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Not like the old days: who cares about the EU budget now?

At the risk of sounding like some sort of Brussels version of a Chelsea Pensioner, I can remember when the EU budget used to be a big story....

But those days are gone. Of course they are. Who cares about the EU taking a few billion extra when the EU is busy destroying entire economies, entire countries, an entire continent -- maybe two continents -- of banking and a generation of workers?

So it was yesterday, the might-as-well-be-last day of the deadline period (who wants to come back on Monday? No one) for representatives of the member states, the commission and the European parliament to seal themselves in a room at the European Council building and reach an agreement on the 2012 budget.

If you're interested, the headline figure is €129.1bn (£110bn), an increase of 2.02 percent, with disputes probably still going to continue on over an additional figure of between €200bn €550bn, and...oh, who cares?

Certainly not many members of the press. We all knew negotiations were going to go on late. That is the witless tradition about these things. But by ten o'clock last night at the council press centre, there were perhaps seven reporters hanging on to wait for the official result and (we hoped) press conference.

By midnight, there were just five of us left. When the word came down at 12.40 a.m. that it would be another hour at least before we'd have the white smoke, I showed my lack of moral fibre and went home.

So then, as in the Agatha Christie mystery story, there were four. Out of an EU press corps of maybe 900. Some of us can remember when the EU budget was a big story.....

Greece: the EU's Colonial Administrator gives his report

This morning the European Commission presented the first report of its Task Force for Greece. (Embarrassing, isn't it, how these over-protected low-testosterone eurocrats like to dress up their committees with military-sounding names?)

The 'task force' was set up by commission president Barroso in July. It claims to be offering 'technical assistance' to the Greeks to help them begin, as today's report puts it, 'a programme of profound structural reform and work towards a more efficient public administration.'

In other words, it is a cadre of eurocrats which the occupying powers have put in place in Athens to run Greece, and to over-ride the powers of the native bureaucrats -- not, of course, that the eurocrats see it that way. The official line of the commission is that the task force has not been forced on Greece. 'Absolutely not,' they insist, it was at the 'invitation' of the Greek government.

As proof of that, when the thing was launched in July, the commission insisted 'its [the task force's] creation and mandate were decided by the President of the Commission and the Greek Prime Minister.'

Ah, the Greek Prime Minister. That would have been Mr Papadreou. First he was 'invited' to ask for this Brussels colonial occupation as part of the bail-out, then he was toppled by Brussels when he announced he was going to offer the Greek people a vote on whether they really wanted this bail-out and its task force or not.

Here is what the task force is up to at the, ahem, invitation of the Greek government. Its members are now overseeing the administration of tax collection and public procurement. They also oversee judicial reform, national budget preparation, competition policy, privatisation, public health, and on it goes. In short, they are running the country.

But as the commission's euphemism has it, the task force's job is 'to identify, coordinate and provide technical advice to Greece.' Yes, technocrats running the government, technical advisors running the public administration. Greece used to be run by words beginning with demo, not techno.

In short, the coup is complete.

I could give you a few lines from the report that could interest you, but here is the one line I like best: 'In total, it is estimated that there are €60bn [£51.3bn] outstanding in upaid taxes. €30bn [£25.6] in uncollected tax revenues are the subject of court cases -- some of which have been running for over a decade.'

Most of the really enlightening stuff came after the presentation, and it was all off the record -- which is to say, it was the same two eurocrats standing on the podium in the press room facing the press but after the presentation of the report, the commission spokesmen, a Frenchman, hit a switch before questions started and a red light came on. That meant 'off the record.'

So I can't tell you what Horst Reichenbach, the head of the task force said in answer to

questions from journalists. But I did save that best bit until last, because, yes, the man that Brussels has sent to Greece to act as Chief Colonial Administrator is indeed a German named Horst Reichenbach. He is a former director-general of the European Commission and vice president of the European Bank for Resconstruction and Development.

But send a German named Horst Reichenbach?

It's bad enough Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader of Chancellor Merkel's CDU party, proclaimed yesterday that 'All of Europe is speaking German now.'

Add to that all those old wounds and furies that persist in Greece about the German invasion during the last war (or, if you listen to Angela Merkel and her talk of war as the alternative to her euro, merely the most recent war), and the man who is put in to run the new invasion of Greece is a German with a name that is half-bier keller and half-Sherlock- Holmes-meets-his-killer-in-Germany.

But here's the real killer. A Greek reporter had himself lined up to ask the first question. As he launched into his question, all one could here from Herr Reichenbach's podium was a scrabbling against his mic, as he tried to get hold of the ear-piece to listen to the simultaneous translation.

Because, yes, the man the commission has chosen as Colonial Administrator does not speak the language of the natives.

