General Chit Chat

[Montreal Wanderer]

Does anyone know a young shaver who designs websites? My levels of incompetence know no bounds in this respect and I need my website building. And yes, I'm happy to pay for it.

Enfield will rustle you one up in no time!

Yup. 2 and ha'pence a foot!

It were only three ha'pence a foot in Sam Oswaldthwaite's day.

[Bruce Rioja]

Christ almighty. Imagine the minge on this one!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens ... -hair.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Does anyone know a young shaver who designs websites? My levels of incompetence know no bounds in this respect and I need my website building. And yes, I'm happy to pay for it.

PM me with what sort of thing you're after. I may be able to help.

[Hoboh]

Mmmmm

http://www.monbiot.com/2014/05/27/the-i ... of-growth/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gary the Enfield]

Mmmmm

http://www.monbiot.com/2014/05/27/the-i ... of-growth/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Jesus, he's a bundle of laughs isn't he?

[Lord Kangana]

Nothing really to disagree with there. Like it or loathe it, but you'll certainly have to lump it, we're living in the downslope of individual consumer capitalism.

[Hoboh]

The president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, reflecting the deep anger felt in Brussels at the erratic negotiating tactics adopted by Tsipras and Varoufakis, said Greek voters should blame Tsipras for bringing the country to its knees.

Schulz said: “New elections would be necessary if the Greek people vote for the reform programme and thus for remaining in the eurozone and Tsipras, as a logical consequence, resigns.”

In an outburst that was extraordinary coming from the most senior official in the EU parliament, he argued that the radical left Syriza government should be replaced by a technocratic administration.

“If this transitional government reaches a reasonable agreement with the creditors, then Syriza’s time would be over,” he said. “Then Greece has another chance.”

True colours shining through and all that if the EU cannot get it's own way!

[Worthy4England]

The president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, reflecting the deep anger felt in Brussels at the erratic negotiating tactics adopted by Tsipras and Varoufakis, said Greek voters should blame Tsipras for bringing the country to its knees.

Schulz said: “New elections would be necessary if the Greek people vote for the reform programme and thus for remaining in the eurozone and Tsipras, as a logical consequence, resigns.”

In an outburst that was extraordinary coming from the most senior official in the EU parliament, he argued that the radical left Syriza government should be replaced by a technocratic administration.

“If this transitional government reaches a reasonable agreement with the creditors, then Syriza’s time would be over,” he said. “Then Greece has another chance.”

True colours shining through and all that if the EU cannot get it's own way!

Get it's own way? Greece has defaulted on the terms of its debt - the ones, you know, that Greece were party to setting and agreeing. Not the first time. They were given some helpful suggestions as to how they might actually achieve the savings they need to make, to have any chance of meeting it and didn't deliver on them. The November 2012 Framework was getting results, albeit slowly.

The reason that they've gone backwards is because of the policies being driven by Syriza's government, who have then said "look, it's not working" - in terms of debt repayment, everyone could see that.

This is no different than what the IMF did with the UK in 1976.

[Hoboh]

The president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, reflecting the deep anger felt in Brussels at the erratic negotiating tactics adopted by Tsipras and Varoufakis, said Greek voters should blame Tsipras for bringing the country to its knees.

Schulz said: “New elections would be necessary if the Greek people vote for the reform programme and thus for remaining in the eurozone and Tsipras, as a logical consequence, resigns.”

In an outburst that was extraordinary coming from the most senior official in the EU parliament, he argued that the radical left Syriza government should be replaced by a technocratic administration.

“If this transitional government reaches a reasonable agreement with the creditors, then Syriza’s time would be over,” he said. “Then Greece has another chance.”

True colours shining through and all that if the EU cannot get it's own way!

Get it's own way? Greece has defaulted on the terms of its debt - the ones, you know, that Greece were party to setting and agreeing. Not the first time. They were given some helpful suggestions as to how they might actually achieve the savings they need to make, to have any chance of meeting it and didn't deliver on them. The November 2012 Framework was getting results, albeit slowly.

