. After Communism and the Labour Government, Malema in South Africa wants to nationalise everything.
When the arguments were flying around whether we should join the Euro, my wife asked me if we should and our pet parrot suddenly squawked “not to join the euro, not to join the euro, give polly a biscuit”.
I swear I never trained her to do that, and said to Pam, “there’s your answer”.
Even the fucking parrot was more intelligent that all those wankers above.
Blair took the country into the Iraq war without reason and in the face of strong opposition. No consequences to him, he made a fortune, got his children million pound houses, got Euan a job at JP Morgan, milked the expense system to build his property port folio, while thousands died, were wounded and maimed. No proper inquest for the war or Dr Kelly’s death. He created mass immigration, and nearly made the country bankrupt. How about holding him to account for his treacherous deeds? It was only by a quirk of fate that Brown wanted to spite him that prevented us from entering the Euro.
Huhne has done nothing to reduce the 20 % we all pay in our energy bills for climate obligation ie subsidising private wind, solar and nuclear firms.Our bills are taxed on tip of this!!
Right to recall and referendum need to be made so we can hold corrupt, lying deceitful politicians to account. We also need legislation to make it easier to prosecute those who hold high public office.
Uk contribution to the IMF is £19.7 billion, we also contribute to the ESF. It is difficult to understand how the UK will not be bailing out Greece. Once more, Cameron speaks with weasel/false words. He claims he will do his best. That is not good enough as it gives him room to wriggle out of what he says. Meanwhile McClegg is deriding anyone who speaks against the bail out- complete twat out of touch with the public’s views and wishes.
Blair, Huhne, Alexander, Clarke – collaborators the lot of them. Same people who would have sold us out to Hitler
Hang ‘em, let me get my rope
Hang em by the ‘thumbs’
I reckon the Euro Crats welcome this crisis. They will now press ahead and pass laws enabling the Government of Europe to control the treasuries of those countries in the Euro Zone (except France n Germany) and of course the next step will be to take charge of the non-Euro zone members after that.
Everyone is agreed that the best fix for the Greek Citizen indeed citizens of all the PIGS is to leave the Euro and write off their debts to the foolish bankers and Countries that stitched them up in the first place. But what is good for European citizens is not good for European bankers and politicians.
It was all part of their plan – they knew there was no appetite for political/economic union but managed to squeeze through monetary union pretending that it would not lead to the former. Now its gone tits up they will claim the only solution is full political union. They knew it all along but needed to create crisis to get it through.
I never believe conspiracy theories which suggest that clearly incompetent, struggling people are really cunning masterplanners who belong in a Bond villains’ hide-out. It sounds dramativ and fun, and you must be pleased to have rumbled them, but, come on, time to grow up….
Boris Johnson summed it up yesterday when he considered if this is what Kohl and Miterrand wanted all along. Why should any European country be run like Germany or France, why can’t they have their own identity and go about their business in the way they want. Norway Switzerland and other trade with Europe but do not have to be part of it or rules by it, or more importantly pay for it.
Clark and Helseltine were back stabbers; what does this say about their characters and whether they are fit to hold public office? Once more, no emotional intelligence to help them distinguish between right and wrong.
The Lisbon CONstitution is self-amending, there needs no vote from you troublesome voters every again. The EUSSR conned people like Ireland to vote for it, and now you’re going to get well and truly stuffed by it. The politicians will deal between themselves what is best for THEIR OWN personal interests, and those that bankroll them via backhanders.
There was a rule about Euro member deficits; that they should not exceed 3%of GDP.
France and Germany both broke it, because of “Special circumstances” Everybody else followed..
The European Union is becoming a Franco German Empire, and it is in that context that our (and other European Country’s) Foreign policy should be based.
“. . many politicians specializing in financial and economic affairs recommend bringing about the political union of Europe as quickly as possible, a union with a strong central government. …”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,769329,00.html
These “statesmen” as you call the Guido made NO mistake. They got rich along with their banker friends, you got poor. Exactly to plan.
The Berlin Wall collapsed and was celebrated, the same thing will happen to the Mickey Mouse € currency, and the eventual collapse of the Communist Block known as Europe. It is unsustainable, just as the Soviet Union was before it too collapsed.
Why not take a lovely holiday in Greece this summer?
Your money’s already there.
If they start using the drachma again I’d go back. And so might all the other tourists and they can start paying their way again. When they joined the Euro the rise in prices there was incredible. So we all started going to Turkey instead.
Me too.
Traitors one and all!!
Wasn’t there an article saying Ken Clarke saved the Euro? Worth linking to again if someone can find the article.
Juncker said it
Thanks!
I find it hard to believe anybody with any common sense ever thought the Euro would be a good idea. Australia and NZ aren’t merging their currencies, ditto USA and Canada. But presumably Portugal and Estonia have so much more in common it’s inevitable!
> I find it hard to believe anybody with any common sense ever thought the Euro would be a good idea
and you were right! People who had common sense thought that the euro would be bad.
USA, Canada and Mexico are well on the way to economic and political union.
They already have NAFTA, and people are being sold the same line that the EEC would only lead to closer trading partnerships.
The North American Union is on its way.
The Amero is coming.
The press haven’t covered it, but Mexico is in a war with drugs barons at the moment. Probably more active than Afghanistan.
Mexico City is a warzone. A sizable proportion of the police and the militia cannot be trusted to protect citizens. They’re on a bigger paycheque from the druglords than from the taxpayer.
It’s one of the cities best avoided if at all possible, but it’s practically impossible when traveling by road from USA to Central America and beyond.
Wrong!
Thats the problem with lefties, Everytime socailisim fucks up (check history) they come few yaers later and try and sell it another way.