But then, why should he? It is the traditional job of any Colonial Administrator to ensure the natives are educated to speak his language. As Herr Kauder said: 'All of Europe is speaking German now.' And if not quite all, Herr Reichenbach is going to teach them.

Meanwhile, until the Greek natives do learn to speak German, why should he worry he can't understand a thing any of them says? It's not like they could vote him out of office or anything.

After an hour of Herr Reichenbach, I left the commission headquarters and ran into a Greek reporter-friend. I asked him why he missed the Greek briefing. 'Why should I go?' he replied. 'I don't care what they say. I just want to know if they are going to go on giving the money.'

Which was a reminder to me of why I am liking the Greek people more and more as this thing goes on: they don't want to know about commission task forces or ECB analysis.

Instead, they just riot, resist and take the money. Simple.

The Greeks have mastered philosophy as doggerel has it: 'As you go through life, let this be your goal: keep you eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole.'

That's about €130bn's worth of doughnut and counting...

The euro rampage won't stop at Rome: 'Spain is more at risk than Italy'

Italy and its debt disaster are pretty spectacular, so attention has been drawn away from the disaster that is Spain. Give it a few more days. The bond markets are going to take another look at the figures coming out of Madrid and widen their eurozone field of fire. (Yesterday Spanish spreads on ten year bonds were already at 4.2 percent.)

So far, the only reason Spain has not had to follow Greece, Portugal and Ireland into handing over control of its finance ministry to Brussels-appointed eurocrats is because its level of public sector net debt, relative to GDP, is still below that of Germany and the euro area average. (Meanwhile by the end of this year, Italy will have the second highest level of public sector net debt, relative to GDP, in the eurozone.)

However, according to a report out yesterday from the economist Jamie Dannhauser at Lombard Street Research, Spain, relative to Italy, faces a much bigger task in reducing its fiscal deficit and placing the debt stock on a declining path: 'Whereas the Italian budget should be in balance this year before interest payments are taking in account, the Spanish look like running a so-called "primary" deficit equal to around six percent of GDP. Official projections that it could get down to four and a half percent of GDP look wildly optimistic with Spain almost certainly back in recession.'

But here's what really sets Spain apart from Italy, and shows how dangerous Spanish investments now are: the vast scale of borrowing that took place within the privatesector before the crisis and the consequent asset price boom.

And that's not just the Spanish property market bubble.

According to Dannhauser's report, 'Spain's corporate borrowing binge makes Japan's in the early 1990s look fairly tame. Its ration of household debt to disposable income, although below Ireland's and the UK's, is similar to that in the US.'

'The ratio is only 50 percent in Italy, compared with 130 percent in Spain.'

'The loss of income from the financial crisis and the persistently lower rate of growth in the

future suggest the fundamental, or equilibrium, value of Spanish assets has been reduced significantly -- but the debt, largely provided by domestic banks, remains fixed in euro terms.'

But don't start thinking, 'this is private debt, not sovereign debt, it's not the same danger.' Wrong. The debt wonks among you may remember that it was Ireland's banks and the guarantee its (panicked, witless) government gave to bank debt in 2008 that drove Ireland into its disaster.

So remember this if you are looking for comfort in the fact that so much of Spain's debt is private, not sovereign: the Spanish government ultimately stands behind its banking system. So, 'potential losses on the latter's assets are therefore a massive contingent liability of the state.'

'It is the downward spiral between private debt, fiscal consolidation, low growth and banking solvency that really threatens countries in the periphery. Spain is more at risk than Italy.'

The euro: not so much a currency, more a plague.

And let that be a lesson to the new Greek government

EU completes negotiations with Berlusconi government:

PS: when I posted this yesterday, I didn't include a caption because I reckoned the 1945 picture was so well-known it didn't need explaining. However, I've learned that some readers don't recognise the shot. That is Mussolini second from the left, and next to him his mistress, Claretta Petacci, still looking pretty good although upside down and dead.

Now the euro-elite move to gag national opposition parties

First question out of the press pack after last night's meeting of eurozone finance ministers was about the EU interference in national politics -- the way the euro-elite are insisting, for example, that the new Greek government must be a government of national unity: surely that degree of interference is out of order?

Not at all, came back the answer. According to both Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of

Luxembourg (that's him pictured) and head of the eurogroup, and Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner in charge of the bail-outs, it is not at least out of order.

According to Rehn, all the eurozone member states in the 'programmes' -- that is, taking the bail-outs and submitting to control by EU/ECB/IMF bureaucrats, and those are Ireland, Portugal and Greece so far (stand by for the big one, Italy) -- have governments of national unity.

Which was a bit of a press-pack stunner for a moment, until a journalist said the obvious, which was: 'No they don't. For a start, Ireland does not have a government of national unity.'

Note of explanation for American readers: a government of national unity is one in which the opposition officially joins the majority party or parties to form a grand coalition, thereby guaranteeing a parliamentary majority.

