Questions Of The Day (Politics)

[Mick Harper]

Not sure... an erection during washing up is rarely a good idea.

[Wile E. Coyote]

The Krauts are having a dummy spit.

The European Central Bank, which has kept Cyprus's banks operating with a liquidity lifeline, said the government now had until today to get a deal in place, or funds would be cut off.

"Thereafter, Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) could only be considered if an EU/IMF program is in place that would ensure the solvency of the concerned banks," the ECB said.

The Cypriot banks are bust as they have over lent to the Greeks....who cant afford to pay them as they are undergoing an AUSTERITY package imposed by........ guess who?

The latest ZIPPY idea is to "TAX" cypriot savings held in their banks. Not surprisingly that has created a run on said banks, making the situation worse. You couldnt make it up.

The Krauts really cant get into their heads why these lazy, non tax paying foreigners, with their black economies, cant share their Teutonic business efficiency. The eventual "bail out" (the money has to come from Germany) will be greeted by your locals much in the same way as Luftwaffe air strikes.

So your hard working average German will end up working even harder, paying more taxes, only to see the products of his hard labour shipped abroad, to some foreign beach bums.

No wonder your Krauts claim the only beach loungers. They are paying for em a hundred times over......

[Grant]

[Wile E. Coyote]

Crisis has been temporarily averted.

But a line has been crossed.

It is clear there is now no such thing as a "safe bank account" in the EuroZone.

Hence the rush to gold.

What happens when a big Italian bank (as they will) goes bust?

Of course, your average Italian (not your type to panic in a crisis) wont withdraw his wonga, of course not, after all, he has a verbal assurance that Cyprus was a "special case"..........the German ECB will bail him out and protect his savings.....Right?

So we now know there will be a major panic.

The mob will have its say.

The only questions are where and when?

[Free-Radical]

And now even the "privileged" accounts in the tax havens are being outed. Things are about to get very interesting indeed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/world/europe/vast-hidden-wealth-revealed-in-leaked-records.html

Data Leak Shakes Notion of Secret Offshore Havens and, Possibly, Nerves

BRUSSELS -- They are a large and diverse group that includes a Spanish heiress; the daughter of the former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos; and Denise Rich, the former wife of the disgraced trader Marc Rich, who was pardoned by President Bill Clinton. But, according to a trove of secret financial information released Thursday, all have money and share a desire to hide it.

And, it seems safe to say, they -- and thousands of others in Europe and far beyond, in places like Mongolia -- are suddenly very anxious after the leak of 2.5 million files detailing the offshore bank accounts and shell companies of wealthy individuals and tax-averse companies.

...

[Wile E. Coyote]

State controlled ancestor worship with forced tributes is being financed by artificially created money........

Nouth Korea? Nope. Venezuela? Nope.....

Why not a private funeral paid for by family?

[Mick Harper]

I expect most of you were watching Newsnight Scotland last night and the continuing furore over Scotch (Catholic) bishops. They all seem at it in various illegal ways. One who did nothing wrong was Bishop Devine but the voice over referred to the fact that the Pope had accepted his resignation (because he'd reached 75) but 'unusually' he was not staying on in post until a successor was appointed. This made me suspicious so I did a bit of googling and found this:

[Grant]

Bishop Devine is a good example of a modern reality - if you are in the public eye and wish to stand up for traditional values, you'd better be flawless. Liberals aren't held to the same standard of perfection.

[Mick Harper]

This is not a precise parallel (though obviously left and right demand different standards from right and left). The bishop holds his post by virtue of apostolic succession ie Jesus himself appointed him, however indirectly, via Peter. However, I expect Jesus had a squeeze back in Gallilee (in addition to his official whore, Mary Magdalen) and would quite understand.

The AE point here is why Scottish Catholics should carry on believing both that the Creator of the Universe should impregnate a Jewish woman with his only begotten son and that the subsequently divinely appointed hierarchy are in any sense holy. The official explanation -- that bishops are only human -- is not in fact correct. They have to be more than human. Otherwise there's no point.

Liberals, for all their faults, do not have to be more than human. Just, in their own opinion, better than the rest of us.

[Mick Harper]

For years I have been hearing Berlusconi and co complaining about "political judges" in Italy and dismissing such claims (because, I imagine, I have been brought up on relatively non-political British judges). But now that these same 'non-political' judges have sentenced Berlusconi to seven years for paying to have sex with a seventeen-year-old prostitute (it would be legal if she had been eighteen) I have to accept there was truth in his claims all along.

A fifty lire fine and told not to do it again is about right.

[Boreades]

[Wile E. Coyote]

Something curious happened the other day. Your Brits don't do welfare cuts or austerity. The tendency is to vote in politicians that have their hearts in the right place, who basically hand out wads of cash or when, heaven forbid, things really need shaking up, you get a tough talker, who after a few half-hearted attempts at reform, and a few scare stories in the press, ("Woman throws her daughter downstairs after being refused crisis loan for fags"etc) bumps up spending and lets thing trundle on as before. (phew).

The coalition started along the normal route, pledging to maintain middle class welfare, free bus passes, winter fuel payments, for millionaire retired bankers, who had semi bankrupted the country in the first place.

Then suddenly IDS lost it. He introduced the Benefit Cap. A max of 26K (the level of income of an average family) for folks on benefits (irrespective of the number of kids)

Now 26K might seem a lot of dosh, but after doing a bit of research with on line Benefit calculators, you quickly find out that benefit folks (let's say a couple and seven kids) living close to Mick could easily be netting 50K plus. So IDS has halved their income. That is right, he has halved it. He hasn't given them (shock, horror) 1% less than an inflation rise...He has halved it.

Now that is radical, but it doesn't stop there, the Labour party has accused IDS of not going far enough. Yep you are not misreading, They wanted to go further......

Strange times.

[Grant]

[Brian Ambrose]

[Mick Harper]

This controversy about whether to take Julian Assange out with a drone strike is causing me some ethical grief. I live round the corner from Jools' pad in the Ecuador embassy and therefore risk being taken out too. Is it worth dying to prevent free speech? Tricky ... I may have to ask for Ishmael's help on this one.