Thursday, 10 November 2011


The European Spring? - by Pete... Thursday, November 10, 2011

Guest post by Autonomous Mind

The term 'Arab Spring' entered the vernacular this year as ordinary people and various groups in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya overhauled the leadership in those countries using a varying amount of protest and force. There were protests elsewhere too. Among them the civil revolt in Bahrain was ruthlessly stamped out with the aid of a show of force by Saudi Arabian soldiers.

The uprising in Yemen built upon the existing insurgency in that country as the military and government both split into factions. And the rebellion in Syria continues to rack up the body count behind the media blackout imposed by Assad Jnr.

With this in mind it struck me as utterly ludicrous to hear talking heads on BBC radio this morning referring to the 'European Spring'. The resignation of George Papandreou in Greece and the announcement by Silvio Berlusconi that he would be calling a general election in Italy in which he will not be a candidate, does not constitute a 'European Spring' in any way. Quite the opposite in fact.

The departure of these two Prime Ministers has nothing to do with submitting to the wishes of their countrymen or giving way to popular protests aimed to sweep away the political elite in those countries. What we have seen are the first EU revolutions. For it is not the people, but the bureaucrats supported by the Franco-German axis known as 'Merkozy', who have swept away these two political figures. It is not the interests of the people being served, rather the ambitions of the integrationists being given complete priority.

Rather than a cry for democracy and political accountability, the effective coup d'etat being witnessed in Greece and Italy are their antithesis. The EU, for so long resolute in its effort to subvert representative democracy in order to enable the political class to govern in the interests of the elite and the corporates, is for the first time overtly asserting its control over its provinces.

From the moment Papandreou raised the collective blood pressure in Brussels, by flashing a tantalising glimpse of real democracy within the bloc with his talk of a referendum, his career was over. In little over a week he has gone from presenting himself as the champion of the people to reading out his resignation statement on Greek television. His masters have spoken. An EU approved replacement will be duly delivered into his vacant seat.

The loose canon Berlusconi has long been an embarrassment to the EU elite. Bouncing along from scandal to cock up and back again has long infuriated the faceless legions in Europe. He was always on borrowed time. Now the bond markets have put pressure on Italy and the EU can see a gigantic bail out request looming out of the mist, Berlusconi's time is up. Speculation that his announced departure is a ploy is wide of the mark. The EU will not allow him to remain. It's off to play with his billions and bunga bunga to his heart's content.

It is hard to tell what is more disturbing. The fact this is the face of 21st Century Europe, or that 66 years after the end of a war to overcome tyrrany, the talking heads casually drop into their analysis that the deeper integration required to preserve the Euro will result in less democracy - as if it is an irrelevant triviality.

While people (and opportunists) in parts of the Arab world campaigned, protested, fought and died in an effort to bring about democracy and make their voices the sound of their country, the people of Europe are having democracy dismantled and their voices silenced to serve the vested interests of the political and financial elite.

European Spring? More like a European sink.


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Editors note... AM requested I illustrated the piece with someone with their mouth gagged. Even with safe search on, that's not something I can google at work. Pass the eye bleach please!

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HMG replies to two questions - by Helen...

One straightforward one from Lord Willoughby de Broke and one rather strange one from a member of the Kinnock Enterprises Inc on Your Freedom and Ours.

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The resignations just run and run - by Helen... Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Talks to form a unity government in Greece have collapsed and there ain't no Sanity Clause either.
In a day that was bizarre and chaotic even by Greek political standards, Papandreou wished his successor well and headed off to meet the president -- only for it to emerge that there was no successor due to feuding in the political parties.

Earlier, party sources said senior members of the socialist and conservative camps had settled on the speaker of parliament, veteran socialist Filippos Petsalnikos, barring last-minute snags.

But snags did indeed emerge, with large sections of Papandreou's PASOK party and the conservative New Democracy refusing to back Petsalnikos after a three-day hunt for someone to lead the coalition until early elections in February.
So who is the Greek Prime Minister? Do we even care? It appears that talks will start again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we are assured that the eurozone has not plans to rescue Italy, which was never on the cards anyway. Whether Italy is too big to fail or not is a moot point but it is certainly too big to rescue.

French and German officials are discussing a smaller eurozone. It is not immediately clear whom they will shed but they might start with France. Of course, a smaller eurozone is as good as no eurozone, given that this was a political project from the very beginning, aimed at a fiscal and economic unification of however many countries there might be in the EU at any given time. That project has, to all intents and purposes, been abandoned.