It is what the euro-elite are forcing on Greece -- not that the euro-elite have asked the Greek voters, who cares what they think? Shut-up, Stavros, and do what you're told -- more, Juncker and Rehn insisted last night that the new government of national unity, the moment it is formed, must sign a letter promising to accept the entire rescue (some rescue) deal agreed last month at the summit, otherwise no money will be paid over, not even the amounts already agreed under the earlier, second bailout.

But this wasn't forced on Ireland or Portugal. So what were Juncker and Rehn on about?

This: they insist before any EU/ECB/IMF money is paid, they must have assurances that there is 'national unity' on accepting bail-out conditions -- which is to say, accepting EU-control of the national budgets -- before any money will be paid. Rehn insisted that the Irish opposition agreed to support the bail-out, so that was 'national unity' -- and they would not have paid over the money if they had not had such agreement from the Opposition.

Some unity: achieved by threat and blackmail.

The reason for this, of course, is that a real opposition would have the duty -- indeed, the desire -- to criticise the so-called bail-outs and all the damage the things are doing to the Irish, the Portuguese and the Greek people. Any opposition with a brain could offer other programmes, other ways of getting out of the debt hole into which the euro has pushed these nations (and will keep these nations for the next ten years).

These other programmes might not -- almost certainly would not -- include handing control of national fiscal policy, national economics, industrial policy, national assets sales and all the rest of the powers of a once-sovereign state over to the unelected euro-elite. Other programmes would not include, as in Greece, cutting public service pay by 20 to 30 percent while slamming up taxes to the same degree at the same moment: that is just the butchery of the little people in pursuit of ideology.

So the opposition parties are threatened or frighten into agreeing to back the Brussels deal: we will not oppose, we will cooperate, we will collaborate, we will stay silent, we will submit.

And then the people of these nations will be left with no leaders other than the governments put in place by the euro-elite, will be told by both sides of their parliament to believe that there is only the one way, only the one programme, all to support the one country called Europe...and you may recognise what is happening now across the eurozone:

'The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking -- not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconciousness.'

It stinks: EU to install puppet governments in Athens and Rome

As feared, the EU and its collaborators have pulled off a coup in Athens. Now what can only be called the occupying powers are preparing to install their own man as the new Greek prime minister.

You doubt it? Just look at the two names that have 'emerged' to lead the new government: Lucas Papademos, who was until last year the vice-president of the European Central Bank, and Stavros Dimas, a former European Commissioner.

Over in Rome, where the EU is manoeuvring to bring down Berlusconi, the name 'emerging' to be the next prime minister is Mario Monti. Monti is not only a former European Commissioner, but he is also the author of a report commissioned by José Manuel Barroso on the future of the single market --which was a report meant to plan ways the powers of Brussels could be further extended into every part of the member states economic and fiscal lives, including taking control of corporation tax rates.

More, Monti is a member of the Spinelli set, a euro-fanatic group set up by members of the European Parliament and Brussels heavies such as Jacques Delors to press the construction of a final, centralised government in a country called Europe.

It all stinks.

Euzozone pressure squeezes out some truth at last. Lots more to come.

As we sing on the country and western circuit, 'Pressure makes diamonds.'

This

week's pressure in the eurozone has produced some gems:

First, Silvio Berlusconi has finally said out loud what every rational observer has known for years: that Italy has got worse since the introduction of the single currency -- 'Italians have been impoverished since the introduction of the euro.'

Second, the leaders of both Germany and France have had to admit out loud more of the obvious, that is, that it is possible some countries may leave the euro.

Of course, the entire euro-elite hasn't quite got there yet. Mario Draghi, the new head of the ECB, was asked at a news conference on Thursday about the chances of a country leaving the euro. All he would say was: 'It is not in the treaties.'

Yes, well, it's not, but then neither are bailouts or the ECB interfering in the fiscal policy of eurozone member states, but that's been no barrier to either. So it is Jesuitical (satisfyingly Jesuitical, I must say, because I enjoy seeing the anti-nation-state types in the EU actually living up to national stereotypes) of Mr Draghi to reply by simply saying 'It is not in the treaties.' Its not, but that doesn't mean it can't happen.

Perhaps one other reason Mr Draghi won't give a straight answer is that he is Italian, and one of the eurozone member states that may be forced out of the euro is...Italy. Which would mean Mr Draghi would be out of his fat-cat job before his term is up in 2019.

Third, the pressure on the Greek government to cancel its democratic referendum is yet more proof -- if it were still needed -- that what Brussels most abhors is giving the people any chance to resist the plans the euro-elite have for centralising economic and fiscal (and soon, legal, but that is for another post) power in the EU institutions, and stripping them from the national parliaments, over which voters still have (occasional) control.