“The Euro will not collapse. Our efficient friends the Germans and their highly succesful economy and method of government will ensure that it survives and flourishes.”

“Perhaps it would be better if Germany left the EMU?
The 'one size fits all' inflexible EMU has proven disastrous. Printing money only postpones a bigger disaster. Behind the stats and the austerity lies an increasing toll of ordinary families whose lives will be shattered by the politicians in the bankers pockets as debt will own us all.
No reason for us to be smug as we will also be another domino with unimaginable debt.”

“I think Alistair may be right.

Franco/German pockets are a lot deeper.”

“I am inclined to agree with homerjay. The Euro crisis is needlessly destroying lives all over Europe, and sooner, rather than later, the politicians will have to face reality and allow the PIIGS countries to revert, in an organised manner, back to their own currencies. Doing that would mean a further period of austerity, but after a few years they will recover. On the other hand it is forecast the Euro crisis could continue for over a decade - and even that is beginning to look like a very conservative estimate.
Most people say the Euro crisis is a monetary one. It is not, its basis is a political one. It is those who wish to see a United States of Europe who are prolonging the agony. Moreover, they don't care either!
Alastair. Of course our German friends will attempt to keep the Euro. If the PIIGS countries left the currency, the the value of the Euro would rise significantly and Germany would become totally uncompetitive in the global market.
Slimslad. As the crisis deepens, the French pockets are beginning to look extremely shallow.

The Euro is being bailed out with considerable assistance from the IMF (and we are a significant contributor), yet that organisation was set up to assist countries that faced financial problems, it was never designed to bail out currencies.”

“Perhaps as I said, there is a bigger case for Germany to leave the Euro. What we are talking about is the overseeing and implementation of austerity measures on defaulting countries by Germany which many will find divisive.
As Taxman says the French pockets are shallow but they can turn off some of our power (and Germany's) and they run much of our services, something they have found an attractive investment. But France's nuclear scheme built on sovereign debt looks precarious after the Fukushima incident, the backlash means that they will be looking to have a massive rebuild for future energy requirements. Germany has an 80% mandate against nuclear power.

The bigger picture is the way we in the West have lived cheaply by hypocritically patronising the sweat shops and child labour factories of the East whilst decimating our own manufacturing industries, now, aided by the divisive carbon reduction scam, it will come back to bite us.
Our services are virtually all run by foreign companies, we fill our industrial sites with foreign workers and ironically we employ French (IT company!) Atos to get the disabled back to work when none exists for them (ie. Remploy)
We have had tomorrows wealth today and squandered it and instead of encouraging British industry and services, we have deconstructed and thrown the remains to the wolves. The NHS will go the same way.
It's difficult to see us getting out of this for at least a generation? Things will get worse but will they ever get better?
We have to be innovative to get out of the hole we have dug for ourselves.”

“homerjay. Germany will never leave the Euro voluntarily - to do so would be national suicide. The DM Mk2 would soar in value and they would become totally uncompetitive in the Global market.
I agree with you about the sweat shops in the emerging countries etc. I would also add the left wing Trades Unions also played their part in bringing some of our leading industries to their knees: in demanding, and obtaining, salaries/wages we could not afford we became uncompetitive and suffered the consequences. Is there a lesson there for the future?
It is virtually certain we will build new Nuclear power stations, and I do not see why we should not - albeit, they will probably be built by the French.
I am not as pessimistic as you, and if we look to the future, and not the past, and play to our strengths, we can recover more quickly than one may think. Even today our remaining industries are performing much better than we might have expected.
Our education system has let our young people down, and our schools, community colleges and universities must change their ways and deliver the education and skills needed to enable us to once again become competitive in the modern world.”

“Taxman...I was not suggesting Germany would contemplate leaving the Euro, just illustrating the problem not being Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Portugal but Germany, and I agree with your observation.
Yes, the 70's was a bad era in many respects, but I think the problem today and tomorrow will the reverse.

I'm not sure if I'm pessimistic or realistic as industry has shown it's lack of confidence in our parenting and education system by leaving almost a quarter of kids on the dole. These are the people that will not only be expected to pay off our debt and liabilities (est. £4 trillion) whilst meeting carbon commitment/renewables whilst the same agenda will put intolerable taxes in the form of carbon credits.
We need to get a handle on this, that's more money than could be gleaned by selling off all the UK housing stock.
Luckily there's still a core of good kids thanks to good parenting and not to our education and social systems. Our education system has dumbed down, brainwashed, and current correctnesses are destroying individuality, flair and vision.
We need to correct the one way entitlement culture, we are sitting on a bad health timebomb that needs to be radically tackled etc.
We may have a saviour in shale oil, perhaps innovation will pull us out of the hole we've dug but I shall buy a fertile piece of land just in case..”

