The question of whether or not EU "leaders" will approve a bail out for the Greek government is a foregone conclusion - of course they will. They have to.
It won't be on any moral or legal ground that a bail out is agreed - although I'm sure they will try and frame it as such - but simply out of the necessity of saving their own skins and the whole EU project itself. The only question really at stake is how much all of this is going to cost us in Britain - not just for bailing out the Greeks, but in terms of the knock on effects on sterling, our economy and, potentially, having to step in and help out the Irish, Spanish and Portuguese too.
The problem for the Greeks isn't simply that their economy is in trouble - there aren't that many countries whose economy isn't faltering - it's that the mechanisms a government would normally use are not available to them because they do not have the control over their currency any more. Worse still, the currency they do use is controlled principally for the benefit of France and Germany - everyone else using the euro is just a "hanger on" - and as the German and French economies are very different to that of Greece, what is good for France and Germany isn't always so good for Greece.
But the euro can not be allowed to fail. To allow this to happen will mean the end of the European Union project itself. Of course, it is already doomed and will eventually collapse entirely anyway, but that doesn't mean that they won't keep the dying patient on life support for as long as they can.
If the quango NICE had a say in whether the treatment for saving the euro was economically viable they would deny access to the bail out and if the EU was a patient in the NHS there would be a sign over the bed reading "DNR".
But there's no "do not resuscitate" orders for the EU Frankenstein project. The EU "nation", stitched together over five decades from the body parts of two dozen different, disparate and incompatible countries and recently brought to life by the shock of its new constitution can only be kept alive with expensive artificial stimulants - and it's going to cost Britain an arm and a leg to stop the Greek fingers and Spanish ears from dropping off.
It's a waste of money. Let the monster die.
3 comments:
That last paragraph Stan, must be the longest extended metaphor in the English language.
However, we still have the Elgin Marbles, and could trade those in, in exchange for not forcing the British tax payer to cough up on behalf of the Greeks.
I try my best, bernard ;)
We've been coughing up on behalf of the Greeks since they joined the EU in the early eighties!
According to the German Press the Gerries (normal working types)are not happy with bailing out the feckless Greeks.
They reason that the Greeks have been living of their national credit card for too long and need a sharp dose of reality.
The public sector is currently on strike against redundancies and the raising of their retirement age from 61 to 63.
Why should Fritz and Brunhilde raise theirs from 65 to 68 to pay for the Greeks retirement benefits?
I tend to agree
Post a Comment