A one man British army comprised of George Osborne, the UK Finance Minister fights with all his European counterparts saying this is a bad idea... He couldn't convince any of the other ministers to adopt his position even though he tried that too. It is a question to ask whether his position is based on a reason or whether he disagrees juts for the sake of disagreeing... ... [video=youtube;yZmcKVCsAmw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpag e&v=yZmcKVCsAmw[/video]
The global economy is contracting, corporate profits are falling, yet stock markets have reached record highs. Banks engage in (what is now blatant and arrogant) fraud, theft, money laundering, insider trading, commodity price manipulation, speculation with taxpayer money etc. and this deviant behaviour is rewarded with untold riches. To me the whole sector seems to be living in an unreality, immune from the law and personal responsibility. The really sad part is how this industry has become such an important part of our economy (the reason for Osborne's stance). Always a question of money.
Hey TC, how come Osborn-like UK people, if they are the protagonistic saviors of the world don't open the discussion out of own initiative? ...in Brussels, somewhere, I don't know but open it...and open it big rather than just a few quiet statements? Better than rather wait for the mountain to come to you to confirm that you can't climb it (or don't want to)? How come German ones always worry about Europe while yours only and only about the UK? Isn't this ego-centrism? Why would banks in London be any more human to their people than others? Banks have no nationality! TC you must know very well that their only nationality is money. They do exactly what you do here with the limo, the coin, the lunch box and surely in the end the taxi too but that's off screen: [video=youtube;SPhjSEyY00c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpag e&v=SPhjSEyY00c[/video]
Because Osborne couldn't care less about how much bankers earn and the effects their immorality have on the working class. Look at him in the video, he's a smug, privileged, old-Etonian. Germany actually produces things. The UK is too over reliant on the speculation (banking) industry.
So in fact you're saying that Osborne is actually one of the greatest scumbags in the 27. More than most other European ones...
Osborne is a 'scumbag' without doubt, but I don't know whether he's one of the greatest; he has a lot of competition in EU circles. The banks should NEVER have been bailed out. No organisation is too big to fail. The British government had to seek permission from the EU to bail them out. (State aid is forbidden without EU approval.) The EU does not have the people's interests at the forefront of its thinking anymore than the British government does. Scumbags the lot of them.
Also meant to say .... thanks for posting that 'Top Cat' clip. Shame it didn't go to the end of the sequence which I think has TC getting ready to go to sleep.
Let's face it - the tories are the bankers' bumboys and know which side their bread is buttered when it comes to party finance. Their very rich masters can do no wrong, ever - and to Hell with a lot of mere bloody people!
Agreed, but what are Labour? Gordon Brown borrowed massively for bank bailouts. Perhaps 'scumbags' was too polite?
I am a daily reader of the Guardian and the Independent , from what i see the British will soon painfully discover that both parties are two sides of the same coin same with every other country in Europe .
Doubtless. The main thing to be said for Mr Brown is that the present gang hate him as much as they hate the rest of us. I suppose it is something, when you consider that they wholly supported his policy. - - - Updated - - - 'Soon'? I think you are leading too sheltered a life! The problem is how to shift such a long-taken-for-granted system when it ceases to work.
That seems to me a simple Italian mess ('Send in the clowns' said the Economist, showing Berlusconi as well). Our problem is that careerist scumbags have destroyed the political wing of the Labour movement, on which the whole system ultimately depended (I'll go into that if you don't follow), so that the whole thing is now about crooked politicians trying to get the support of crooked journalists a day at a time. Our disgust is much deeper than that of the Italians, because they have always been total cynics wheras some of us seriously believed that 'The hope of every creature is the banner that we bear' and are beginning to want grovellers' blood .
You shouldn't feel that way, the only happy with their government are the Obama voters . I think that you are still missing the big picture there that politicians , plutocrats and the media are not corrupted but they are doing the job they are elected to do and this is screwing working and middle classes so the rich get richer and the rest lose all their rights . I admit i am not well set into the UK party stuff but i remember Tony Blair so probably your Labour is something close to Bersani's or Hollander 's "social democracy" which translates into "let's favour the rich and hope to sustain a social state with their scraps" . In European level no matter who we vote we always get neoliberalism , to hell with that i am all for Bepe Grillo , Rowan Atkinson or whoever can brake the system .
I don't think they hate Brown much; as you say they supported his terrible policies. Political debate in this country is a farce ... all for show for a naive public (not that the political elite can rely on that forever.) Each party just uses different spin to cloak its pretence. Mainstream politicians have become the venal puppets of big business in whose interests government policies are designed. Theresa May and Liam Fox are the latest to have been playing to their Conservative grass roots and we've also had Miliband coming over all concerned about immigration recently too. Scumbag con artists the lot of them.
Politics died in the UK the day the Mandelson / Campbell / Blair cartel charmed their way into power at the expense of Labour's socialist principles / Clause 4. A decade and a half later the same happens to the Tories with Cameron. But doesn't compromise equal capitulation? We now have this perpetual "centre" ground that seems to be the worst of modern liberalism and the worst of robber baron capitalism with no oversight. This is why we need two strong, principled parties with opposing belief systems.
We'll only accept these proposals if the French accept a tax on their cheese. Fair's fair, after all.