“This is a frightening website:

http://tinyurl.com/6tmuc8y

UK Debt Clock - £1 Trillion + and this from the site -
•£5,169 per second
•£310,212 per minute
•£18,607,306 per hour
•£446,575,342 per day

and personal debt on top of that at another estimated £1.5 Trillion!

here:

http://tinyurl.com/834el5l

Surely these figures are unsustainable? The debt is still rising but it is going to take generations to pay them off. We were never even told about 'trillions' when I was at school many moons ago.”

“The CIA country by country guide:

https://http://tinyurl.com/2n4j9k

The Economist World Debt Counter:

http://tinyurl.com/2wzcdhj

Total financial madness in my simple mind!”

“''Paying off the UK debt the movie'' would be a great film for your sci fi blog Alistair...(a bit far fetched though?)

''Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible (or at least non-supernatural) content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities.''”

“Alastair. How do you sleep at night with all your worries?
I sleep soundly, although I know in the morning the problems will not have have gone away. Sometimes, and I mean sometimes, I can see through the financial fog, but know perfectly well when I awake I be poorer today than I was yesterday.
On the positive side, the birds still sing, the flowers grow, the cock still crows, the trees burst into leaf, and the dogs still need to be fed and walked upon the moor. And it is the latter that makes all things well. And, on a day like to day it is glorious. What a day to be alive and free of care!”

“You are right in what you say, of course and for sure I shan't be around long enough to pay it off being well over half way there so I too enjoy the clear blue skies and glorious weather!”

“Just to keep the ball rolling. The OECD has found another rather large 'black hole' in Greece's finances. http://tinyurl.com/64sgz3
Also, today the German papers report their pockets are not as deep as they first thought and will not contribute further to ' the Euro bail out fund' - although they still expect us to do so through the IMF!

The good news, http://tinyurl.com/7tr37le, and that is on top of the industrial sectors better than expected performance reported earlier.”

“Are the EU and the Euro Zone on terminal life support? It would seem so to everyone except the unelected politicians in Brussels.

There are massive riots, most notably in Greece & Spain, where unemployment levels are between 20% & 30% (which have received little coverage in our media), and where there is no respite in sight. Greece will require a further bail out sooner rather than later, as their national growth output has declined by 7% in the past few months, and is declining further by the day. Spain wants, and desperately needs, a reduction in its deficit targets set by the EU – the EU cannot oblige as their rules and regulations prohibit such a reduction.
Portugal has been forced to sell off the family silver, but their financial position has not improved one iota, and their long-term future is therefore positively bleak.
Hungary will not receive the promised EU loan (Euro495M), as the country is unwilling to accept the stifling austerity measures recommend by Brussels.
The Euro Zone has downgraded its own growth forecasts and suggests it will fall back into severe recession this year.

Compare that with Iceland, who only a couple of years ago were bankrupt, but are now recovering extremely well! They were only able to achieve their remarkable recovery because, unlike the Euro countries, they retained their democracy and could control their own interest rates etc., etc.

What do you think will happen?”

“I am non politically aligned and non denominational believing passionately in democracy and free enterprise but detesting with equal passion the greed of global corpratism.

The original concept of the EU as a free trade organisation was I feel sound and reasonable, things went horribly wrong along the way as unelected unacountable EU commissioners siezed the agenda and propelled us all inexorably toward an undemocratic unwieldy horrendously costly and inefficient superstate.

Disastrous common agricultural and fisheries policies have socially engineered both industries and the communities that grew up around them have been emasculated while those such as supermarkets have profited from the artificial market forces created that favour the large and the predatory.

Now the thing is broke and the lacklustre crew that pretend to run it seem clueless to fix it, they are in total denial while the whole thing slowly collapses around their ears.

I was always wary of UKIP but currently their message strikes an eerie chord that articulates the increasing unease that I have been feeling for several years.

Below are a couple of clips that tell it like it is but from the looks of horro are obviously not what the Eurocrats really want to hear but it is better that they have been said and are in the public domain.

We are near the tipping point where if not stopped a dictatorship will emerge from the chaos that has been created, I curse this hateful organisation and eagerly anticipate its impending collapse.

http://tinyurl.com/2vy8vus

http://tinyurl.com/7jp73dz”

“Is this the death of the Euro, and in consequence the EU. http://tinyurl.com/6twrkdt
It also appears the IMF is returning to its fold by supporting Countries in financial difficulties, and not as in the case of the Euro, currencies.”

“The Dutch want out. http://tinyurl.com/83jmbfk">http://tinyurl.com/83jmbfk Spain ignores last weeks treaty, http://tinyurl.com/83jmbfk">http://tinyurl.com/83jmbfk http://tinyurl.com/79bgk9q. The Greeks are about to have a disorganised default http://tinyurl.com/6mdy5zy

Yet, dear old Barroso and Van Rompuy say, "everything will be OK". Comments just like the days of old in the USSR!

Where will all this end? Hopefully, with the EU consigned to the annuls of history!”