Theproblem with the right here is they are not as robust in belifs and have no intrest in “Sound money”.
The roleof being in the public service used to be something to be proud of, Now it is seen as jumping on the gravy train and screwing the people you aremeant to serve.
Hang em!, Hang em all!
Burn them! Burn them all!
Was Blair ever right ? About anything ? …..someone ….anyone …….just one will do .
He was quite good at property speculation. He’s got 6 houses.
Not bad at killing Gov scientists that could prove he was lying, too.
He was right when he though Brown would be disaster as PM
can you find anyone who thought any different?
I thought I did rather well, actually.
…but that was out of the frying pan into the fire. One bad PM to another really bad one I suppose.
Why did the f***er allow him to be inflicted on us then? Betrayed his responsibility as PM
Vox pop in the streets of Athens at the weekend shows that many if not most Greeks are in favour of not paying the debts back so they can continue to spend, spend, spend as they have become accustomed to.
As Boris says, let Greece go bankrupt so they withdraw from the Euro and have a new Drachma as their currency.
The Eurocrats are desperate to stop them defaulting, because that would mean expulsion from the EU, then the whole world would see that Greece is far better off out than in, and lots of others will want to leave, too.
I hope the whole rotten corpse comes crashing down, and the likes of Blair, Clarke, Kinnock, CMD and all the other traitorous scum are caught up in the inevitable riots that follow and get lynched.
Bravo, Viking!
You can’t do that, Germany will lose a lot of money that has been tied up in exports from Germany to Greece
And speaking of Boris!……………………………………http://www.lbc.co.uk/vote-now-boris-or-dave-for-pm-41362
Kinnock – you could live your life merely by backing the opposite of everything that he said and you’d be a wealthy individual…………
As wealthy as Kinnock?.
Well the Kinnocks always did the opposite of what they said. Its known as socialist careerism.
Well aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwrrrrrrrrriiiigggghhhhhhhttttttt !!!!!!
Glenys and I have done very nicely, thank you, boyo.
and he’s got his party back.
when is it our turn?
Sorry you are wrong. That would only work if Kinnock was consistent in everything he said. But in a previous incarnation European Commissioner Kinnock was against the EU and Lord Kinnock was against the house of Lords
Kinnock now has a pension from the EU, which he would lose if he failed to support the EU. This is bribery, but he still has a vote in the House of Lords. The same applies to the other former European Commissioners in the Lords.
What an appalling state of affairs!! De Gaulle should be given a posthumous award for his gallant attempts to keep us out of Europe. A great honorary englishman!! If only we had listened to him rather than the treacherous Heath.
I recall that Clarke individual ( would people still indulge him if he were Cassius thin, and didn’t like beer and jazz) saying of Heath; ” Ted was a great man–still is “. Ugh.
Some of us are old enough to remember the Heath government. That man was worse than any socialist: he was pig-headed, utterly wrong in all things and, in the final analysis, a traitor to his country.
……and a shirt-lifter, too
Read a piece where someone claimed Heath was working for the Germans ???? Any truth at all in that ?
Even electoral reform. Oh, the principles!
Never mind a European currency. What we need is a world currency. The supply of this currency should be outisde the control of central banks and governments, to keep it honest and prevent inflation. It should be permanent and limited in nature, and unfudgeable. We could call it ‘gold’.
We have a world currency already, it’s called gold and silver.
You can keep your shit fake Fiat money, and print it into oblivion for all I care.
We’ll be returning to the Gold Standard just as soon as I perfect turning dust into Gold for the Glorious Leader.
Gold! Who needs gold, I sold it for Euros. Er, was that not a good idea then?
Well there’s nothing we can do about it now. Perhaps, like your good self Guido, they can look back on their younger disreputable selves and feel some satisfaction that they have grown into mature pillars of society.
We could beat the fuckers to death.
“Then wasn’t the time.
Now’s the time.
Now we’re gonna get ‘em.
Every fuckin’ one of ‘em”.
-Steven Seagal
Interesting hubris. “I was right about the euro and so I’m right about global warming”.
Honourable Guido IS right about man-made global warming. If it were true, we in China not build 2 coal-fired power stations every week.
And if he were WRONG about man-made global warming, there is nothing you little Ingerlanders can do about it.
You bankrupt your little country if you wish. We keep building power stations.
You wan prorn clacker? Wha you wan? Yeh, yeh, 15 minit, £4.50 my frend!
That’s good! Now do it in Chinese!
Fair enough, but there are similarities. In both cases the ruling class has fallen uncritically in love with a theory that it does not understand, because it fits so nicely with its aims and prejudices.
So if the science doesn’t fit ones aims and prejudices, one should invent a complex and contradictory conspiracy theory?
One could have said “1C might not be that bad, make all energy saving measures 0% VAT and give tax breaks for similar stuff”.
This is the hottest June since records began….so Chris Huhne told me.
He also told Vicky that she was driving that night!
If Huhne told me the sun would rise in the east tomorrow morning, I’d still double check the Nautical Alamanac to be sure.
Surely the logical response to AGW is to cut growth immensely. I don’t see how this fits in with the agenda of TPTB.
I’m guessing dutch ecstasy exports was the only aspect of EU trade crossing your mind 20 years ago Guido.
Why the spurious link between the euro-zone crisis and global warming at the end? There’s lots of other things politicans have gotten wrong that you could have picked instead. A case of pushing a personal agenda perhaps?
Economics has never been a particular success as a ‘science ‘
which is why politicans have been able to pick their favourite theory and claim mainstream support. However the vast majority of the world’s scientists agree that global warming is happening.
So, economics and global warming, not really the same thing and poor journalism to randomly lump them together to make a point.