The Italians hope to avoid the Greek political mess and a possible successor to Silvio Berlusconi when he finally goes has been mooted. Then again, it looked like the Papandreou succession was all stitched up as well, yet here we are.

Theresa May is definitely not resigning. Not today, anyway.


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That man again. - by Pete...

If ever you needed confirmation that Chris Huhne is dangerously deluded, this is it.
Natural gas is a critical part of our energy mix today, as it will be tomorrow and beyond 2030. As old coal and nuclear power stations shut down, gas can provide flexible and reliable back-up electricity to complement the next generation of renewable energy.
This is a man obsessed, who can only see the realities in terms of his own grand delusions... a turbine on every hillside.

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Yeah, pretty much. - by Pete...

If I was in the mood to write anything today, this would have been it. Good old Dellers has done it for me.

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Guest posts - by Pete...

The plan was that as well as contributions from Helen, I was going to write a few posts but I am exceptionally busy with day job stuff at the moment. I have a new SQL Server to play with and so there is little chance of me seeing daylight for some time.

Since the current ethos of this blog is to promote intelligent and considered opinion from the blogging underworld, I thought we could throw it open for the next week or so. If any of you bloggers fancy doing a guest post and plugging your blog, please email me at mrnorth303@gmail.com.

You know what we go for, so if you're up for it, drop us a line. The floor is yours.

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Are they going? Any minute now - by Helen...

Berlusconi is still promising to step down but that, apparently, is not going to save Italy and her economy.
Italy's borrowing cost has soared to a record high, despite Silvio Berlusconi's promise to step down as prime minister.

Mr Berlusconi had said he wanted to show global markets that the country was "serious" about sorting out its finances.

But on Wednesday morning, Italy's 10-year government bond yield - the rate the country pays in interest to borrow money - rose above 7% for the first time since entering the euro.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano called for an immediate commitment to economic reforms to restore confidence in panicked financial markets.

Bond yields of more than 5% are considered unsustainable in the long term as governments cannot afford to pay that much over a long period.
Would it have been different if the man had paid any attention to his job and/or stepped down earlier? Quite possibly.

The Boy-King has come out fighting (well, sort of) for the beleaguered (I believe that is the correct expression) Theresa May. Her position thus becomes unassailable. Let me say that again, unassailable.

Hereditary Prime Minister Papandreou is all set to resign and this time he will really, really, do it. Well, he has to; after all, he told Sarko. In the fullness of time he will tell the people of Greece as well.

What with all this going on plus the IAEA officially announcing that Iran is becoming something of a problem, it is not surprising that the students' march for more money to be handed out against those terrible cuts in education has somehow disappeared from people's consciousness. Bad luck chaps and chapesses. And just a hint: try not to display Socialist Worker placards quite so prominently.

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Are they going? In a pig's eye - by Helen...

Berlusconi "vows to resign". What on earth does that mean? The man has lost the vote, has lost his majority. Just go already. Nope, the BBC doesn't say he has resigned either just that " has confirmed he intends to resign after key economic reforms have been approved". Goodness me, I remember a time when Italian prime ministers went down like ninepins and there was none of this vowing around the place.

According to Reuters he will resign once a new budget law has been approved in parliament.

No, Papandreou hasn't gone either.
Greek political leaders failed to wrap up coalition talks as planned on Tuesday night, raising fears the deal could start to unravel after two missed deadlines.
The country’s president had been set to appoint a new cross-party government headed by Lucas Papademos, a former vice-president of the European Central Bank who previously served as Greece’s own central bank governor.

George Papandreou, the outgoing prime minister, was supposed to announce his resignation at the same time, according to an official from his PanHellenic Socialist Movement.

“There’s radio silence from our side, let’s see what happens in the morning,” said a senior socialist. The government spokesman could not be reached for comment.

An official from the conservative New Democracy party said:”Contacts seem to be over for today.” He added that there were “no indications” that Mr Papademos had pulled out of the discussions.
OK, I'll say it again: just go already.

That leaves Theresa May who has managed to pass the blame for her incompetence on to the head of the UK border force. He has resigned but in a Parthian shot has accused Ms May of misleading Parliament. As if she would. So the heat is on. Theresa May has already announced that she will not resign but we have not had a public pronouncement of support from the Boy-King. When that happens we shall know that her days are numbered.