The reason that they've gone backwards is because of the policies being driven by Syriza's government, who have then said "look, it's not working" - in terms of debt repayment, everyone could see that.

This is no different than what the IMF did with the UK in 1976.

So while the IMF are saying Greece needs years to repay the debt with a substantial grace period coupled with large right offs to get it's economy back on track, the EU just wants to drive all it's people into abject poverty under it's terms and nothing else is acceptable?
What are the EU really after? more cheap labour, subservient governments, an elite teaching the poor a lesson?
This Greek crisis is more than just someone with bad debt refusing to pay, it's about the stupid monetary world of finance we have been brainwashed into thinking is the be all and end all of everything, run by corrupt bent meme types who frankly deserve to be shot at birth slowly coming to pieces. The so called 'markets' mistakes are being called out.

[thebish]

who exactly are these "corrupt bent meme types who frankly deserve to be shot at birth"?

[bobo the clown]

Syria said ... and is still saying ... that if the people hold out then the EU authorities will "blink first" leading to the debt being written off and the Greeks, a little like Liverpool FC, being able to set a new zero and then go on spending like before ... &, you know, I think they would too, except they know that Spain, with vastly bigger sums, then Italy would want the same.

Meanwhile Syria lie and cheat to the IMF, to the ECB and to their own citizens.

... and the EU Plutocrats do what they've done many times and show that if they don't get the answer they want they'll find ways of re-asking until they eventually do.

[thebish]

wtf has Syria got to do with it???

[LeverEnd]

wtf has Syria got to do with it???

I think it's autocorrecting Tsipras. You now what poor old Bobo is like with these pesky mobile thingies!

[bobo the clown]

wtf has Syria got to do with it???

Yep autocorrect.

Syriza. The governing party. But you knew that.

[Worthy4England]

The president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, reflecting the deep anger felt in Brussels at the erratic negotiating tactics adopted by Tsipras and Varoufakis, said Greek voters should blame Tsipras for bringing the country to its knees.

Schulz said: “New elections would be necessary if the Greek people vote for the reform programme and thus for remaining in the eurozone and Tsipras, as a logical consequence, resigns.”

In an outburst that was extraordinary coming from the most senior official in the EU parliament, he argued that the radical left Syriza government should be replaced by a technocratic administration.

“If this transitional government reaches a reasonable agreement with the creditors, then Syriza’s time would be over,” he said. “Then Greece has another chance.”

True colours shining through and all that if the EU cannot get it's own way!

Get it's own way? Greece has defaulted on the terms of its debt - the ones, you know, that Greece were party to setting and agreeing. Not the first time. They were given some helpful suggestions as to how they might actually achieve the savings they need to make, to have any chance of meeting it and didn't deliver on them. The November 2012 Framework was getting results, albeit slowly.

The reason that they've gone backwards is because of the policies being driven by Syriza's government, who have then said "look, it's not working" - in terms of debt repayment, everyone could see that.

This is no different than what the IMF did with the UK in 1976.

So while the IMF are saying Greece needs years to repay the debt with a substantial grace period coupled with large right offs to get it's economy back on track, the EU just wants to drive all it's people into abject poverty under it's terms and nothing else is acceptable?
What are the EU really after? more cheap labour, subservient governments, an elite teaching the poor a lesson?
This Greek crisis is more than just someone with bad debt refusing to pay, it's about the stupid monetary world of finance we have been brainwashed into thinking is the be all and end all of everything, run by corrupt bent meme types who frankly deserve to be shot at birth slowly coming to pieces. The so called 'markets' mistakes are being called out.

On the bit in bold, I might be inclined to agree somewhat. Don't think it's entirely correct as explained below. I think we'd all rather be free of the shackles of money and it's implications - I've not seen a sustainable plan for this to occur yet.

But realistically, whether you're a country or an individual you can't spend more than you have to spend in a long term sustainable manner. Even with barter, once your turnips have run out, you're out of turnips.

There are two ways of looking at what the lenders are trying to do here. One, the populist way is to say "look at these nasty people driving us into poverty, let's say no and pretend it'll all go away", the other, the financier's way, is "you're out of turnips and so you need to change how you spend your turnips, because some of the things you're spending them on, you can't afford".

