So far as I can follow, the Greek electorate now have the choice between voting Yes and agreeing to the IMF austerity package, and voting No and having their leaders agree to any “face-saving” variation, however miniscule, before accepting the IMF austerity package. You can be quite sure that the international elite will thoroughly humiliate Syriza by making abundantly clear that if they offer any change at all, it is absolutely miniscule. A change of nominal leader of Greece may result from the referendum, but nothing that changes the life of anybody who is not a politician. Either way in six months time we will be exactly back where we are now, only with opposition to the IMF broken as the next wave of pillage of the public sector comes.
The Euro project will continue to be extremely strong. New money will be funnelled into the pockets of bankers. It is important to recall that 100% of these bailout funds go to bankers, none of it goes to the Greek people and none of it stays in Greece. The same bankers will become the beneficiaries of servicing of new loans provided to vast corporations to buy up Greek public assets, cheap.
It would require a particular heartlessness to be indifferent to the demise of the idealistic hopes that backed Syriza. But in the end it proved they did not offer any actual choice of any significantly different outcome. There is no real choice on Sunday, no difference in outcome from which way people vote. Beware Greeks bearing rifts.
She and her ambitious mother made the choice Ben.
~~~
You could buy a s/h car for less. £1,250!
http://www.johnlewis.com/browse/baby-child/travelling/silver-cross/vintage-collection/_/N-5i8c
Greece says OXI to more austerity, now both sides must find common ground.
Samaras resigns. Good riddance.
BRICS make formal offer to Greece to join them.
https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex
RoS 6.01pm I said earlier that Robinson was on Marr reviewing the papers. He picked out some obscure story about a piece of Renaissance silver looted by the Nazis being restored to the owners by the Ashmolean. It was not a front page story so why did he select it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/11718641/Museum-hands-back-Renaissance-riches-linked-to-Nazi-looters.html
The donor of the piece to the Ashmolean was one Wellby. No relation to the Archbishop one assumes.
At the end of the programme, he popped up again sitting alongside Osborne. He is hardly an impartial political editor letting on that he was ‘with the Chancellor a week before the election’. All very cosy.
54mins in http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b061z54h/the-andrew-marr-show-05072015
Antonis Samaras, the head of the opposition right-wing New Democracy party, has just resigned.
It seems to me the Greeks have been trying to teach the people of the world for centuries, but few are learning.
Glad they did not give in to the fear tactics that my fellow Scots did.
Well done to the Greeks!
Not a bad piece from Paul Mason on Ch4:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xsCagry-0g#t=136
He understands that this is quite momentous of course, that at last the will of a people has triumphed over the diktat of central bankers.
Perhaps he’s even pleased.
“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!”
The Greeks have sent a clear and unmistakable message to the blood sucking bankster vermin; “swivel on this boys!” Congrats to the gutsy Greeks whom have found their roots and are beginning to get back their country instead of being tenets in their own homes.
The whole stinking monetary system stinks the whole corrupt and racketeering concept of banking/insurance/hedge funds stinks to high heavens, and Greeks have first hand knowledge of it and have said no the the tyranny of debt.
Well done the lads and lasses in Greek “Μπράβο τα παλικάρια και lasses”.
What’s next?
“May you live in interesting times..”
Oh my God, it’s the end of the world, THE END OF THE WORLD!
DA DA DAH!
https://twitter.com/Peston/status/617786735649517568
Will the people of the world understand this lesson?.
Entropy is a natural event just like Eurotrpy.
I never watch the oligarch owned media, pointless to shout and scream at the telly as the sock-puppets dressed up and sold as presenters, open their mouths and out pours a boatload of lies and untruths. However I caught a glimpse of the “news” with the relevant sock-puppet waxing lyrical about the “complicated” referendum question, and adding about these most difficult economic concepts that even experts do not understand and furthermore the questions on the subjects were no longer relevant because there had been changes to the original propositions.
Reminded me of the gas bill, electricity bills etc. These are now so fully opaque and totally contrived that no longer make any sense and provide even further opportunity for the privateers to fleece we the people even more than they have in the past. Although the response of our government to this total market failure is to push the blame onto we the people for not switching suppliers. Evidently playing musical chairs and saving a tenner on the extortion of the monopolies turned private enterprises is the only way to save.
Greeks however did not find the problem of the referendum question so complex and made their decision by telling the bally lot of the baksters to go and make love to themselves in the mirror!