It was actually global cooling that was on the Bilderburger agenda.
And the vast majority of the world’s scientists do not “agree that global warming is happening” That’s nonsense.
‘However the vast majority of the world’s scientists agree that global warming is happening.’
Weasel words, it’s the cause scientist’s disagree massively about, what role CO2 has in the warming and the extent of any warming trend.
Both of which are highly contentious and not ‘settled’ at all.
But hey don’t let incy little facts like that get in the way of *£720 billion pound wealth transfers, to corporate giants from people on minimum wage.
*Which it’s all about really, follow the money.
If CO2 is the death gas, dooming the planet – then why don’t we hear about cutting back on the use of yeast, which produces oodles of CO2 when it ferments things like beer.
AGW is a crazy religious cult and like every crazy religious cult it has to have a domesday scenario. AGW is a belief i.e. a faith – not a science.
There is a clear link to the warmest agenda – all these chaps have proven past form for talking out of their (_._)rses – and we would do well not to listen to them in future – certainly not until they admit how horribly wrong they were on €uro.
So don’t listen to the politicans about it, listen to the scientists.
Scientists say MMGW is clap-trap. I’m listening to them.
Which ones though – plenty dispute the man made link to climate change
Because that’s where the statists have moved to. Have you not seen the link between pollution and bureaucrat run economies? Taxation just moves pollution*.
*Even if you are stupid and think plant food is pollution.
How much nitrate would you find acceptable in your drinking water?
Or shit for that matter?
I am not impressed about how the argument becomes monolithic. If I believe the 19th century physical chemistry of a common gas, I become a stupid stalinist. The basic descriptions of what CO2 does is not a matter of serious debate.
using the term “Plant food” makes you sound stupid.
If you advocate more bureaucratic control of the economy as the answer you are more of a stalinist than you think. The USSR was not noted for it’s lack of pollution.
If you think that a trace gas has more than a vast effect on the temperature.
If you think CO2 isn’t plant-food.
If you think recursive computer models of the climate have any data left after 20+ loops.
Then you are stupid.
bureaucratic control – it doesnt follow. science + politics don’t have firm link.
Trace gas. I shall fart in your room then and see what you think of .00000001% H2S. your sentence doesnt actually make sense by the way. “vast” perhaps is mistyped.
I don’t think that plants “eat”. makes you sound like a rather ditsy primary school teacher.
If I believe in the IR spectrum of CO2, that does not mean I have any serious or consistent political answers to any of it. Some people want to change the IR spectrum of CO2 to fit their political beliefs
Anonymus
If you were informed about the CAGW issue, you would know that the radiative properties of CO2 are in no way sufficient to justify the scare/scam.
Watermelons require an enhanced greenhouse effect for their agenda, enhanced by putative feedbacks from water vapour, clouds, albedo, etc. These are far from ‘basic physics’, and are far from ‘settled science’.
And if you believe that CAGW psyience in any way justifies current CAGW policy, then you really are a fucking idiot.
Marscapone, Bold claims. Scientific paper please.
The figures are close enough for it not to be a “stupid” claim, and some figures might claim to show its not quite there.
I would class the “trace gas” POLITICAL argument as “stupid”. It bears up to real scientific scrutiny.
So intrinsic values and rights are assigned to nature and to other species, and that human beings are considered more or less to be enemies to their natural surroundings.
Now that communism has been bust, leaders are looking for a new means of power and there are scientists willing to provide this.
At some point, environmentalism leaves liberal and social democratic territory and becomes anti-human, collectivist and authoritarian.
Is this an issue, anon, or not?
I would have thought the link is obvious, both being huge scams invented by the bien-pensants, with no mandate and diametrically opposed to public opinion
Global Warming has nothing to do with science. Most of what we base our understanding of this creed is from computer models or faked statistics.
Their physics is poor
Their statistics false
above all
Their history bunk.
Global Warming is all about taxation and the Green/socialist agenda to deindustrialise the West.
What is really really annoying is that the likes of Kinnock, Heseltine, Clarke, BBC and other assorted bewstards show no contrition at all.
just like the warmists won’t when Thermageddon doesn’t happen.
I assume you’ve sat down and properly analysed the physics, statistics and historical data you’re criticising here and not just mouthing off? In which case i’d be interested to hear your alternative take on the observed effects and the evidence linking co2 and global warming.
Also, given your distaste for computer models will you be refraining from using anything which has been a informed by them? (I’ll give you a clue, the answer is no)
I’ve a degree in Computing Mathematics.
Recursive Climate Models suffer from Exponential Error. Which basically means that the information content declines exponentially as you expand the distance forward in time you go. With the climate I reckon more than 2 weeks prediction ahead = same as chance.
100 years ahead = Nonsense on a stick.
You’re assuming the whole science of global warming is based on recursive models when it isnt. They are used to help inform the debate on the likely consequences, but much of the science supporting the idea that greenhouse gases cause global warming and the effects this will have is based on much simpler, more reliable methods.
Like Tree ring “reconstructions”? Lol.
Haven’t you got some recycling to do?
What is the evidence that CO2 is linked to global warming ?
Read your Hume.
Correlation is not Causation.
You might be surprised to discover that the big fiery disc thing in the sky that we see once in a while has an effect.
(and don’t mention those fatuous “experiments” where two jars are heated, one is full of CO2 and the other with air – the real experiment should be one that is full of air with 0.02% CO2 and the other with 0.04% CO2 and then compare the results).
Secondly as an historian, I’m telling you that the scientists have got it wrong. They have tried to suppress the previous warming periods. It was warmer in Europe between 1000 and 1300 than it is now. It was warmer during the mid-late Roman period (1st-3rd Cent) than now.