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Update - by Pete... Tuesday, November 08, 2011

North is awake, eating, tubes removed and talkative. It's fairly safe to assume that if he hasn't shuffled loose of the mortal coil by now, he isn't going to.

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1688 and all that... - by Pete...

A guest post by Sandy Rham.

In 1688 there was a prat called James II on the throne. His elder brother, Charles II was probably the best of the Stuart Kings because he concentrated more on the Boudoir than interfering with the country. Indeed on one of his nightly forays his younger brother had suggested he shouldn't go out into dangerous streets with so little escort, to which he allegedly replied: “There is not a man in all my kingdom who would kill me to put you on the throne”.

And so it proved to be when King James II brutally crushed the Monmouth Rebellion and got himself thoroughly disliked for wanton abuses of power. In 1688 a group organized a 'convocation' of all the worthies of the Realm and told James II to hop it. They also invited the Duke of Orange to become the first Constitutional Monarch. This means that although the Sovereign may not be over-ruled, the definition of Sovereign, they are, nonetheless, bound by limits to their power.

Chief among the strictures imposed was the imperative that the Nation may not be given away so no power could fine us a Nation, nor could they over-rule our courts. At the time the worry was the Catholic hegemony, which having lost Britain a 150 or so years earlier, was still scheming to get a puppet on the throne.

Although Cromwell's Commonwealth was within living memory, and they were dumping a pretty rotten Royal, they nevertheless chose the Monarchy over a Republic. They also put all authority within the hands of the Sovereign to be lent out on the receipt, directly or indirectly, of a bondsman's oath. This means judges, the police, the armed services et al. have no authority in their own right, but rather the authority the sovereign lends them.

Thus they effectively put all their eggs in one basket and made the protection of the sovereign and national sovereignty paramount. With hindsight the reason is clear, a sovereign, being a person, may be held accountable for the actions done in their name, and we can all agree accountability is sadly missing today.

Lawyers will try and persuade you that since GB has no written Constitution it has no Constitution. This is not so, we have 'Constitutional Documents' of which by far the most important are the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Rights 1688, the result of James II demise. The reason these carry more weight is that in both cases the Rule of Law had broken down and the documents represented the conditions under which the rebels would give their Consent to the Rule of Law.

This is the purpose of a Constitution, to set bounds on The Powers That Be, to draw the line beyond which the people will withdraw consent and rebel. TPTB then try to use the Authority conceded to them to 'adjust' the Constitution bit by bit, snipping away at Liberties. Americans are vigilant on this front, but in Britain TPTB have gradually rewritten the Rule Book, or at least they think they have, and claim our implied Consent by the fact we haven't rebelled... yet.

So the Constitution is not an outdated legal thing with little relevance today, as the TPTB will have you believe, rather it is that line beyond which lies rebellion, withdrawal of Consent to The Rule of Law. A constitution cannot be decreed for us any more than respect can be demanded, yet it is respect for the law that leads to consent to the rule of law.

We will have to reclaim our sovereignty and it would be wise to plan for the structure of the subsequent Nation, to consider just how the Law is allowed to Rule.


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Not nobody is going to resign, not nohow - by Helen...

Theresa May is not resigning. Berlusconi is being urged by his "key ally", Umberto Bossi of the Northern League, to resign but is singing the Italian equivalent of "la-la-la-la, can't hear you".Greece is still "inching towards a deal" while
an emergency cabinet meeting -- the last likely to be held by the present government -- was postponed owing to a meeting between outgoing Prime Minister George Papandreou and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, state television channel NET said.
That means that Papandreou has not resigned either.

Just thought you'd like to know.

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Update - by Helen...

13.40 North Jnr informs me that the Boss is doing very well and has had various tubes removed. That means he can eat, drink and, may the force help those poor nurses, talk.

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Karlo rather than Groucho Marx for once - by Helen... Monday, November 07, 2011

Of course, many of us recall what Karl Marx said at the beginning of The Eighteenth of Brumaire of Louis Napoleon (I must admit to finding it quite useful when I was doing history O level): History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce.

Actually, that is a meaningless statement for if the first event, the tragedy, is history repeating itself, then there must have been an even earlier one. In his view Napoleon I was the tragedy and Napoleon III, the farce. But what came before that?

However, there is no getting away from the fact that all historical parallels one can draw for present events in Greece and Italy show the situation up as farce. For the time being, anyway.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 09:55