Whenever we hear “complex” in this country it is a precursor to the shaft that is about to be delivered to we the people, all the while pointing at our ignorance and lack of acumen in understanding such heavy and hugely difficult concepts such as gas bill and electricity bills. Evidently the thermal units no longer are applicable, probably because the European Community rules has the thermal units replaced by when do you use your gas? Do you do so standing up or sitting down? How many people are to be present when the gas fire is lit? Have you the relevant copyrights for the said gas that has been delivered to your cooker?
The lying sacks of shit in the political leadership would have blamed the Muslims for it all, if they could not find a escape goat in EU and pin it on them.
As an aside, I will never forget the change of the street lighting that took place in our street a few years back. The trick was the installers heightened the poles and reduced the number of lights. result was much dimer and darker street. I pulled the so called Representatives to the task that the proposal is going to make the street darker and fact that the whole of the lights in the street had been recently changed and upgrade so an unnecessary expanse with worst results are not the way forward.
To this I was told it was the EU and the light pollution controls!!!!!!! In response I got on to my computer and summoned the EU site on my screen and asked the representative to kindly tell me which EU directive she is referring to?
At this juncture the startled female turned to her colleague and said; “shouldn’t we be in such and such place now?” (a variation of good god is that the time?) and they both beat a hasty retreat. The lying bastards had been caught with their pants around the ankle and still made a run for it. Needless to point out, our street is dimmer and much darker than it used to be.
The “complex issues” evidently did not translate well into Greek and they voted NO.
However will this referendum in Greece; be similar to the Irish referendum in which the Irish voted no and they were sent back to vote again and come up with the “correct” results?
Tsipras seems to have played a good game of chess, thus far. Marathon game, that suddenly got a ever more interesting. But google news’ headline is still ‘Princess’ Charlotte. Little England.
“Entropy is a natural event just like Eurotrpy.”
The first law of entropy is that you just can’t win.
The second law is that you can’t break even either.
As an aside, I’ve just noticed that the Louis Armstrong vid I liked to above has had more than 76 million views on YouTube.
Most people desire a ‘wonderful world’. The pity is how we allow the socios and psychos to turn it into a ‘never-ending war’ world.
“Greece seems to have given austerity two fingers.”
I wonder if we’ll be given the opportunity to give it two fingers too?
I am just completely delighted at the result of The Greek Referendum..and they really do not know how to take it on The Daily Telegraph…
Our Senorita (My Spanish Girlfriend – The Spanish Ambassador) is Completely Delighted and Jumping Up and Down in Joy like a Little Girl…
Neither of Us Thought The Greeks Would Have So Much Courage.
Wow xx
Well done..don’t worry – it will all be O.K.
You Greek Guys Have Just Changed The World…when no one else had the courage to.
Thank You.
Tony
μπράβο, Έλληνες!
“There is something demagoguic about it.” (the Greek referendum result) (Tessa Jowell 23.35, Sky News).
“MELTDOWN”!
Daily Mail front page splash.
It’s worth remembering that, in public statements, even the IMF and FED were cautioning about the ECB’s approach to Greece, and to austerity in general, including in the UK.
All Greece wanted was a restructuring of the debt in line with income, giving their economy a chance of growth.
What the ECB and the other EU parasites wanted was ever increasingly burdensome repayments that could never be met and which would have ensured the Greek economy never returned to growth.
What were they playing at, and why the difference with IMF and FED.
John Ward’s view at The Slog:
““If the Greeks vote no, they can kiss membership of the euro goodbye” said Martin Schulz at 10.00 am Greek time.
By 3pm Greek time, several media were opining that the NO vote had probably carried the day.
“If the Greeks vote no, we will not abandon them” said Martin Schulz at 4 pm Greek time.
It’s a game of two halves with yer Germans, innit? You can set yer watch by ’em.”
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2015/07/05/greek-referendum-slog-told-oxis-have-won-surreal-hysteria-breaks-out-in-brussels-berlin/
I think the bankers perceived that their gravy train had not fully run its course and that they believe there is more room to fleece the Greek people before any pips begin to squeak. The 35% jump in the suicide rate is clearly regarded as an insufficient corrective to ECB plunder.
Daniel: “The 35% jump in the suicide rate is clearly regarded as an insufficient corrective to ECB plunder.”
On the contrary, it can be seen as a positive indicator – the medicine is clearly working.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2263690.stm
This is a side effect, regrettable perhaps, but we must look at the big picture – the investor class does exceptionally well under these conditions.
