Blair or Bliar?

Tony Blair, the ex prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, who was also the Labour Party's most successful general election winner, is a man who just can't stop himself. Despite the fact that he is no longer popular, he has now decided that there is no one out there who can pick up the battered flag of the EU Remain Campaign.

Blair Praying For A Political Comeback? .......

It was found stricken on the field of battle by the arch political scavenger himself, and now raised to the ramparts again with the "mission" to persuade Britons to "rise up" and change their minds on Brexit.

Greek Name (Calling)

The Greek President Karolos Papoulias has lashed out at their German paymasters, especially the comments by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, which stirred yet more anger in Greece. He said about the Greek mess: "We can help, but we are not going to pour money into a bottomless pit."

Needless to say, the Greeks love of hubris was once again in evidence .... "I do not accept having my country taunted by Mr Schaeuble, as a Greek I do not accept it," Mr Papoulias said.

Mind you, when the Greeks were 'cooking the books' for the last two decades, Mr Karolos Papoulias was never far from the kitchen. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1985 to 1989 and again from 1993 to 1996, and was opposition spokesman for the other years. Greece entered the Eurozone on Jan 1st 2002 (using the 1999 government *audit figures as baseline) and he was elected as President of the Republic in in 2004 ..... in other words he was in or around the government when the cooking smells must have been everywhere!

Needless to say, the Greeks have been casting about for a scapegoat and after first trying on the 'not enough war reparations' from Germany hat for size, they have not decided that they were in fact press-ganged by Germany and France in to entering the EU and Eurozone, with one prominent Greek publisher and analyst, Apostolos Zoupaniotis, stating that "they blackmailed the country" and did "not allow the country to have a referendum," or "the people to express themselves." ....

As this poster from Greece shows, blame is pointed at the Germans ...... No love lost there then.

Nazi Merkel - Greek street posters are pulling no punches.

But as Greece is the country with the EU's second worst Corruption Perceptions Index rating (after mafia run Bulgaria), ranking 80th in the world, and also with the lowest Index of Economic Freedom rating (rank 119th), and finally a Global Competitiveness Index ranking of 90th, its hard to see where this Greek pride comes from. Corruption, together with the associated issue of poor standards of tax collection, is widely regarded as both a key cause of the current troubles in the economy and a key hurdle in terms of overcoming the country's debt problem.

* In a later audit commissioned by the incoming New Democracy government in 2004, Eurostat revealed that the statistics for the budget deficit had been under-reported (although the effect of this on the acceptance of Greece into the Eurozone is disputed), however a later study by forensic accountants has now found that data submitted by Greece to Eurostat had a statistical distribution indicative of manipulation i.e. The books were cooked.

New Labour, Old Policies

The Labour Party is electing a leader today ....... you would hardly know it had been going on, from the lack of coverage by the press .... apparently, according to Lord Kinnock (a leader who failed at the national polls), the party is revived and "ready to regain the trust of the people", with  increased membership.  They now 'get it' and can resume leading the British people to a better future.

This sort of blindness is not exclusive to the 'Welsh wonder', in fact all of the candidates and their supporters have been speaking in similar terms.

Talk about hubris!

• Not one mention of the Blair / Brown years or wars.
• Absolutely no apology for the reckless spending that's hamstrung the economy.
• No discussion of the social and economic consequences of mass third world immigration into the UK.
• No promises to never impose a prime minister on the UK without an election (oddly they would still be in power if they had done this at the time). 

In fact no acknowledgement that the Labour party has in anyway had a hand in creating the unhappy mess that's the UK.

It's been one of the strangest sights of this summer, watching the Labour Party act and sound as though it hadn't been in power for the last 14 years, and that it wasn't just  on the 6th of May that they surrendered power (Yes, just 20 weeks ago) ..... I

Full UK Scoreboard   Party Seats    Gain   Loss   Net    Votes            %       +/-%

Conservative                     307                    100        3      +97     10,726,614    36.1    +3.8
Labour                               258                     3            94     -91       8,609,527   29.0    -6.2
Liberal Democrat             57                        8           13      -5         6,836,824   23.0   +1.0

They got over 2 million less votes than the Conservatives, and less than 2 million more votes than the Liberals, but they 'get it' now ...... so that's OK then.

New Labour struggles

One of the minor pleasures of politics, is the chance to watch a human being crumble under the pressure of power, its a guilty, secret sort of pleasure, a "Schadenfreude" as the Germans put it.

UK Premier Gordon Brown, spent over a decade 'waiting' for his destiny, he didn't have the courage to 'seize' it, he just waited to be handed it, pretty much as he done since his school days, when he he was made a 'Prefect' or something by the Headmaster.

He has held this overwhelming belief that he was 'destined' for greatness, but this belief is based upon little practical evidence that he has any ability above average. He didn't make millions like Michael Heseltine (his nearest modern Tory political equivalent), and he has never held any position of power in industry, in fact he has done nothing to show he has the spark of greatness, he was even handed the premiership unopposed by Tony Blair.

So it is with some pleasure that we can watch the modern usage of the term 'Hubris' (described as one who demonstrates exaggerated 'self pride, arrogance, or self-confidence' (overbearing pride), often resulting in a fatal retribution) in action on Mr Brown.

• Firstly, he has visibly aged about a decade in the last few months, and
• Secondly the British public soundly dislike him, and are taking great pleasure in kicking his premiership and government of pygmies to death, at every opportunity.

The latest humiliation heaped upon him was in the local and the London Mayoral elections, where as I suggested an earlier post, his party was drubbed in both.

Firstly, "Boris Johnson" won the London mayoral elections quite easily ....
Secondly, despite a low starting base (since their last drubbing under Brown), they managed to contrive the worst local election results for over forty years. Brown is now trying his fourth "relaunch or re-brand" of the year.

Once again he is in "listening mode", of course he does this every time, and then ignores what he hears. He really thinks we are all idiots when he says this ...

He has listened then ignored the UK on

• The EU treaty, where over 80% wanted a referendum - Gordon said no we couldn't.
• Immigration, where most non ethnics want Non EU immigration halted completely - Gordon says 'It's great to have millions of illiterates from the third world to do our office cleaning'
• Taxes - after a decade of stealth taxes, the UK has reached an end of its willingness to fund Gordon's pet projects (The NHS and Tax Credits) both of which have bled billions of pounds for little gain - Gordon says lets pump in another few billion by cancelling tax breaks for the poor! (They can claim welfare benefits instead - New Labour apparently prefers welfare clients to the working poor as they are more malleable).
• The economy, where Gordon claimed to be a financially prudent Chancellor, but under whom Pension funds collapsed, Taxes have reached a record high (since the last Labour government), Public debt is monumental (and still largely hidden under PFI arrangements), and where we are now in a slow down with no reserves (compared with Europe where they saved, not spent, money during the decade of good times)
• Finally Gordon blames the 'bad world conditions' for our current economic woes, but claimed credit for the economy he inherited and the decade of "benign world economic conditions".

So if you are listening Gordon .... "RESIGN!"

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