Submitted by Clive Hale from View from the Bridge [8]
The Rotten Boroughs Of Europe
Once upon a time when Nigel Farage got up to speak you often wondered whether he was the full ticket, but today when he gives the European parliament the benefit of his opinion he is the only one making any sense and that includes most of our other politicos back home. Instead of planning to get out of the EU madhouse we have confirmed that £10 billion of our money, yours and mine, has been re-pledged to the IMF “pour encourager les autres” as I am sure was the phrase Christine Lagarde used as she sidled up alongside an impressionable young chancellor, who is totally out of his depth in such company – Lagarde’s youthful pastime of synchronised swimming for the French national team is now paying dividends. It is only a promise at this stage, but it already has parliamentary approval – slid through in a dark period rather like TARP in the States – without any proper scrutiny and an absence of opprobrium from the main stream media the supposed guardians of free speech. If only…
Talking of whom…the Old Man of Oz and his unspeakable offspring may be coming to the end of their days, but not before they do for the leadership of the Tory party. Cameron should sack Hunt but will he? Because he is as knee deep in lies and hypocrisy as his junior minister the spotlight would then focus even more tightly on the PM. Who can we trust these days to look after our best interests? I ask that question because I really don’t know the answer.
And I could ask the same question in the US, France, Greece and Ireland where elections or referenda are taking place sooner or later. May 6th could be the turning point as France and Greece go to the polls. In both countries the stronger challengers are determined to have some say in the renegotiation of the EU austerity fiscal pact despite the Oxymerkel (the EU version of oxymoron suggested by “The Slog” [9] a site well worth a visit) saying, “the discussion is closed.”
She does hail from what was East Germany and has learnt much from her friends in the Stasi about “negotiating” tactics. The Greeks should be easy to deal with. Threaten to turn off the spigot and a light may come on in Athens. On the other hand it could turn into a riot! So the more subtle approach would be to find a pro-Troika puppet, but with 32 different parties standing it will be the coalition from hell that wins this one; assuming of course that the dirty tricks brigade doesn’t scupper the whole thing. Apparently a relatively small but essential part of the legal process required to hold an election has “gone missing” but this is Greece so nobody is bothered…unless of course the result is not to the liking of Lagarde, Super Mario, Rompuy Pompuy and the OxyM; all sworn upholders of democracy…my foot.
In France the mood is “anything but Sarkozy” who would be deemed a rabid socialist in the US so quite what they would make of Hollande I shudder to think and so would they! He is however already back tracking on his fiscal pact renegotiation ploy saying that of course there should be austerity measures – a 75% tax rate for the greedy capitalists for starters – but there should also be some expectation of growth, a theme echoed by none other than Herman, the Chief von Muppet in Brussels who has suggested yet another EU summit on the matter, somewhat dangerously overlooking the fact that the Bundeskanzlerin has said, “Ze diskussion iss closst!”. That isn’t the fat lady singing by the way; it sounds more like tanks starting up to me…