Lies and deceit over the EU Bail Out of Ireland!

The Irish Times this morning publishes details of the means whereby Ireland was compelled to surrender its sovereignty to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. As this action was the forerunner to the final surrender of democratic governance for some 500 million Europeans, (as the Eurogroup chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, made clear to a conference this week, as reported by the EU Observer, linked here,) it is worth reading closely as a guide to how other former nation states may be brought in to line should they refuse to quietly accept economic hegemony from Germany, at present being installed with the backing of France's President Sarkozy.

I have selected certain passages which are the most critical in my opinion:

"At a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Tuesday, November 16th, the pressure on Ireland had become intense. State secretary at the German finance ministry, Jörg Asmussen who attended the meeting, said: “It was made very clear to the Irish finance minister that it is not just about Ireland. The functioning of the currency union was at stake.”
"At that meeting Asmussen’s boss, Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, pressed Lenihan to hold a press conference immediately after the meeting to announce an application for aid. Lenihan responded: “I refused and said I wouldn’t participate on that basis; that my government had the sovereign right to decide how it conducted these discussions.”

...."The troika believed only radical measures had any chance of restoring confidence. Lenihan recalled: “It became clear to us that the European solution was to stuff the banks with capital and see would that generate confidence in them.” He added that the amounts involved “stunned my officials in their sheer scale and size.”

...."Lenihan said disagreement on tax issues with the commission had not been on corporate tax, but on *value added tax, with which the commission had an “obsession”, he said.

"Germany’s Asmussen provided the clearest statements to date on the reason for rejecting the government’s proposal to haircut senior bank bonds. He said it had not been tried in the past and “we have no idea how market participants and investors would react”.

When asked if other countries should share the cost of bailing out senior bondholders in Irish banks, Asmussen raised the multibillion euro cost to German taxpayers of HRE, the bailed-out parent bank of Dublin-based Depfa, saying that the major problem stemmed from its Irish operations.

*Blog editor's added emphasis, to highlight the fact that the EU's "own resources" from which these unspeakable scumbags depend for their lavish, undeserved and unearned - lifestyles, income and pensions all presently depend upon VAT

IMF Axeman for Ireland offers the Catholic Isle a 'Condom Cure'

A 'cock-up' is how the Irish Independent, linked here, describes the explanation of the IMF solution for the impoverished peole of Ireland as an "Irish solution to an Irish problem."

Ajai Chopra, seemed unaware that this phrase carries some very poor connotations, as explained in this quote from the article:

Sure wasn't it thrown around like snuff at a wake way back in 1979 during the ructions over the introduction of a bill by then-Health Minister Charlie Haughey? This radical piece of legislation allowed married couples armed with a medical prescription to purchase from a liberal-minded pharmacist those dreadful rubber thingies for family planning.

Charlie claimed the bill was "an Irish solution to an Irish problem" -- a phrase which was immediately and repeatedly flung back in his face

At least it provided a moment of laughter during the completely bizarre events underway in the downtrodden Irish sector of the EU, as the paper notes in the article's conclusion:

On reflection, perhaps Ajai's use of the phrase "an Irish solution to an Irish problem" was particularly apt. Sure the country is screwed anyway.

Comparing Iceland with Ireland.

Mary Ellen Sinon, in her blog reproduced in the Daily Mail from the Irish Daily Mail this morning, linked here, compares the hopeful future for Iceland with the growingly ever more desparate plight of the Irish peopl.  The following quote provides a taste:

Last Wednesday the group of independent Deputies in the Dail proposed a motion seeking a referendum on the repayments the last Government and this Government have promised. The motion was swept aside by the big parties.

I find the arrogance of that a punch in the gut, but I don’t really much care that we won’t get a referendum on the debt. I know what any referendum in this country is worth when it goes against the demands of Brussels. The Government would shred the results and just tell us to vote again. Or in the case of a referendum that did not involve a Constitutional issue – which is the kind of referendum a vote on the bank debt would be – the Government would simply ignore a ‘Can’t pay, won’t pay’ result and claim the voters didn’t understand the issues.

Any talk of a No vote in a referendum handing a powerful weapon to our Government for negotiations in Brussels is naïve. That idea depends on the assumption that our Taoiseach and Finance Minister want a powerful negotiating weapon to get this debt off our backs. There is no evidence that they want any such thing. Mr Kenny and Mr Noonan won’t even use the weapons they have already to hand – a default on bank debt, a determination to take a bail-out only from the IMF and not from the EU, an undertaking to leave the euro or even the EU.

