The British parliament have spoken. They have decided by a vote of 304 to nothing to hold a
referendum on staying within the EU not later than the end of 2017. I'm sure it's nothing more than a pretty little stunt but it shows more jungle smarts out of the British ruling class than I expected. For years they've simply pooh poohed the idea away. Now they have to have somebody, anybody, come in and make an argument that speaks powerfully in favor of the quangos in Europe. I don't see how they can do it but then I never thought Americans would be stupid enough to vote twice for Obama. I don't know what the average Briton sees in remaining within the EU after they so thoroughly rejected the Euro which appears to have been the major reason for the EU.
I'm reading a little further afield than is my wont these days and found
this article on Irish banking interesting. Reading it is troublesome and calls to mind much of what happened in Iceland and of course what just happened in Cyprus. I swear the curtains keep blowing and every glimpse behind them simply shows that there is nothing there. There's nothing at all.
If you believe, you know what to do.
3 comments:
I'm betting the UK votes to withdraw, which will put Cameron's gub'mint in between a rock and a hard place, given Obama has "warned" Cameron NOT to withdraw. Not that Cameron really gives a big rat's ass what Obama thinks, or at least he SHOULDN'T.
That Irish bank article makes me think the Chinese curse has come to pass: We live in interesting times.
I agree that they'll vote to withdraw but I believe the apparatchiks will simply ignore the vote and stay in.
I remember hearing on NPR of all things, a concise forensic analysis of what happened to cause the banking collapse a few months after it happened. It was the movement of something like 20 or 200 billion dollars in a few minutes late in the day that acted very much like progressive flooding in a ship. Tiny trivial amount with vast enormous second and third order effects. I have never found that clip and I've looked. I think if we all knew who did it, we'd kill him. All the banks of Europe failing because they loaned money they did not have to governments who had no money either.....who didn't see what would happen? At least when the S&Ls went under the FDIC stood up and paid up exactly as promised. One could reap real money out of interest if one moved it out of the account every month and kept the $ amount of each account at the FDIC max.
As you say. It will be interesting.
I think you're right. I don't think they'll actually honor the pledge and if they do they won't honor the result but I think most in the UK are fed up with the EU...and maybe Labor and the Tories.
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