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The euro is nothing more than a sacred cow. It is time to take it to the abattoir - Norman Tebbit
At the turn of the year we naturally look forward to what the next twelve months might hold for us, both as individuals and as a country. But it is not a bad idea to look back to what was happening, or rather not happening, twelve months ago.
What strikes me is that very few of the Guardianista or BBC establishment were then even prepared to discuss the possibility that the euro might be heading for partial, let alone complete, collapse.
Yet here we are. Today Programme interviewers can no longer laugh to scorn those who have long predicted a crisis of the kind now facing the eurozone. Senior bankers and Treasury Ministers now admit to contingency planning for the odds-on case of Greece leaving the euro – and for the possibility that Italy and Spain might follow.
Quite suddenly, we who have long been talking about some of these things have been promoted, from the outer fringes of swivel-eyed nutty fruitcake territory, to the centre of the discussions. Well, no, it isn't quite that good: we are still left in enforced purdah for having been right all along, but what we have been saying is now being said by the sort of people invited to discuss these matters on the BBC, and in the columns of The Financial Times.
The euro is now ten years old and I well recollect saying before its birth that I was sure it would be created and that it would last not less than ten years (and certainly not more than twenty). I now think that some sort of euro, centred on Germany with a very few other member states will probably survive within a greater D.Mark zone, but the seventeen or twenty plus eurozone will not.
We would do well to recollect Enoch Powell's definition of a sacred cow as “a beast one lacks both the means to nourish and the will to put down”, for it describes the dilemma of those who were taken in by the near religious fervour of the prophets of monetary union. There is still an unwillingness to contemplate what needs to be done and an irrational belief that somehow, if only a big enough bazooka could be built and fired, the euro could be saved at least for another few years. A bazooka might be better used as a humane killer.
Of course it is possible that in January of 2013 the euro will still be staggering on, dragging down not just Greece and Italy but all of us, within or without the eurozone. But the longer it is propped up, the greater the eventual cost of rebuilding the European economies.
At home, despite all the talk of the break-up of the Coalition, I still believe that it is odds-on to survive in its present form until 2014 when the Lib Dems may well split into the coalitionists – who will get some sort of easy election ride from Mr Cameron – and those looking to be Lib-Lab coalitionists seeking an easy ride from Mr Miliband.
Of course all this will be conducted against the great uncertainty of the American Presidential election. I have never been as dismissive of President Obama as many Right-wingers, and at present none of the would-be Republican contenders look to be of the quality which America and the rest of the democratic world desperately needs. I can only hope that I will be proved wrong.
Finally, if I could be granted just two modest and reasonable wishes for British politics it would be that the Government might become competent at managing its business and that Mr Miliband and his colleagues might begin to offer constructive opposition and alternative policies.
Alas, I am not too hopeful. Christmas has gone and Santa will not be back for nearly a year.
It is really quite a while since my last blog post and much Christmas pudding and good wine has been consumed so most of what I wrote, and perhaps what my readers contributed, will have been long forgotten. However, I think I should just take up the comments of davedavenotdave who misunderstood some of what I said about the role of women in Biblical times. I am grateful to him, and others who joined in, for his words on female Old Testament prophets.
As I wrote, I really lacked knowledge of such things and therefore I refrained from expressing an opinion one way or the other, so he should not feel quite so triumphalist about it. Nor should he assume that I am against women clergy. I was a supporter of the appointment of a woman to be Dean of our Cathedral at Bury St. Edmunds and I am happy to have been so.
I though it a bit unrealistic that he should he expect that a humble blogger, working on his own, would have resources to match those available to the Prime Minister. I do not. I can, however, assure him that if I were the Prime Minister, I would use those resources in the way which Margaret Thatcher did. That would have avoided, for example, the humiliation of bungling the consultation on the changes in subsidies for solar-panel generated electricity and being subjected to a successful application for judicial review.
I should also thank all of you for reading my blog posts, and commenting upon them, and of course for your many good wishes at Christmas and for the New Year.
Good comments too, especially this one:
petty polly @ 12:53pm
Norman Tebbit is only partly right.
Not only is it time to say farewell to the Euro. It is time to say farewell to the democratic system which enabled it to happen, and instead empower electorates with the right to referendums and recall.
Representative democracy is where the fault lies because elected representatives cannot be trusted to respect the will of the people. I am sure Norman Tebbit recognises this fact from his period in office.
Representative democracy has given Europe the Euro. It has also given Great Britain the multiracial society and Islam which in due course will lead to the racial replacement of the indigenous population and their inevitable marginalisation.
What a disaster of truly epic proportions has been forced on our unwilling population by a very small number of people in parliament acting in defiance of everyone.
This dates back to WW2 and Clement Attlee's British Nationality Act 1948, probably the most foolish and disastrous piece of legislation in British history with absolutely shocking consequencies.
Representative democracy has enabled parliament to give Great Britain away to foreigners. Not only to mass immigration which the electorate certainly does not want, but also the EU which the electorate doesn't want either.
All this is the fault of a parliament which is obssessed with it's own desires, wishes and petty prejudices and which constantly holds up two fingers to everyone else.
We urgently require reform and the electorate to be empowered with the right to call referendums and invoke recall when politicians fall out of favour.
Very much along the lines of Switzerland in fact where it is known as Direct Democracy.
Otherwise, if there is no change, there is no doubt we all ultimately will be living under Islamic law and the indigenous population will be forced out.
We are close to the time when we must stand up and be counted.
source
Steve