After much more of such accurate observation, she concludes as follows:

The only hope Iceland has to defend its independence against this onslaught is the           extraordinarily strong character of its people. The fact is a people can’t live isolated on the edge of the Arctic for 1,000 years without growing tough. I’d say Iceland has what it takes to defeat the EU machine.

However, there is one thing which could destroy the independence of that small island nation: treachery by their own government. For of course that is exactly what has destroyed the independence of this small island nation.

How much must Greece and Ireland pay towards Portugal?

After whatever sordid deal is cobbled together in Budapest today, the question in this post's heading will be that to first consider. As the crisis moves to Spain, how much will Portugal then have to contribute to save the Spanish, continue the sequence and the absurdity of present events will be obvious, surely, to all.

Consider another aspect of the Euro crisis, from the headline in the Irish Times this morning:

ECB interest rate hike to affect over 75% of Irish homeowners

The article itself may be read from here. Remember Irish taxpayers are already having all their pips squeezed to satisfy the EU and IMF (Ireland's real rulers) who are presently in Dublin to ensure that the new Irish Government does nothing outside the terms of the rescue fund, now disclosed as never having been approved by the former cabinet!

Surprise, surprise, this morning some good news, a mainstream media journalist in the UK has awoken to the dangers from the Euro, read Peter Oborne in the Telegraph from here, finally twigging what this blog and its forerunner have been almost daily stating for eight long years.

EU/Irish face-off over Interest/Tax Rates Continues. Passarelle purgatory for the UK

The German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schauble, backed by his colleague from France, Christine Lagarde, made the following statement yesterday, as may be read in the concluding paragraphs in this report from the Irish Times:

... German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble said that Ireland must make “proposals” if it wants a reduction on the interest rates.

“When someone wants to change a contract which he has just agreed to, then he has to think not only about what the other party to the contract should change, but he must also come up with suggestions about what he can change himself,” he told reporters.

France’s finance minister, Christine Lagarde, took a similar line.

“Today we decided nothing on Ireland because we had no indication from our Irish colleague of any kind of modification,” she said.

What was deceided was a new seven hundred billion euros fund to guarantee future bail outs across the EU, only being used once Germany and France have established complete and absolute control over the running of the economies of all other former nations within the Euro Group.

Complacent Brits such as the conceited Cabinet Ministers of the Coalition Government, should read the Lisbon Treaty and awake to the fact that their nation is committed by Treaty to joining that very same Euro Group, that they will be bound by all provisions then in effect for the common currency, that this will occur sooner rather than later due to the bullying now an everyday occurrence within the Euro Zone and the power the Euro Zone will soon control to create a currency crisis for the pound sterling.

This is economic warfare, it has been ongoing since the Macmillan and Wilson Premierships*, which deliberately destroyed EFTA.  The British nation has subsequently been driven up a cul de sac by weak politicians while the final end game is about to begin, with the use of the Lisbon Treaty passarelle, in the Westminster parliament tomorrow.

*Two Harolds who lost us our country as effectively as their namesake in 1066!

Obama to visit Ireland in May. Kenny stands by 12.5% corporate tax rate.

An interesting interview has just finished on Bloomberg TV with Enda Kenny of Ireland, a link is here, while a euronews report is here. The main points are in this postings headline. A signal has clearly been sent to the EU!

Happy St Patrick's Day to all with any Irish among their forebears.

The Fahies and Farrels amongst my forebears join with the Bachellers and Desmonds, with whom I am now joined by marriage, in wishing all the luck of the Irish to all connected with Ireland in any way whatsoever, wherever they may be across the entire globe.

Please take time to register the dreadful treatment presently being dished out to the small, once independent, nation of Ireland, by the increasingly tyrannical EU, details of which are fully available on this blog, which the head of the 17 Euro Group of countries, Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxemburg, described only yesterday, as being akin to "torture".

Senior Europhile Juncker, slams EU "torture" of Ireland

Jean-Claude Juncker, is reported by Reuters, linked here, as follows:

"Not as chaiman of the Eurogroup, but as Luxembourg prime minister I don't like this link between the corporate tax issue and the so-called Irish package," Juncker told reporters.

"I'm not happy with the idea that some governments obviously find some pleasure in torturing Ireland in the meetings and outside. I don't like this way of dealing with serious problems," he said.

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Juncker, has been at the forefront of the EU project for many years and this blog has always viewed him as very much among the bad guys, bent upon the destruction of all democracy and decency within our continent. It seems quite incredible that so late in the day he now has opened his eyes to what is really taking place.

We must hope other leaders of smaller EU ex-nation states, similarly and rapidly have the rose coloured spectacles removed from their eyes and begin to take positive action to restore their democracies!

