Doing the Hokey Kokey

The whole euro crisis has now descended into farce. It would be funny if the surrounding circumstances weren't so serious. Papandreou with good reason called a referendum to approve the latest bail out terms. The other euroland prime ministers were horrified at the idea that those who are not politicians should have any say in anything so serious as the latest Greek bailout terms whereas others of us thought what a truly clever idea a referendum was. In that way the electorate could decide and the politicians would be free of any blame for whatever the result happened to be and more than that it would go some way to redress the democratic deficit that exists in the EU. It was also a referendum that it would be difficult to get the Greeks to hold again until the 'right' decision was reached since if the original vote was 'no' it would be impossible for the euro to exist in a kind of limbo until the Greeks re-voted 'yes'. Despite my dislike of Papandreou's politics his call for a referendum was brave and principled and something I admired him for. Now he has withdrawn the referendum at the behest of Sarkozy, Merkel and God knows who else (I hope not our Prime Minister)  it is clear that the euro saga is going to drag on even longer and lead to even more turmoil and eventually even more of a bust. What therefore are we now doing saying we will support the eurozone through further contributions to the IMF? It was only a day or so ago that Osborne had said we would not make any more contributions. This is mickey mouse politics of the worst kind and leaves looking weak and indecisive. One can expect this kind of thing from the euroland countries but not from a Tory government. Oborne's article in the Telegraph today here looks even more prescient than when I read it this morning.

Cameron in Wonderland

I am glad Papandreou has been supported by his cabinet on the referendum issue as it brings some level of much needed democracy to the EU. It makes Cameron's decision to have a 3 line whip look even more pathetic than those of us who advised against the whip said it would. Cameron must up his game as we desperately need a sure footedness and statesmanship that is currently missing from amongst our leaders. We need a plan for Hayekian growth not the Keynesian tosh that the unpricked Balls balloon keeps spouting at every opportunity. There is plenty of Hayekian advice out there for the government to follow to ensure we survive this mess the EU has got us into and Cameron has to make his mark at the G20 this weekend even if it makes him unpopular with the other leaders none of whom other than the Prime Minister of Canada is worth anything anyway. No wonder we are in the mess we're in if we listen to the advice offered by Rowan Williams. There is nothing Christ like about the Occupy lot whose main beef is based on envy and worse still on the idea that those who do nothing have an absolute right to live off the earnings of those who work hard. Surely Williams should be supporting the providers and if not then surely he should be sacked. Williams should be robust in the defence of all the people and not just those who seek to despoil St Paul's. He should be vigorously leading the campaign to remove the Occupiers from their encampment. The Church of England has truly been taken over by a socialist clique, not even a liberal one.    

Greece

They only have themselves to blame. France and Germany and the rest thought that the Greeks could do nothing other than swallow the medicine prescribed for them. Prescribed let it be said not for the benefit of the Greeks but in order to ensure France and Germany did not have to bail out their rotten banks which had taken on too much Greek debt. Papandreou, already in a precarious position, suddenly realised that unless he involved his electorate in the decision they would quite likely revolt against the further austerity measures to be imposed as a result of the so called deal struck last week in Brussels of which of course the details were for the most part unknown. The decision to hold a referendum on the terms offered to Greece has caused huge uncertainty of outcome and as a result pandemonium in the markets. Strangely whilst Greece objects to the austerity measures it still wants to remain in the eurozone. Jeff Randall interviewed Constantine Michalos, head of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and he also seemed to have a conflicting view of how Greece should continue. He wants the two main parties to get together to form a national government and renegotiate the bail out terms but to cooperate with the eurozone. Not sure how you do both particularly when the opposition have made it clear they do not accept the terms on offer. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has an interesting take on this Greek tragedy here.  It must now make more sense after all that has happened for Greece to leave the eurozone, to re-issue the drachma, to devalue and to seek to re-balance its economy. Will this have consequences? Yes it will but it will put pressure back on France and Germany to come up with a solution to the problems of the euro rather than its symptoms.

The End Justifies the Means?

What a lot of us find unacceptable about the EU is the democracy deficit. That and the constant desire to do us down. I suppose the lack of democracy and the desire to make us bend the knee to the EU elite are the opposite sides of the same coin. The EU is a democracy free area with the lack of democracy amply demonstrated by what is happening to Italy as so tellingly pointed out by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard here. Italy has been given 48 hours to accept measures dictated by the EU. In order to rectify the democratic deficit it is to be hoped Italy will copy Greece and hold a referendum on the EU measures they have been told to adopt. Although I hope a majority of Greeks vote against the austerity package I doubt they will do so as they will be scared into voting in favour as they will be told that the costs of saying no will include their expulsion from the euro and the eventual collapse of the euro and the EU. They will be told not to believe those who maintain that the reintroduction of the drachma will lead to a devaluation which within 2 to 3 years will result in the rebalancing of their economy and sufficient growth to enable old debts to be paid off, if not entirely then at least to a greater extent than propose by the EU. Greece should look at Iceland where they devalued their currency and now some two years later are ploughing ahead financially. It is not true that the rejection of the EU measures will result in armageddon and the Greeks will hopefully be persuaded that voting no will bring freedom. It is not often that I agree with a communist but Fausto Bertinotti believes that Italy is living in a neo-Bonapartist financial system. Like all Jesuits the EU believes the end justifies the means. I instinctively disagree.    

