trousers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2073968/Britain-needs-plan-Great-Escape-Europe.html Britain needs to plan its Great Escape from Europe By Janice Atkinson-small Last updated at 11:03 AM on 14th December 2011 Britain is in course for The Great Escape. That’s leaving the EU. Cracks are becoming evident in the plan to save the euro, the markets are wising up to it and the non-existent bailout plan is doomed. We can now save ourselves and our financial markets. Last week’s summit was supposed to restructure the euro to avert 'disorderly collapse', and it failed. The euro states cannot even win German agreement to monetary easing or the flotation of emergency eurobonds. Nothing has been done to rescue the euro, except what is always done in such crises: a move to 'ever-closer union'. There is now a German-led 'unequal treaty' imposing a battery of budgetary and fiscal disciplines on Greece, Italy, Spain and possibly France, in the hope of calming markets. This in turn means decisions over budgets, taxes, benefits and transfers taken away from elected national parliaments and put in the hands of ministerial councils and Brussels commissioners. This is unenforceable. Already governments in Ireland, Portugal, Greece and Italy that sought outside help and austerity in return have been toppled by their electorates. The ministerial councils and commissioners may have control over those governments for the time being but, so far, not over the ballot boxes. How are the markets reacting? Bond markets are already seizing up. As they wait for clarity from the region’s leaders, banks and investors are simply sitting on cash. Following recent data that showed a decline in Eurozone money supply, figures out yesterday proved banks are hoarding cash at the European Central Bank (ECB). Overnight deposits hit €346bn (£291bn) – the highest level since the period after Greece’s 2010 bailout. Lenders have seen funding lines dry up: data provided by Dealogic shows that the market for bank paper is in deep freeze. The volume of unsecured debt sales for the second half of this year is down more than fourfold versus the €232.9bn sold in the first half. Even sales of covered bonds, the most secure kind of debt, have plunged, from €177.4bn in the first half to €64.5bn in the second. And banks have to pay more to issue: the three-month London interbank offered rate (Libor), a vital cost benchmark, has risen by more than a third to over one per cent this year. The markets are hoping that the sticking plasters that have been applied over the past two years will work. It is in their interests as the debts that some countries have run up cannot be repaid and the creditors cannot afford to write off the debts. The new treaty is not in the markets interest as it will provide for additional regulation that will mean higher capital reserve requirements for banks, and so they will be able to lend less and so that will reduce potential for growth. The eurozone cannot survive, two years after the crisis began, progress remains as elusive as ever. The banks and markets are playing hardball. The electorates are revolting yet the politicians continue to play to their own national politics, this is why it will not survive. What should happen next for Britain is that we should start to plan for The Great Escape. We can then plan for real growth with a low tax and regulation economy; release our businesses from Brussels’ red tape and bureaucracy; repeal the Agency Workers’ Directive and save hundreds of thousands of jobs; free our financial services industry from euro regulatory controls; take back control of what remains of our fishing industry and trade with the rest of the world. Oh, and Europe, because we will still buy their Mercedes, BMWs and excellent food and wine.

Indeed. And what's stopping him/them doing it again in April when the first payment is due?

As per that earlier article posted..... ....what is stopping AA from simply "re-structuring" the CVA, thus extending the "deadline(s)"....?

There are as many reasons to get a bit angry and throw stones at shop windows when Labour are in power as there are when the Tories are in power but "the poor people" bide their time until the Tories are in power so that it gets portrayed as a fight against the "nasty tories" Fact (ish)

Don't worry - you're in good company....I've been struggling to keep up with this saga for over 3 years now... :-)

Blair's Labour Party came closest in recent times (given how much the gap between the rich and poor grew during their tenure)

And what have these people achieved over the last 10 years (in terms of weeding out the blighter(s)....?)

But WHICH 'investigative offices'? That's the point...there doesn't seem to be anyone in authority in the slightest bit interested about alleged malpractice in this murky industry. The police? Nope. The government? Nope? An independent regulator? Nope. Rosemary the telephone operator? Hmmm, could be....

You're not suggesting 'the poor' are easily 'fooled' are you...?

Why oh why do people of AA's ilk fall below any industry regulator's radar? To my eyes, it's so obvious how dubious some of the players in the administration business are yet he and his ilk seem to escape with impunity time and time again. Why?

That saved me typing. My sentiments word for word. Dangerous mind game to play IMO.

The 'veto' means that the other '26 countries' can't act independently of the 'European Union' (by virtue if existing European Union law). If the 'European Union' is true to itself then, by definition, the UK maintains an influential position despite the establishment of this EU sub-organisation. If...

Disagree. Happy to discuss

^this Can't believe he doesn't secure a regular place on our bench yet...

All seems very sensible to me

1708: A Conservative MP says he's heard from aides outside the Commons that Ed Miliband's position is that he wouldn't have signed the EU treaty. The camera cuts to Mr Miliband who seems to look puzzled. The Speaker declines to give the Labour leader the opportunity to come back to the dispatch box and clarify.

1655: Nick Robinson Political editor In response to Labour MPs shouting at the prime minister, "where's Clegg?" Tory MPs shouted at the Labour leader, "Would you have signed?" Ed Miliband did not give his answer but his aides just have. It's "No".

Agreed

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16128342 A heated row has blown up after the Guardian newspaper admitted police now believe that the News Of The World paper's staff might not have deleted crucial voicemails from the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. The initial revelations that journalists had deliberately deleted Milly's messages caused a public outcry and eventually the closure of the paper (NOTW). Several former NOTW staff have used micro blogging site Twitter to demand an apology. Hayley Barlow tweeted: "Former #NotW staff demand Guardian apology over false claims paper deleted Milly Dowler's voicemails leading to closure and 300 jobs losses." Meanwhile a Guardian spokesman said: "Our story on July 4 accurately reported the facts about the hacking of Milly Dowler's phone known at the time. It is uncontested that in April 2011, Metropolitan Police detectives told Sally Dowler that the News of the World had been responsible for hacking Milly's phone and deleting messages on it. "Subsequent investigation by Operation Weeting has confirmed the key details reported by the Guardian: that the News of the World commissioned Glenn Mulcaire to hack into Milly's phone; that he succeeded; that journalists listened to some deeply personal messages; and that Surrey police knew this at the time and took no action. "Although the investigation has found that the News of the World was not responsible for the particular deletion of voicemails which caused Milly's parents to have false hope that she was alive, the new evidence also suggests that it is likely the paper's staff were inadvertently responsible for deleting later messages.

*facepalm*

Obligatory one word question alert... Source?

Yes

Congratulations Saints! A year ago tomorrow was the last time we lost a league game at home. Onwards and upwards!

Oops....