Just remember that, toffs, investor-class, banksters and 0.1%’ers. People are driven to suicide, vastly more are merely desperate and unhappy, millions more are struggling and miserable. But – hey! – if that’s what it takes to get your favoured economic conditions, that’s what it takes. As Stalin’s apologists said – You can’t make an omelet without breaking eggs.
Daniel, the USA once again wants to place nuclear weapons in Europe, because we are told that Russia is a threat.
Constant war. Constant propaganda.
Most of those in Congress and Parliament should be arrested for the crooks they are.
And that my friends is the power of Democracy; scourge of tyrants & vested interests, because, and here’s its secret; most people are fundamentally good, and will oppose injustice & greed whenever given the power, and the Greek genius was that it both recognized this, and they actually managed to give themselves this power.
There’s an old WW2 song that mocks the Italians’ failure to invade Greek, with the chorus of;
“Oh! What a surprise for the Du-ce, the Du-ce, He can’t put it over the Greeks!”
Well the Troika is just another in a long line of repeat history of those who “can’t put it over the Greeks”; Sure Germany conquered Greece, but against its will thank to Mussolini’s failure, and it was a Pyrrhic victory, dearly fought for, and in the end many scholars believe it ultimately cost Germany the War as it delayed the planned invasion of Russia by two months, and then the Russian winter did to the Germans what it had done to Napoleon’s troops previously. Going back further, two former unrivaled Superpowers, the Persian & the Ottoman Empires, both always struggled to subdue & contain the Greeks, both had some Pyrrhic victories, but Greek vengeance visited the Persians under Alexander the Great, who destroyed their Empire for good, and the Turks have never forgiven the Greeks for being the first people to break free from their rule, causing a domino effect which ultimately lead to the eventual disintegration of their Empire.
Yes you have to hand it to the Greeks, the greatest of difficult enemies but only because they are also the greatest friends of Humanity.
To celebrate this tremendous Referendum result, I’ve just booked myself a couple of weeks in that blessed land, so if I seem to be avoiding this Blog, it will be because I’m too busy enjoying myself, lack of Wi-Fi, or both !
Chris Moore; “I think that’s pretty harsh, Craig”
Well that’s Craig’s dogma playing up again; it turns out that the IMF was a lot less hardline that the other two EU bodies of the Troika, but Craig cannot bring himself to say a single bad word about his beloved EU project, even despite all its blatant faults.
To end on a comical note;
Habbabkuk ; “I could write quite a lot on this theme of Craig’s as I probably have much more expertise than the rest of the usual posters (and Craig) put together”
Plus;
Habbabkuk ; « Exit the Clown, stage left……
Finance Minister Varoufakis says he will resign if the “YES”s win the referendum.
A future govt should put him and PM Tsipras on trial for treason.”
Spot the real Clownish Ignoramus ! 😀
“Constant war. Constant propaganda.”
Eternal war as the precursor to an everlasting peace.
“To celebrate this tremendous Referendum result, I’ve just booked myself a couple of weeks in that blessed land…”
Acropolis Now! I’ll see you in Athens.
It has been clear for years that the logical next step in politics would be the re-emergence of socialist parties in Europe and the end of the neo-liberal one party states in which Social Democrats of the Blairite kind vie with old conservative parties for the patronage of the rich.
When Mandelson boasted that New Labour was intensely relaxed about some being filthy rich he was also warning us that they were equally relaxed about millions becoming desperately poor and insecure. At last this is beginning to be understood.
If Sinn Fein, a very opportunistic and cautious bunch, see the writing on the wall they will probably form Ireland’s next government, together with dozens of anti-austerity TDs. The Labour Party will follow the Greens-and their Scots colleagues-into oblivion and the 1916 centenary celebrations will become really festive.
As to Britain is it not likely that the EU will be rejected in a referendum, and that a revived Bennite left current will push Farage aside and lead the NO side?
Then there is Spain, where the anti-neo-liberal has just received an incredible boost which could make it the next Syriza.
All around Europe austerity is biting and the opposition to it has lacked only a political focus. As the Scots have shown there is no reason why nationalism, as a reaction to distant, cold and irresponsible government, should not provide the leadership to reject neo-liberalism and re-affirm communal solidarity.
A three pronged political programme rejecting the dictatorship of haute finance, asserting national independence from US imperialist dominance and insisting on a revival and strengthening of the post war welfare state, with equal access to healthcare, education, shelter and decent employment for all would sweep away every government in Europe and provide a proper basis for any continental integration in future.
The Greeks are probably the only nation in modern Europe who could have done what has been done-demonstrate a real popular dignity in the face of threats and blackmail. May their example not be lost.