Greece Has Already Asked To Default

According to the Greek paper Eleftherotypia, Greece has already asked the IMF and EU earlier this month to restructure its loans (via Google Translate):

The Greek government asked the IMF and the EU increasing the total debt. The process is expected to launch a debate in June, to be implemented in 2012.

The Government's request, according to reliable information of Eleftherotypia, submitted by Finance Minister Giorgos Papakonstantinou the informal Ecofin meeting held in Hungary and the Troika visit to Athens in early April. All publications saw the light of day in the last 48 hours, for which scenarios are discussed for the forthcoming extension of the debt, received multiple official denial by both the IMF and the EU, because "such moves are not just announced.

And such a move is apparently approved by the US:

In the direction to go in Greece to postpone debt consented and the American Minister of Finance, Timothy Geithner, the meeting was last Saturday with his Greek counterpart: "We need to do (" you have to do it ")», said Mr Papaconstantinou.

Quote (Understatement) Of The Day

From BBC's Gavin Hewitt:

But, politically, Europe is restive, unsettled, anxious and increasingly losing patience with the elites and the parties in power.

Anarchy In Greece

Following on the heels of Finland's vote last night, the Guardian is reporting that not only is a default in Greece ever more likely but that the country is becoming ungovernable:

Amid speculation over the country's ability to avoid default, a wave of civil disobedience is causing many to wonder if Greece is becoming ungovernable.

"There is clearly a breakdown of the rule of law, and without the rule of law there can be no economic development," said political analyst Takis Michas. "It is organised lawlessness spearheaded by the hard left."

"In any other country people would have been arrested but here the lack of arrests has contributed to the feeling that anything goes," said Michas.

And Moody's have now downgraded Ireland's banks to junk status:

This means all Government-backed banks are now classified as junk.

No wonder the Euro is falling this morning.

Anti-EU Party Comes Joint Second in Finland

Finland's election result has come in, the True Finns party has made huge advances since 2007 up from 4% to 19.1%, campaigning on an anti-immigration, anti-EU platform specifically against the Portuguese bailout. The final results are:

• National Coalition Party 20.3% (44 seats)
• Social Democrats 19.1% (42 seats)
• True Finns 19.1% (39 seats)
• Center Party 15.8% (35 seats)
• Left Alliance 8.1% (14 seats)
• Greens 7.2% (10 seats)

Both True Finns and the Social Democrats are both against the bailout and its likely that one or both will enter a government with the Nation Coalition Party. Finnish voters have dealt a blow Europe's plans to rescue Portugal, as Finland has an effective veto on the plans as Parliament has the right to vote on EU requests for bailout funds. Chances of the bailout passing Parliament has taken a huge step backwards - the bailout of Portugal requires unanimity of euroland states.

Past Its Sell-By Date

I've often argued that the 'success' of the EU lays in large part in the unwillingness of our media to report the true extent of how much the EU interferes.

Another fine example shows itself today, when the Telegraph reports:

[That it] has learned that the coalition wants an end to the confusing proliferation of instructions on food labelling which have greatly expanded over the past decade.

Of course it is complete nonsense, as EUReferendum and Autonomous Mind excellently point out. Food labeling is exclusively an EU competence there's nothing that the coalition can do about it without permission from Brussels:

The point is, of course, that the "best before" dates are not going to be scrapped. This is because food labelling is an exclusive EU competence and the provisions are set out in Directive 2000/13/EC of 20 March 2000 on "the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs" (pictured).

The Directive is transposed into British law by the Food Labelling Regulations 1996 as amended (several times), and there are absolutely no plans to amend the Directive, or change the Regulations.

It comes to something that blogs written by volunteers provide more accurate coverage of news than paid journalists. Richard North then links to a similar article written in July last year:

Interestingly, the Baby Failygraph did a story on this on 12 July 2010, with the heading "Best-before' is well past its sell-by date". It was written by Philip Johnston who suggested that: "A 'use-by' date would stop billions of pounds of food being thrown away".

In that article are even the following words:

Although the sell-by date was introduced by Marks and Spencer in the 1950s as a stock-control guide for store-room staff, it was not until 1973 that it appeared on the shelves in M&S food stores as "a guarantee of freshness".

Now I wonder what happened in 1973? Don't expect the Telegraph to tell you.

Move Along, Nothing To See Here

The Boiling Frog's favourite EU Commissioner has decided that everything in the Euro garden is rosy, here's a selection of his latest quotes:

"While I cannot yet say ‘Mission accomplished', I am increasingly confident that we are entering into the endgame of the crisis management phase."

And:

"Preventing a European Lehman has not been a simple task, with 27 fiscal authorities and 11 central banks - we never had the genius of Alexander Hamilton to draw on, like you did, unless you count Jacques Delors for this too - but the task has nevertheless been accomplished."

And:

"The euro's critics are wrong to claim that [the crisis] will lead to its failure or break-up. The euro will not only survive but is coming out of the crisis stronger than before."