While David Cameron remains as Prime Minister of Britain there will be no help from that quarter in halting the emerging tyranny!

German bullying of Ireland continues into the early hours. France is next target!

The Herald in Ireland reports, linked here, that the German bullying of Ireland following the Friday EU meeting, continued until 02:00 am yesterday morning.

Only time will tell how long Ireland's new government will be able to withstand such pressure, given that all former nations within the EU have rendered themselves virtually defenceless against the economic hegemony of the Germans!

As was always inevitable, now that the asset stripping of the UK has been virtually completed, with a totally compliant pro-EU coalition government in power in Britain, following its Labour Party predecessors with the identical policies that are bankrupting the former nation, the EU must turn elsewhere for future sources of funds.

France is now finally in the EU's sights!  Can Britain thus hope for support from the French against the EU? We must hope so, perhaps this is a glimmer of hope on this Sunday morning full of the hoorifying news from Japan. The moving ceremony I attended yesterday, as recorded on the posting below, offers some historical evidence of hope for such an outcome.

The Appéllation Contrölée system in France gives that country one of its many unique characteristics, these are now within the EU's sights, particularly the special provisions regarding the creation of cognac, read here.

Ireland - 'Financially Vaporised'

Following from my posting below on 'Democracy - Defied and Denied,' Mary Ellen Synon, in her Daily Mail blog, this morning, has a brilliant exposure of the farce which occurred at Helsinki, linked here, from which comes this startling quote:

In the present crisis, ‘Ireland experienced an increase in Government debt of circa 220 percent.’ In historical terms, the Reinhart-Rogoff research shows that an 86 percent debt level increase would classify us as being seriously bust. But 220 percent would, as Dr Gurdgiev puts it, classify us ‘as having been financially vaporised.’

We have been financially vaporised because the out-going Finance Minister was obedient to Jean Claude Trichet, the head of the European Central Bank. Mr Trichet told the Minister to guarantee all the bank debt and the Minister obeyed. This debt was in great billions owed to German banks. Some to the French banks, too, but spectacularly to the German.

You must know all this by now. We have been financially vaporised so that Angela Merkel’s under-capitalised, badly-performing German state banks get back all the money they so stupidly lent to Sean FitzPatrick and the rest. That is why the Chancellor dismissed Mr Kenny at Helsinki, and why she will do so again on Friday in Brussels. If it is a choice between the truth coming out about her own country’s banking crisis, and drowning the Irish taxpayer in debt – well, as far as Mrs Merkel is concerned, just drown the Irish. Glug, glug, glug.

Irish election - Sunday evening latest results!

17 Independents and 13 Sinn Fein seats may make a continuation of rule by bribery of the main political parties problematic for the EU. A democratic rejection of EU tyranny has perhaps been born in Ireland this weekend. We must wait the final results of the several recounts with fingers crossed.

UK Inflation - the Libyan threat.

Inflation in 1960s and 1970s.



It has been some forty-five years since I visited Benghazi. I was the third officer of a 16,000 ton tanker delivering aviation fuel to NATO air forces in Malta, Libya and Cyprus. The three navigating officers had agreed we would each have one port off-duty, being the junior I was allocated Benghazi. What seemed the short straw, turned out to be a delight. An early morning swim in the crystal clear, warm Mediterranean waters, a bit of sightseeing, gin and tonic followed by fine wine and a superb evening meal topped by an introduction to my first experience of the real art of arabian belly dancing, under scented blossoms and star-filled skies, still remain clear in my mind. I have since then always taken particular note of events in that country.

I have previously described on this blog, the events which led to the surge in inflation in the 1970s and 1980s, illustrated in the graph above. These posts, which destroy the myth that prosperity has ever been due to the EU or its forerunners, may be read from here for the post of November 2007, titled "Welcome to the world of $100 Oil and 'EU' be warned!" The second, more recently, in October 2010, is linked here, also discussed Sovereign Default and Ireland and concluded as follows:

Although tanker charters were not handled on the Baltic Exchange, the renowned philosophy belonging to that institution "my word is my bond" held true, and Charter Parties once agreed could up to that point never be renegotiated. As oil prices began to rise, in contradiction of normal market rules, because it was becoming increasingly difficult to find a home for the annual six per cent oil production increases, the safety net offered to Occidental was no longer needed and Oxy had no need for or proper employment for the chartered tonnage. The company's founder Armand Hammer (Arm and Hammer?) determined that the charters would be re-negotiated and that was effected.