Climate change is a process and it does not happen the same everywhere at once. Lots of things are responsible: ocean currents, volcanoes, sunspots and yes even manmade pollution.
But just CO2 ? Sorry mate, think about it for a few moments and you’ll see how thoroughly wrong the theory is.
Water vapour – that’s what you need to look at.
Sorry July, wadwas just using co2 as a catchall term. Of course water vapour has an effect, as do methane and a whole host of other gases.
To be honest I hope you’re right but I’ve spent quitequite a bit of time looking at the data and itit presents a good strong cass. Not quite beyond reasonable doubt but getting there, and well past the point where i’d bet against it.
History doesnt accurately measure global temperature.
It doesnt even measure local temperatures very accurately.
One example: the northern edge of wine production has moved south over the past 100 years. Its not been colder, its just that everyone realised it was crap.
Water vapour is simply temperature dependent. they have looked at that.
One has to presume that the climate and the factors which control it are stable and self regulating.
Otherwise we wouldn’t be here.
You don’t have to be a genius to realise that weather stations placed in the middle of an urban tarmac parking lot are going to have an inbuilt bias.
The same follows for “arctic” weather stations based at airports and therefore subject to significant thermal pollution by jet exhausts. (Logical place to have a weather station if aviation safety is your concern).
Yes, lets have more thermometers at airports, then fly more into the airport, temperature goes up at the airport, ergo whole country is warming up? That’s great science that.
A bit like my local area, put a pollution monitor up at a road junction, then deliberately narrow the road to create traffic where there was non before, thus proving pollution is going up.
We know how to fake the answers, we were not all dunces at science.
Hune you stupid hune.
Oops, Huhne you …
FFS Common sense helps, what doesn’t help is most of these “lefities” have never had a real job in industry/finance. If they have then they have more than often failed. Their only skill is giving, serving up skillfull bullshit….. that then qualifies them as polititions/lawyers.
F*cking hate them all, bloody parasites.
DEAR STEVE HILTON
Since you are the only one in number 10 that has any sense on Europe, maybe yoy could give Cameron’s head a shake & make the stupid twat realise that us loyal Tories are deserting him in our thousands.
It is clear to any sensible person that the EU is not right for the UK. We could do well for ourselves like other countries that have stayed out of it.
The article on your views in the Daily Mail was spot on.
Yours Hopefully
An ex Tory voter
Dave prepares to spunk more of our money abroad.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/0620/1224299223415.html
THE BRITISH government could massively subsidise the Irish wind energy industry under proposals to be considered in London today.
Britain believes the west coast and the seas around Ireland can provide it with a large amount of its renewable energy and could be willing to subsidise offshore wind farms there.
Industry groups here say such a move could be worth up to €1.6 billion a year to the Irish economy.
Weasel words being ‘could’ and ‘wind industry’. Cameron is turning out to be a complete and utter clown.
I think we all knew he was, but the main thing to do a year ago was to hold your nose and vote for him as the likeliest way to see the back of that utter disaster Brown.
However, he has proved even worse than we’d feared- no convictions, no determination, policies based on wet soppiness- he is truly awful. It’s got to be UKIP as our last hope. If they can’t get into the major league, we really are deep in the doo-doo.
You forgot to mention that his daddy in law is also making a fortune out of windmills. Biased, him??
And if THAT doesn’t convince him………………..http://www.lbc.co.uk/vote-now-boris-or-dave-for-pm-41362
And about thses fucking bailouts.
After Paddyland Dave said no more, Then this week we learn that we are paying another 9 billioninto the IMF to bailout Greece, Is there any chance our MPS can debate this as it is OUR money and they are supposed to spend it wisely.
Under what law/treaty are required to bailout these basket case places and why has parliament not put a stop to it?
Dont call it Paddyland…you will insult poor Guido… He’s one of em afterall
Paddyland is offensive. Ulster is much better. For all of it.
.666Ulster.
The part of the UK that has been getting a Greek style bailout since its very formation.
Remember that the next time the loyal orders who celebrate taking arms from Germany and Ghadafy’s Libya are whining that the “mainlanders” do not appreciate their kind.
Calm down dear.
The facts should never be allowed to obscure reassuring untruth. Once established, lies acquire an inertia that is hard to deflect.
Try telling that to Al-Beeb, the official mouthpiece ofAGW and the far left
The beeb were at it again today having some Indian chuntering on about oceans being buggered up or something. I really wasn’t paying much attention.
The whole situation is terrifying really – those blood drinking lizards really have us over a barrel this time.
There are no blood drinking lizards, just a greedy, corrupt and thoroughly dishonest political class, in bed with the corporate class and scratching each others backs.
Follow the money.
Fact and theory are interchangable terms, as theory means its been proved to match the evidence. I think the word you were looking for was hypothesis, but global warming is pretty well proven.
Theorem is a proved theory…
Global Warming theory is pretty well totally dis-proven by the fact it hasn’t warmed for the last decade…
If your model expects accelerating warming and there’s flat temperature then your model is falsified.
Sorry AGW is junk science.
I won’t even start on the fact that those mathematical climate models ignore the most basic of facts about recursive data.
I thought you explained it all the other week when you said its all down to a lack of sunspots?
“global warming is pretty well proven.”
No shit. The Sahara used to be grassland. Now it’s hot and sandy. Britain used to be covered by mile-high glaciers. They melted.
You figured-out the world’s been getting hotter? You worked it out all by yourself? Well done.
Let me sit back and laugh as you try to blame it all on my car’s CO2 emissions.
There are no facts in science, only observations and theories.
The Earth orbits the Sun. Scientific Fact.
You bender.
Heretic!
Not strictly true, they orbit each other.