With Greece about to default, and Ireland and Portugal in the same boat plus Spain not being out of the woods yet, not to mention significant worries about Italy and Belgium (who currently hold the world record for not having a government - with implications on its credit rating), one might be tempted to beg to differ.

Although in fairness Mr Rehn wasn't wrong when he said the following:

He concluded by repeating the mantra EU leaders have chanted from the very beginning of the area's crisis that the bloc will do "whatever it takes" to save the single currency.

"The euro is not just a technical monetary arrangement, but rather the core political project of the European Union."

I suspect EU Commissioner Olli Rehn will come to regret his words, and I look forward to that day very much.

Discrimination Is Discrimination

Campaigning today I encountered a voter who was rather angry - to say the least - about primarily immigration (no surprise there).

However what had specifically provoked her ire was the latest Unison National Executive Council Election ballot paper which she had received because she works as a civilian in the Police force. With her permission I scan the document here, here's the covering letter:


and here's the ballot paper:



So far so good, a ballot paper enclosed to democratically elect the Unison NEC. Nowt wrong with that you may think. So the source of her ire? Page four:


A special page to elect members based on their skin colour. This from the same union who have a dedicated section here to the Equality Act and still did not think that it went far enough:

The Equality Act passed in April 2010 brings together previous discrimination and equality law into one harmonised Act. UNISON welcomed this new law, although we remain concerned that in some areas it does not go far enough.

I've been a member of UKIP long enough to participate in electing 2 leaders and members of the UKIP NEC and everytime it has been a vote based on merit and rightly so.

As the owner of a small business if I came anywhere near the antics of Unison (which I never would) I would be locked up and then hung, drawn and quartered before you could scream 'racist'.

Why is Unison different (i.e. above the law)?

Greece Default?

With Portugal not having even completed their bailout terms yet, there's a growing, yet entirely inevitable, view that Greece is about to default.

The cost of insuring Greek debt has hit a record high on renewed fears the country will default on its borrowings. But support came from the head of the IMF, who insisted the embattled country would "make it".

And:

Investors' flight from Greek government debt left 10-year bond yields at a new euro lifetime high of over 13pc and yields on two-year bonds at over 18pc, after Wolfgang Schaeuble said "additional steps" could be necessary if the European Central Bank concludes that the country's burden is unsustainable. l

Ireland is also in this 'default' territory too - there's no way they can repay under the terms imposed on them either. The Euro crisis therefore appears to be gathering pace.

The EU taxpayer will be footing the bill for this as German government economic advisor Lars Feld has warned; the European Central Bank has abandoned all pretence at being the guardian of sound monetary policy, along the lines of the original Bundesbank, as per the Maastricht Treaty. Instead the ECB has been buying up Greek and other government debt even when it is rated as junk - breaking every EU law going. The ECB is becoming, if not already, a bad bank and a Greek default is inevitable.

The EU elite is clinging onto their precious currency for as long as it takes, regardless of the economic consequences but the end is coming - "He will knock four times".

Pilot Guilty Of Making Death Threats

From the BBC:

A pilot has been convicted of threatening to kill UKIP leader Nigel Farage following a plane crash.

A jury found Justin Adams guilty of making five threats relating to Mr Farage and crash investigator Martin James after the accident in May 2010.

Oxford Crown Court heard a telephone call between a police handler and a man calling himself Justin Adams who claimed to have a 9mm pistol.

Mr Farage said after the verdict: "From beginning to end, this is a very, very sad case indeed.

"It's been my belief all the way through that what Mr Adams needs is help and I don't really believe from our mental health services that he's received that."

Cameron And Immigration

The papers this morning have clearly been briefed that Cameron is set to give his first speech on by far and away the number one topic at the last election - immigration. He's been in office for nearly a year now so why now? (A slight tangent here I do hope all my readers have now received their polling cards for next month's local elections).

Apparently the speech will be robust and I have been fortunate to see a preview of it. I reproduce it here in full, word for word so you can make your own minds up:

Immigration has imposed strains on some communities... blah blah blah....I recognise this and understand their concerns....blah blah blah...too high, so will introduce measures to reduce the levels....blah blah blah....these measures will apply for non-EU citizens.

Of course UK has no control over immigration from EU citizens and he knows it. He's hoping that the rest of us don't - that's the problem with stupid people they often assume others are as stupid as they are. People will know that Cameron's words are dishonest; they can see it for themselves all around them when the levels of immigration continues to be a problem.

And it looks like both the Mail and the Telegraph have also been briefed to hardly mention the EU aspect of it, if at all. It comes to something when it's left up to the BBC to mention the unmentionable which they did this morning on BBC Breakfast, so many times I lost count.

Update: I've just spotted that Nigel Farage gets the final word on the BBC site. Blimey I think I'm in shock:

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage said it was a "good thing" Mr Cameron was recognising the impact immigration had had on communities across the country.

"But sadly there is not much he can do about it because the elephant in the room is the European Union and we have a total open border with all of them," he said.