Concurrently fixed price oil contracts could no longer be honoured at the new higher prices, sovereign oil producing states in the West who should have known better, such as the UK and Norway, enforced changes to their Oil Licence and Production Agreements to capitalize on the higher price, as they justified it, to share in the "windfall" profits.

Honesty in contract law became history in energy related industries (although resistance to renegotiating Charter Parties was fought for by some until the mid-nineteen-eighties) thus the seeds of the deep slump, for which Margaret Thatcher is still blamed by certain fools to this day, took root.

If Ireland proceeds to gain consent for changing the terms under which its banks foolishly borrowed money, there can be no calculating the consequences. Feeding greed never pays as can be seen, I believe, in the consequences of the events I describe above.

Could coming EU implosion explode Britain's Coalition?

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero are in complete agreement on the implementation of  European economic governance and stronger convergence among euro zone economies, according to Reuters, read here.

Well bully for them! But where does that leave Germany with its splitting coalition government, its constitutional challenge by Professor Markus Kerber and his colleagues , not to mention the long-suffering and soon to be leg-ironed German taxpayers? Normally the Benelux countries and Italy would be factors to also be considered at such a point, but with the Netherlands and Belgium on the point of disintegration and Italy embroiled in yet another sex scandal surrounding Prime Minister Berlusconi, they have rendered themselves temporarily irrelevant. With Putin about to re-appear in full charge of Russia, centuries old european fault lines are thus discernible, what then of Britain, as in Gladstone's well-used phrase, the "Concert of Europe" looks set to resume? 

Thus far the EU has been viewed in British political circles as a danger only in terms of the entirely neutered euro-sceptic wing of the Conservative portion of the coalition. The slavering, eu-fanatical and EU cash dependent Liberal Democrats, under the leadership of former eurocrat and future EU pensioner Nick Clegg, with his Commisseriat background, Russian, Dutch and Spanish family connections is likely to push for the present policies of France and Spain. Prime Minister Cameron, however, completely under the control of the assassin of Maggie Thatcher, (whom this blog has dubbed Von Heseltine), will undoubtedly be found on the opposite side. Methinks earlier British statesman would now pull back to watch which way events unfolded.

A clue to how those may develop came last evening on Jeff Randall Live, from Sky News during an interview with Michael Noonan, Treasury spokesman for the opposition Fine Gael party, who contradictorily stated that he was both in favour of passing the EU/IMF rescue bill this week but would run in the coming election on reducing the interest rates on the loans and enforce a "co-ordinated default" implying that not just Irish Sovereign debt would thereby be involved. We must see what the markets make of that remark as the week progresses. In Ireland, will the only party running on a straightforwrd economic policy be Sinn Fein? What times we live through eh?

Tonight President Obama will address the Congress on the state of the US Union, no need for such from any of the three EU Presidents, the EU state of the Union may be summarised in one simple word - "desperate".

Ireland in chaos - Markets, media and EU are ASTOUNDED!

A week ago last saturday I blogged on the Irish powder keg, linked here, which concluded with the following:

"Yet the EU elite seem to imagine the Irish problem is solved and lectures on tax rates are considered as appropriate, my own, not inconsiderable portions of Irish blood, tells me that this is a tale with far to go!"

A week ago tomorrow, in spite of the revelation that Ireland had apparently been creating German backed euros, the Irish leader amazingly survived a confidence vote from his party but by today has resigned that post, lost his coalition partner and seems likely to have to bring forward the 11th March date for the general election.

The legalisation of the EU/IMF package has not been accomplished in the Irish Parliament, although funds have reportedly been handed over by the EU, yet one more illegality following the outrages of last May.

Through all this the British media, in spite of the Government having pledged billions of taxpayers funds to flow across the Irish Sea, and the EU have remained silent.

Is this blogger insane? Or is it the rest of the world?

Irish Foreign Minister resigns. EU Misrule.

Michael Martin, resigned as Irish Foreign Minister, last evening, following Brian Cowen winning a vote of confidence in his Fianna Fail party. The governing coalition in Ireland must now approve the EU/IMF rescue package before holding a General Election, which the Irish Times reports is likely to lead to Fianna Fail disappearing into oblivion, read here.

This fiasco is a direct result of individual nation states handing powers to the EU which it is ill-equipped (to say the least) to undertake, let alone efficiently fulfill. The latest lunacy in this long history of incompetence, which inter alia has robbed the surrounding seas of Europe of their fish,  is the appointment of a Portuguese bureaucrat to oversee its pension arrangements, based in Frankfurt, read here and even more astoundingly of an Italian for London's Banking authority and a Dutchmen for the Securities and Markets Authority based in Paris, read here.