No, they orbit the barycentre of the solar system which is not the centre of the sun.
Orbital dynamics and elements.
They orbit the black hole.
The Euro is the perfect example to explode the myth that the British political class knows better than the average man on the street.
Why are the Lib Dems so keen on the European union? What magical properties has it got to get them all fired up? We all know why Leiber like the E.U. Jobs for the has-beens in their party. I can’t believe how rich the Kinnocks have become. Two faced losers that they are. As for Ted Heath….. don’t get me started!
The LibDems get to be part of a big voting “block” and feel important… AND get money for being in it.
Tar Kev.
Arent the Libs alligned to that twat Guy Verhofstadt .. the sneering Belgian who looks like a peado
let the little children suffer to come to me:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2005804/Blair-charges-children-10-attend-sons-end-term-party-6million-country-mansion.html
Wow, even by their standards….
Words fail, the creatures called Blair are truly revolting, grasping crooks.
These guys have really taken the biscuit by recommending something which has turned into a Greek tragedy. I saw the situation put well earlier.
“We are left with the image of the wealthy and influential doing quite well out of this crisis whilst those without influence and much money are facing austerity’s squeeze. This is not only unfair it is outright dangerous as that is the way revolutionary fervour can build. If those being squeezed feel hard done by it is hard to blame them as the truth is that they are.We return to a theme of mine which remains as true as it ever was. the machinations around Greece still look more like a rescue scheme for Greek and European banks that for Greece herself.”
http://t.co/yiMgWSN
Now look at the list above and see their connections with various banks such as Tony Blair and JP Morgan…..I wonder why they were in favour of all this?
“look more like a rescue scheme for Greek and European banks that for Greece herself”
I think it’s obviously a bailout of Greece’s creditors, rather than for Greece itself. Greece will still be in debt, but the debt’s transferred from banks to the taxpayer.
And didn’t Greece’s creditors factor-in the chance of default when they set their interest rates? Greece has a high risk of default, so they’re charged around 17% to borrow money.
But the creditors want their cake and to eat it – a high return on their risky investment PLUS a 100% bailout by EU taxpayers.
To Hell with them.
No need to thank me Guido, My moral compass guided me.
Been moded for calling the K@nnocks rude names………… can’t think of any other reason [apart from calling the Lib Dems some rude names too!]. Hey ho
Such intelligence, how would we cope without them?
With no exception they all look to Europe to feather their nests, to hell with their own country.
Kinnock, Brittain, Huhne are all classic cases.
I still would love to know if Huhne has any vested interest in windmills.
It’s Samantha’s dad wot is making the cash out of all this. Do any of these global warmists ever wonder why Roman soldiers toddled around in the north of England in skirts and sandals rather than furry gloves, bearskins and parkas?
they grew grapes for wine in the South of England too.
history teachers tells us it during an ice age
I wish it were possible to dig up Ted Heath and kick the shit out of him. I wish I had written to him while he was alive to tell him what an odious pile of ordure he was. As for Kinnock, he’s just one in a long line of socialist hypocrites who (together with their ugly wives) need to be whipped within an inch of their lives. And stripped of all their ill-gotten gains.
why are socialists such hypocrites? Blair, Kinnock, Toynbee. fancy going on holiday with one of these c#nts?
His miserable carcase should be dumped into the north sea. An example to the other Quisling cnuts in parliament and the wider establishment.
EVEN NOW, THEY WILLFULLY SOLDIER ON. BECAUSE TO DO OTHERWISE WOULD BE TO ADMIT THEIR ORIGINAL MISTAKE.
Plus the fact they’ve too much money to lose until the whole edifice really does go belly up.
OK Ok, What is the difference between global climate change and the aims of Kyoto back in the early 90s?
The hatred, the venom I feel for these people. I hope they all take years to rot PAINFULLY in hell!!
The poor of Europe are now paying heavily for their rich, elitist, champagne swathing socialist,ludicrous, so called politician’s ideas and theories.
Not just socialists though is it.
We have a situation in the west where toxic leftist ideology overlaps with the interests of corporate/big business greed. On issues like the global warming fraud, endless mass immigration and the EU, the shit stirring left are in lock step with the greedy – profit at any price – right.
Our countries are literally being run into the ground as a result. Time for nationalist to seize back control of their countries and lives.
I think you will find that the current model within EUro lalaland, is essentially ‘progressive corporatism’.
It used to be called Fascism, but the new ‘progressives’ didn’t like it’s original name.
BTW, fascism is a version of collectivist socialism and not right wing at all.
The Sri Lankan batsmen are taking the piss now.
If England can’t win this test match I shall be voting Labour form now on.
Only Edward Miliband can save the England cricket team
I hope it’s a draw, I’ve got 200 on it.
Fecking weather … the Lankans are going to get away with it.
It is NOT Europe that is bad but the socialist statist one-size-fits-all dirigiste version of Jacques Delors that is bad and ruining the whole of the EU, not just us. That is not what we signed up to (you are probably too young to remember) in 1973: Wilson had to promise the Labour Party that he would renegotiate the Treaty.
No, it’s the bigger is better underlying assumption that’s at fault.
nothing wrong with bigger is better – just about right time and place
There is actually, ever heard of ‘too big to fail’ or ‘bailout’. If a bank or corporation is too big to fail, it is too big full stop. Stop stealing from taxpayers and bailing out / rewarding, bad corporate management.
Poor Guido, Preoccupied with Ed and Ed, and now a Euro Rant.
Errrrrrrrrrr Forgot to mention Dave’s Cast Iron Referendum guarantee.
** Stuff Guido would rather not thread **
Obama impersonator ushered off stage after joking about the president’s ancestry and mocking Neo Con scum Republicans – The Neo con scum booked him.