The EU and Climate Change

As Guido reports in his blog today here the great global warming claim is unravelling with Professor Judith Curry blowing the lid off the research of the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperatures project  of which she is a member. As I understand it Professor Curry says that the leader of the project Professor Richard Muller of Berkeley University of California has misled the public by hiding the fact that the project's data shows global warming has stopped. Today Clegg in an article in the Observer maintains that the EU has been wonderful for the economy, climate change, crime and defence. How Clegg can say this is gobsmacking unbelievable. What has the EU done for our economy teetering as we are on the brink of  financial disaster caused by the EU? What has the EU done for us on climate change other than to impose useless carbon cutting measures that will cost us a bomb? What has the EU done for our defence other than some mickey mouse cooperation with the French? Hasn't Clegg heard of NATO? As for crime I have to agree that this has indeed had a field day under the EU with the accounts for this institution unaudited and with corruption rife. I do not imagine though that Clegg was talking about crime in that way but was referring to the EU Arrest Warrant which in truth is an appalling device and which allows people to be arrested and incarcerated in countries that have to put it mildly inferior criminal justice systems  to our own and is definitely something which should be abolished. Why is it that practically every believer in global warming in this country is also a believer in the EU? Whatever the pundits say we are better off out of the EU and despite their scare stories it is neither impossible to leave it nor would it cause us untold damage. On the contrary it would set us free. We will be better off without the climate change policies and I have a feeling that the scales will fall from the eyes of more and more politicians on this issue in months rather than years. Hopefully reality on the EU will happen as quickly - with the total collapse of the euro it is possible and it is quite likely that we are close to this event.    

Gwyneth Paltrow

First of all it was the Chelsea home game to Arsenal that clogged the roads in and around Stamford Bridge at lunchtime (is there no way the King's Road, Wandsworth Bridge Road bottleneck can be sorted out, it may take knocking down a house or two though to do it). This evening it is some unknown event or possibly nothing that is clogging the Chelsea Bridge Road. Caught in Chelsea traffic coming back from golf can be a bit of a bladder challenging experience but nothing is as bad as being caught in one of those endless traffic jams on a motorway. Just as frustrating is waiting in an airport departure lounge for your flight to leave and particularly so when the delay is inflicted by the staff of the airline you're flying on. The Qantas strike is set to cause huge misery to its customers as the pilots and ground staff seem likely to continue their action for as long as it takes to get their way. Traffic jams come and go but this particularly bitter dispute seems destined to last for months and to lose the airline a lot of money. Indeed there is talk of Qantas having to close down certain sections of its business. Cameron and Hague are unaffected by the strike as they are flying back from the Commonwealth summit on Virgin and of course I imagine the Queen flew back yesterday on one of the 'planes of the Queen's Flight, if it still exists. Flying is a funny business and you only appreciate how funny when you are kept on the ground wondering whether you are ever going to get off the ground or not. There are of course other moments of an altogether different kind such as the occasion when one of my friends was upgraded to first class on his way back from New York this week and found himself sleeping in the bed next door to Gwyneth Paltrow.  

An Early Halloween Trick or Treat

Halloween is here and the trick or treat query posed by the eurozone superstar Klaus Regling of the Chinese has resulted in a damp squib of a treat, although perhaps coming cap in hand to the Chinese was perceived by the Chinese as a trick. Who could blame them. The Chinese have made it clear that they are not disposed to become the eurozone's saviour which is consistent with what some commentators were saying a few days back. It is odd or rather embarrassing that the eurozone leaders did not do their homework before their visit. The markets will not be impressed. Neither was Simon Miller in his post today on The Commentator site here. Nor was an old Kazakhstani friend I met today. He specialises in economic issues throughout Europe and the East and told me that from what he hears, but which does not seem to be reported over here, is that the Chinese are not in a good economic state at the moment with workers being laid off and returning to their villages and with those still in jobs having their working days reduced to 4 days a week and the time they work each day reduced from 6 hours to 4 and their income proportionately. He has concerns about Russia which he says is also going through difficult economic times and that the election of Putin as president will be a disaster. He has never thought Putin would prove to be a  democrat. Looking at the European scene he has made bets that neither the CDU in Germany nor Sarkozy in France will be re-elected.