Military spending is one such area and one of the sticking points, but there's a whole raft of stuff around cutting down tax avoidance, introducing legislation on Tax Fraud, making the tax system progressive. This in part is to help with the pensions point below, as they're low on income because of unemployment rates.

The real bone of contention seems to be pensions reform. As a country, Greece has the lowest retirement age in OECD aside from Turkey, it spends the highest proportion of GDP on pensions - more than any other European country. 80% in public sector are retired before 61 and 75% overall. As I understand it, that's after earlier reforms. With or without any bailouts, they simply can't afford it. I'm all for highest possible pensions for folks who have worked all their lives, but that has to be balanced with expenditure in other areas.

[Hoboh]

The problem I see is Greece is actually getting little of the money being loaned to them now, most of it is going to pay the European banks and financial institutions the interest (profit) on the original sum they lent the Greeks whilst increasing the Greek debt.
It would be better if the European central bank just paid them direct and the Greeks brought in some reforms and started to grow their economy with only a marginal increase in the debt.
Then again, I'd guess that wouldn't go down well with a lot of the European electorate, paying EU money to the bankers!

[Worthy4England]

The problem I see is Greece is actually getting little of the money being loaned to them now, most of it is going to pay the European banks and financial institutions the interest (profit) on the original sum they lent the Greeks whilst increasing the Greek debt.
It would be better if the European central bank just paid them direct and the Greeks brought in some reforms and started to grow their economy with only a marginal increase in the debt.
Then again, I'd guess that wouldn't go down well with a lot of the European electorate, paying EU money to the bankers!

Greece is effectively paying back less than Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy as a proportion of GDP...

[Hoboh]

The problem I see is Greece is actually getting little of the money being loaned to them now, most of it is going to pay the European banks and financial institutions the interest (profit) on the original sum they lent the Greeks whilst increasing the Greek debt.
It would be better if the European central bank just paid them direct and the Greeks brought in some reforms and started to grow their economy with only a marginal increase in the debt.
Then again, I'd guess that wouldn't go down well with a lot of the European electorate, paying EU money to the bankers!

Greece is effectively paying back less than Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy as a proportion of GDP...

What GDP?

[Hoboh]

the Greek vote is a huge blow to EU leaders, particularly the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who has dominated the crisis management through her insistence on fiscal rigour and cuts despite a huge economic slump, soaring unemployment and the immiseration of most of Greek society.


“The failure of the euro means the failure of Merkel’s [10-year] chancellorship,” said the cover of the latest issue of Der Spiegel, the German weekly. It depicted her sitting atop a Europe in ruins.

Coming apart at the seams it seems
Roll on our referendum

[Worthy4England]

Sometimes, you just have to make an entry in the Darwin Awards book.

A man who was celebrating Independence Day in the US has died trying to launch a firework from the top of his head. Devon Staples, 22, was drinking with friends and letting off fireworks on Saturday night, authorities say. "He placed a reloadable fireworks mortar tube on his head and told his friends he was going to light it," said Stephen McCausland, a spokesman for Maine's Department of Public Safety. "Apparently, he thought that was a great idea," he added.


He was the kind of person who would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh "His friends thought they'd dissuaded him from doing it, and the next thing they knew, he ignited the fireworks and he was killed instantly." Devon's brother, Cody Staples, says he was nearby when his brother lit the firework. "There was no rushing him to the hospital. There was no Devon left when I got there," Cody told the Daily News of New York, describing it as an accident. "Devon was not the kind of person who would do something stupid. "He was the kind of person who would pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh."

Up until 2012, fireworks were outlawed in the state of Maine. The law was changed as it was thought it would create jobs. Devon, who was from Calais, a small city on the Canadian border, is the first person to die in an incident involving fireworks since they were made legal. A 32-year-old man in Montana was also killed on Saturday in a fireworks accident involving a mortar tube. Meanwhile, a man aged 52 from New Jersey set off a tennis ball-sized firework which blew off a large part of his left leg below the knee.