Women’s pension debatable.
Bonkers Boris Greek Rank.
Situation in Afghanistan deteriorating.
Situation in Libya deteriorating ( £100m and counting )
Dave’s Dads Day Disaster ( what a plonker )
Care homes, and now Home Care calamity.
…I could go on. Well done, managed to get through past 24 hours without a U-turn.
‘I could go on’…..Wish you would go on a long motorbike ride off a short pier..
I managed 24 hourth without a relaunch.
What I never understood about women’s pensions is that they live longer, good proportion miss out on work for about 8 years on average, and they wanted equality.
What am I missing?
Poor Guido, Preoccupied with Ed and Ed, and now a Euro Rant.
Errrrrrrrrrr Forgot to mention Dave’s Cast Iron Referendum guarantee.
Erm, who was it, exactly, that signed the treaty, under the cover of darkness, leaving Dave’s dick in the wind on a promise that he could no longer keep after such an act of treachery?
I’ll give you a clue…oh, fuck it, I really don’t have to, do I?
Concluding remarks: one size fits all!
Let me conclude with a citation. On the eve of the changeover, I wrote a commentary on diversity and monetary policy in the euro area. To the question whether a single one-size monetary policy could fit all parties involved – be they national entities, social partners or economic actors – my answer was: “One size must fit all”. The political decision on the creation of EMU had resolved all discussions on whether monetary union should precede or follow political unity and the fulfilment of the criteria for an optimum currency area. Today, in light of the evidence gathered so far in the euro area, I am more confident in saying: “One size does fit all!”
http://bit.ly/lpdhaB
REMEMBER WHEN THE BUNDESBANK REFUSED TO HELP GREAT BRITAIN WHEN WE WERE EJECTED FROM THE ERM IN 1992 ???????
WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND…..
yawn…and now the weather
Mind you, they were quite right not to. Only total f***wits would have backed that policy. Unfortunately they then made it permanent for the rest of Europe
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185187.html
Spain’s public debt in the first three months of 2011 has risen to 970 billion dollars, the highest level in 13 years, Bank of Spain figures show.
Spain’s accumulated public debt amounted to 679.78 billion euros ($970 billion) or 63.6 percent of annual gross domestic product, at the end of March, the central bank data released on Friday showed.
Spanish savings banks’ public offerings must go ahead as planned for the financial sector and the country as a whole to recover markets’ confidence, Reuters reported the Bank of Spain’s deputy governor as saying.
Bank of Spain said on Friday that the banking sector’s bad loan rate rose in April to 6.36 percent, the highest since June 1995. The rate had fallen in March for the first time in five months.
According to Bank of Spain, the rate among loans made to real estate promoters stood at a record 15.24 percent.
Meanwhile, unemployment has gone up over 21 percent in the first quarter, the highest rate of joblessness in the industrialized world.
Spain is struggling to recover from nearly two years of recession triggered in large part by the collapse of an overheated real estate sector.
Having, this year, returned from Spain after selling our home for a whacking loss, I can only say that Spain’s problems are understated in the post above.
Go to the Costas and you will see literally tens of thousands of fully built and partly built, completely unsaleable properties. All these were financed by Spanish Banks and Cajas: tens of thousands white elephants are now “owned” by theses lenders as the developers have gone bust.
All carried on the bank’s books as “assets”, when they are worth 20% of that value at most – if they can find buyers at any price. Banks are only giving decent mortgages on properties they own – 100% is common.
The collapse of many Banks/Cajas in Spain is only being delayed by the entirely false accounting of these debts being shown as assets.
Spanish banks are well known for their profligacy: the small town where we lived had no less that 16 different Bank/Caja branch offices, all in swanky shiny buildings and most living off the “investment” in developers and the mortgages to silly people borrowing up to the hilt – often 130% of value!
The crash will spectacular and every day I am grateful that we escaped with enough to buy a very modest house in England, regrettably leaving many of our friends to their fates when the euro collapses.
What price a Spanish dream home when valued in nearly worthless pesetas?
“””predicting for two decades””””
Errrrrr I think you will find that the Neo Con Loonles actually predicted that the Euro wouldnt last 12 months.
All wishful thinking Guido, wishful thinking… The Euro will survive; our problem he in the UK, is will the markets we export to survive…. That’s the real issue, but Guido doesn’t do real issues….Back to ranking
You aint seen me right
You could try typing all that again, this time in English.
Moussa, why don’t you do one, you pathetic little pig-dog?
The euro-sucking trash at the top of the post will have plenty of company when the time to settle accounts comes Mouser Pucker
How did this nob manage to become an MP?
More to the point, how did he manage to bed Ms Berger? Oh, wait, he didn’t did he, the limp-cocked dicksplash.
Mark my words- very soon the next cohort of statesmen will emerge from an emergency meeting, mindfull of the burdens of stateship, leadership and their role in history, to announce the EU now has taxing rights over each of us. Due to the extreme urgency (due to kicking it into the long grass for as long as possible) unfortunately it had not been possible to consult national parliaments or go through referendum motions; the world was coming to an end and they had to show decisive leadership or the markets etc etc – And so an even stronger EU was founded -The Cookoo State.
The we don’t pay and anyone trying to collect gets a fist in his/her face.
As I posted earlier but bears repeating:
” . . many politicians specializing in financial and economic affairs recommend bringing about the political union of Europe as quickly as possible, a union with a strong central government. . . ”
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,769329,00.html
Another failedpost dear Guido.
You Failed to nail Hauge
You have failed to nail Chris Huhne on those old allegations
You failed to argue with any facts that climate change is a con.
You failed to acknowlabge Chris Huhne work on making Britan a greener, cleaner and safer country.
