Body & Soul1 min ago
Italy faces a debt crisis now!
and I daresay time will tell with regard to bailouts, etc following on from Ireland and Greece.
Anyone else of the opinion that this europe thing isn't worth having and we would be better off going it alone. Personally they lost me with butter mountains years ago, and then sealed it when they banned pork chops with kidneys in them!
Anyone else of the opinion that this europe thing isn't worth having and we would be better off going it alone. Personally they lost me with butter mountains years ago, and then sealed it when they banned pork chops with kidneys in them!
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Only some who use the Euro are richer, rov. Those in France and Germany are (for the moment) OK. The PIIGS are now seeing the chickens coming home to roost. They cannot pay their debts because their currency is overvalued and they cannot attract inward investment and foreign spending. Just look at the number of UK holidaymakers who are looking for better value by travelling beyond the Eurozone.
You expressed a similar sentiment in an earlier question:
http://www.theanswerb.../Question1035986.html
and I can only reiterate what I said then. The strength of the Euro is one of the principle causes of the peripheral Euro nations’ troubles, not a result of them. If the markets were allowed to find their proper level those nations would have devalued their currency, but the Greek or Portugese Euro cannot be devalued in isolation and therein lies the rub. The recent devaluation of the pound against the Euro is (mainly) the price the country is paying for the preposterous spending and borrowing spree the previous government undertook.
The single currency forces widely disparate economies to adopt uniform interest and exchange rates and simple economics dictates that this cannot be sustained. It is only the stubborn vanity of the politicians, who are spending billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned propping up these ailing economies, which is preventing the inevitable. But the markets will eventually prevail (hopefully before all the cash runs out) and a default by one of the troubled economies is inevitable. Once that happens the whole house of cards will come down and it remains to be seen precisely what effect this will have across the continent.
You expressed a similar sentiment in an earlier question:
http://www.theanswerb.../Question1035986.html
and I can only reiterate what I said then. The strength of the Euro is one of the principle causes of the peripheral Euro nations’ troubles, not a result of them. If the markets were allowed to find their proper level those nations would have devalued their currency, but the Greek or Portugese Euro cannot be devalued in isolation and therein lies the rub. The recent devaluation of the pound against the Euro is (mainly) the price the country is paying for the preposterous spending and borrowing spree the previous government undertook.
The single currency forces widely disparate economies to adopt uniform interest and exchange rates and simple economics dictates that this cannot be sustained. It is only the stubborn vanity of the politicians, who are spending billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned propping up these ailing economies, which is preventing the inevitable. But the markets will eventually prevail (hopefully before all the cash runs out) and a default by one of the troubled economies is inevitable. Once that happens the whole house of cards will come down and it remains to be seen precisely what effect this will have across the continent.
"Most people in the political world (again with one or two honourable exceptions) have no idea whatsoever of the realities of life, either in a global economy or anywhere else. Many of them are career politicians who have graduated to Westminster either via local authorities or as interns to sitting MPs and ministers. A large number of them have never held a job of any sort outside that small world and have no notion whatsoever of the problems that businesses etc etc etc "
That's a completely spurious argument, with respect. Most people in the so-called "real world" will vote for their own little part of it. They are just as blinkered, if not more so, than so-called "career" politicians.
Arguably people outside the "every day realities" (not the best way of putting it, but to argue in your terms for the sake of it) have a wider perspective. And I am afraid that that wider perspective says, like it or not, Britain can't afford NOT to be in Europe.
That's a completely spurious argument, with respect. Most people in the so-called "real world" will vote for their own little part of it. They are just as blinkered, if not more so, than so-called "career" politicians.
Arguably people outside the "every day realities" (not the best way of putting it, but to argue in your terms for the sake of it) have a wider perspective. And I am afraid that that wider perspective says, like it or not, Britain can't afford NOT to be in Europe.
It may well be so that members of the electorate have their own blinkered views. But the difference is that MPs are supposed to represent those views (blinkered or otherwise). They are not there to represent the government.
It is highly debateable whether or not the UK can afford to be in the EU in its current form, and whether such membership is desirable or not. However, it is a debate which is not being afforded to the electorate.
It is highly debateable whether or not the UK can afford to be in the EU in its current form, and whether such membership is desirable or not. However, it is a debate which is not being afforded to the electorate.
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