Damp Squids and the Tobin Tax

Cameron's 'muttering idiot' remark thrown at Ed Balls yesterday showed him in confident mood as did his interview late last night following the EU summit at which the other EU leaders tried to sandbag him into agreeing a financial transaction tax. His statement on that tax was robust. He said that the financial transaction tax is a bad idea, that it would put up the cost of people's insurance, put up the costs of people's pensions, it will cost many, many jobs. He went on to say that it will make Europe less competitive and that he would fight it all the way. He is absolutely right and as Iain Martin has said in the Telegraph today rather than dealing properly with the emergency at hand the other EU leaders would rather fiddle about with spiteful anti growth measures to punish the City of London. Sorry but the politicians, as we all know, are just as much to blame for the crisis as any banker. We were there when boom and bust was supposed to have been eradicated for all time and when spending outstripped Government revenues. We were there at its introduction when we were told the euro would be a great success and again a few years later when we were told it had become one. I agree with Iain Martin's analysis that the main actors on the continental stage are incapable of resolving the crisis competently. The uncertainty is almost unbearable and is beyond a joke. The only sensible thing to do, contrary to Clegg's bovine view, is for the euro to be disbanded. If some of the countries want to have another go later then they will know the pitfalls to avoid which were so bleeding obvious the first time that even whilst the  euro was being set up the Treasury spotted them. Where is the continental European statesman when you need one? Probably the nearest we'll get is Merkel. Certainly Hollande has not shown the hauteur supposedly associated with French Presidents and supposedly loved by the French. He seems a bit of a damp squid.