This was just a rant froma right wing lunitic with no facts at all.
Shame to see you losing your touch Guido.
“Your were the future once”
“failedpost”? “acknowlabge”? “Chris Huhne work”? (I suppose you’d have had to use one of those tricky apostrophes there) “froma”?
“Your were the future once”
Mark, try posting something that isn’t totally mangled. Go on. You can do it, Mark. Go on!
and you are so unbiased too.
You are nothing more than an arsonist having a go at the fireman.
All politicians should ROT PAINFULLY IN HELL, THATS WHERE THEY BELONG, AND THE SOONER THE BETTER!
OK – point 3 – how about -
1. No increase in global temperatures since 1998, contrary to predictions;
2. Temperature increase 1910-1940 almost identical to temperature change 1975-1998 but clearly not caused by CO2;
3. Temperatures static or falling between 1940 and 1975 despite rising CO2.
Source: Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, for instance here:http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/
The 330,000 women to be denied their rightful pension in 2018(now 2020) will save £10bn, so says the treasury.
The same treasury is sending almost the same amount to the IMF by way of a statutory Instrument in Parliament with out debate, for onward wasting to Greece.
If you think we believe you when you say ‘we are all in this together’, you must really take the electorate for fools.
You will not win next time if you continue to support the EU with out pension money!
What you lose in pensions, you gain in the growing sense of pride that you are a citizen of generous spendaholic Britain, pissing money
herethere and everywhere. Everywhere except here.Must dash – one has to go and sack more soldiers! Toodle pip!
i hardly think working two years more at the age of 50 is so bad – there has to be a cut off somewhere.
I hope 5 years before you retire, your pension goalpost,private and public, is raised so you receive it at 100.
As you say we have to have a cut off point somewhere and some one has to pay, so let it be you. This doesn’t seem too bad to me.
I don’t remember the Lefties squeeling as Brown launch his £10billion a year raid on private pension funds.
Now it’s your turn. Don’t. Expect. ANY. Pity.
Women live longer than men, and are complaining that they have to work as long as men of their own age.
What’s unfair about that?
Gender-equality is only good when women are more equal than men.
The lunatics are running the asylum – quite literally in Ken Clarke’s case.
Women have been banging on about equal right for eons, now all of a sudden they don’t want it. Brilliant! You really can’t pick and choose from equality laws. Now you know how us blokes feel.
Since women in the West tend to live a year or two longer than men, wouldn’t it be fairer if women’s retirement age was higher than men’s?
My sister Dolly makes a very nice ‘upside down cake’
Last time I looked, 14% of the world’s foreign currency reserves were held in euros with 4% in Sterling. That Greece will default is not in question, be it within the next couple of weeks through failure to agree the austerity measures the rest of europe / ECB & IMF demand to be imposed or in twelve months time when a further bailout is required (and refused).
The arguments for and against a common european currency are no longer relevant. What is eye wateringly nasty are the repercussions for Britain when it does finally go down the swannee. It will make the collapse of Lehman Bros loook like a ‘little local difficulty’. The markets will turn on the next countries whose sovereign debt is unsustainable and demand yet higher rates of interest on lending which will push them to absolute bankruptcy which leaves the UK well and truly shafted by way of its exposure both to bonds/loan guarantees we have issued and not to begin mentioning the level of indebtedness to our banks.
Whilst I am always ready for any excuse to party, this frankly is not one of them.
Who the hell thought it was a good idea to link the PIIGS economies with Germany and the Benelux region? I would suggest an averagely intelligent 12 year old could spot the potential problems and the ensuing financial disaster.
A UNITED STATES OF EUROPE IS THE POLICY AIM OF ALL “STATES” IN EUROPE AS WELL AS THAT OF THE UNTIED STATES OF AMERICA.
BUT THEY WILL NOT ADMIT IT TO THE ELECTORATE.
Guido, Could you just point me to a court that has convivted the people that you have found guilty?
Convivted?
It’s the court of Pubic Opinion, Zippy.
Mark doesn’t do English.
Jack “man o” straw tells HoC euro is facing a slow death.
YEEES !
Sangakkara c Sub(Ed Balls) b Anderson 119
Ed Balls should have started rather than being a sub
Is it time for a leadership contest?
No not Ed, who gives a fuck about him,
I mean
Boris and Dave
http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7039268/boriss-onetwo-punch-against-the-coalition.thtml
Boris Johnson as Conservative leader / PM.
Just for a moment, ponder the absurdity of that statement.
There are 62 million people in the UK, and the only one of them who isn’t suitable to be PM is the PM.
(I’m not including any of the muzzies, obviously.)
There’s more like 67 million. Don’t forget all the illegals and the 6 fingered brown children that don’t get registered.
Up from 49 million ten years ago. Didn’t that ‘nice’ Mr. Bliar say something about ethnic cleansing being a bad thing, a few short years ago?
if every woman he’s shagged voted for him he’d be half way there.
and if you added all the blokes ..
Trouble with Boris is that he’s for Turkey joining the EU ( though he’s generally anti Eu, so that may be a subtle bit of electioneering) and wants an amnesty for illegals– a very crude piece of electioneering.
Now that I didn’t know.
Well, that’s his chances f*cked.
Kinnock, Hezza and Calamity Clarke…Oh you are funny Guido.
I think you will find that it was Thatcher ( Tory PM in Tory Maj Gov ) who signed The Single European Act in 1986, the largest change to EU since the Treaty of Paris in 1951 and the Treaties of Rome in 1957. FACT
…and it was Johnny ( Edwina ) Major who signed the Maastricht Treaty 1993.
All treaties post 1993, have been minor amendments. The two biggies were 1986 and 1993.
I didn’t hear Labour kicking up a fuss about it you hypocrite bastard.
Ah but ’twas Thatcher who said the Euro was a step too far and kept us out of it. She is on record as predicting what is now being experienced by Greece et al.
Hardly an oracle. A blind man on a charging horse could see what was coming.
…and the bastards are still grinning! They’ve all got something in common – they’re all brain dead. Except Heath, who’s actually dead. Firing squad…
Any labour policies yet?
Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are finished. What pathetic figures they are.
Balls was in the papers this morning saying there was nothing wrong with Brown’s spending, it didn’t cause a deficit, and if he becomes Chancellor he’ll restore government spending to Brown’s levels.
I guess he thought the Tories weren’t doing well enough in the polls, so he decided to give them a boost.
Well, the Tories boasted right up to the banking crisis broke that they’d keep spending up to Labour’s levels and we all know the sun shines out of their arses.
‘A Conservative government would match Labour’s projected public spending totals for the next three years, shadow chancellor George Osborne has said.’ – 3 September 2007.
That’s because Little George and U-turn Dave know jack-shit. Helps explains their lack of a poll lead over Labour.
Still, it’s nice of Balls to try and help them out. Politics isn’t all bad.
What is it with you right wing nutter`s?
Why dont`t you see you are on the wrong side of the debate? Climate change is a fact and goverment must act.
I know some said we were jumping in bed with the devil when we formed the coalition, But i thought they were joking!
You show no thought for the poor people in this country,let alone the world, I suppose if it was up toyou lot we would use eugenics to wipe the poor out!
How do you live with all that hate in your lives?
you’re right – let’s kiss and make up
How do YOU live with your utter hatred of non-Liberals?
“if it was up toyou lot we would use eugenics to wipe the poor out!”
Eugenics, Mark, is about stopping the mentally deficient (look around your office for examples) from breeding. It is nothing to do with “wiping the poor out”.
PS: ‘Nutters’ doesn’t have a possessive apostrophe. “Dont’t” is sort of right, but there’s only a T after the apostrophe, not before it as well.
2/10. Must try harder.
If the bollocks that tree-huggers like you come out with is true, the Gov would be criminally negligent not to immediately ban all internal combustion engines.
Why don’t they?
‘Cause it’s bollocks.
BTW ‘Poor people’, as you put it, think about you and your sort quite a lot. Hopefully, you’ll find out just exactly what they are thinking pretty soon.
Mark is comedy gold, though the central hypocrisy of his argument is lost on the moron. Is making poor people even poorer and rich people incredibly richer via carbon tax and subsidy, your idea of ‘caring’?
Because it’s not mine.
Climate Change is not a fact. It is only statistically significant to 95%. Jones has said, trumpeted Richard Black the other day with unwarranted triumphalism.
It is a probability which elsewhere in science would get the peer reviewer to politely recommend more research to clarify the issues, uncertainties before publication.
But not, it seems, in climate science.
Nope…90%….As a scientist I can assure you that it is an interesting theory, but certainly not worth destroying our countryside and economy. In other words it is bolllocks.
Still, that hoon Kinnock and his family made an effing mint out of Europe so it’s not all been a waste of time, has it?
Europe is like having a multi link shit, guaranteed to block the bog
who thinks Mark Pack is a cock?
I know Mark Pack is a cock.
+1
Also he keeps misspelling his surname: it starts with a ‘C’ not a ‘P’.
ME!
Just thought, that as the pound is so low at the moment, isn’t it the right time to go into the Euro?
No.
Are you serious? If you are, the prospect that, A: Someone employs you AND pays you money, is deeply worrying. B: You are able to vote, terrifying.
Please don’t be misled. This is not all going wrong, it is all going exactly to plan. The only option and next step for the members of the Euro will be fiscal union, and then on to greater things. ‘Europe’ is getting there bit by bit, piece by piece, the jigsaw and European dream is coming together.
Who can stop it now?
Give Bliar his due, the quotation by Guido lists a number of statements almost all of which have subsequently been demonstrated to be true.
The only one that isn’t is that Europe is obstinately against reform. In fact it seems wedded to the idea an ever-closer union between its component states, by treaties and legislation.
Since you mentioned the AGW farce, take a look at eadavison.com for a critical analysis of the biased procedures used to sustain it. Oddly, they’re same used to keep the EU going.
Can I add my name to the claim that at the time I was one of the many who was dead fast opposed to the whole euro project (currency and political union).
I was right and they were wrong.
Other victories include trade union reform, control of the money supply to bring inflation down, The Nuclear deterrent , lower taxes, privatisation of state assets, etc etc etc zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Agree – vote Ukip or give the British public a vote on Europe.
Drachmas, Pesetas, Escudos, Punds. It’s better to have these currencies back where they belong, rather than a Euro called a Reichsmark in twenty years time. I won’t be here to witness it but, as sure as sh-t, that’s where we’re heading again.
Bunch of C*NTS the lot of them
I’m writing a book about France. Assistance needed.
What is the government doing for aspiration? How is it going to lift people out of the “working class” frame of mind into “middle class” thinking?
That’s what a government should be doing. Aspiration. All I see is fire fighting, with Lib Dems deliberately getting in the way and Labour ineptly trying to start fires with a couple of damp twigs called Ed and David Miliband.
All i see is more and more tax
Here’s some comfort for Cameron at least! http://www.lbc.co.uk/vote-now-boris-or-dave-for-pm-41362
The only reason Kinnock, Mandlething and ALL the other Muppets (sorry, that’s being unkind to Muppets) said we should join the Euro was that they wanted to have overpaid, taxfree EU jobs in the future or were already paid by the EU (Conflict of interest there, methinks)