Anybody believing in individual effort leading to reward and the free market system of capitalism be warned, in the EU you will be robbed and destroyed by the looters and moochers as vividly characterised in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Has Ireland been creating German backed Euros?

A startling article appeared in last evening's Business Insider web site, linked here. The following quotation carries the crux of the matter, of grave concern to those in Fianna Fail considering whether or not to support Brian Cowen in the party's vote of 'no confidence' in their leader this evening:

The Irish Central Bank has crossed the Rubicon in European Union currency terms.  They have printed up about 25% of their GDP in electronic credits, and stuffed those credits into their banks.  These deposits, if you will, do not have new debt issued behind them.
This is a form of hyperinflation if you will, at least in context that a Central Bank, with no actual printing press, or a functioning bond market, has now electronically printed up new currency units for their banks without issuing debt behind these actions.
While this has happened before in history, it has not happened in the Euro currency project officially before today. This act is going to move the monetary policy of the union, to the individual capitals.  The capacity to print electronic credits, with out the creation of cash currency or debt, is a new wrinkle in the economic landscape.
The implications and ramifications will take a while to appear, but “Mark” my words, Germany both as a people, and as a political organization will notice this event.  The German people now find themselves captured in a currency where neighbors who are in political and financial stress, have the capacity to print up German Euros on demand.  This is Germany’s worse nightmare as both a nation and a people.  I dare say, you could not design a more frightening prospect for the “United German States”, than to find their currency diluted on demand by reckless neighbors.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/fianna-filed-ireland-prints-25-of-its-gdp-in-german-euros-2011-1#ixzz1BOneR0hN

Ireland, Intel, Tax and the Euro powder keg.

President Sarkozy of France effectively demanded Ireland raise its corporation tax rate this week, one report was in the Irish Examiner, read here.  Intel, the computer chip maker announced record results yesterday and this morning the Irish Times headlines new investment by that giant corporation in Iraland, creating 850 construction jobs and 200 high tech positions, read here.

The EU/IMF package has yet to be passed into law, the Taioseach is canvassing his party as to when he must stand down, read here, a general election is imminent and there is barely an economist to be found across the entire globe who believes that the EU/IMF package will cure Ireland's woes.

Yet the EU elite seem to imagine the Irish problem is solved and lectures on tax rates are considered as appropriate, my own, not inconsiderable portions of Irish blood, tells me that this is a tale with far to go!

John Bruton calls for emergency EU Council Meeting straight after Xmas!

The well argued article by Ireland's former taoiseach may be read from the Irish Times website, in full, from here. Any interested in returning democracy to Europe are strongly recommended to do so.

Others may well decide to do so after reading these selected quotes:


I always had reservations about the Lisbon process because it lent the good name of the EU to systematic evasion of responsibility in matters where the EU actually had no power to act under the treaties, and thus no responsibility for failures.....

We are facing more than a financial crisis, we are facing a crisis of the welfare state in ageing societies. We are facing a crisis of globalisation, a crisis of nation states and, potentially, even a crisis of the efficacy of European democracy.....


In all the fuss about whether creating a permanent EU bailout fund required a treaty amendment, little note has been taken of the fact that the German courts’ objection to giving the EU more powers was not one of principle, but was based on a concern that the EU as it stands is not democratic enough.

Europeans are looking for leadership. They want a sense that someone is in charge. I believe that the members of the European Council should be recalled in the days immediately after Christmas and before the markets fully get going again in the new year, to work together for a week or more with all the relevant members of the European Commission on a 10-year strategy for political and economic reform to facilitate the economic revival of the entire euro zone.

Irish TDs now expected to approve the Bail Out Foreign Bank/Euro Rescue

Considering the arguments against the Irish loans, put forward on John Redwood's blog yesterday, linked here,  the following report in the Irish Times that the Irish Parliament will impose the dreadful and pointless package on their electors seems more than somewhat surprising!

Cowardice I suspect is the motive, nevertheless remember my advice of the past weekend, for sooner rather than later this house of cards will come crashing down, more background here.

Preparing for an Irish 'NO' vote!

Next Wednesday the Irish Parliament will vote on the joint EU and IMF financial rescue package.

As few leading economists appear to rate the chances of this programme of cuts restoring prosperity to Ireland, and many are indeed suggesting it as already doomed, it would seem sensible for ordinary folk across the world to prepare for another Irish 'NO' vote.

What can only follow such a vote is an inevitable default by Irish banks on their debts and bonds. Reuters has an interesting comment on the dilemmas for Europe, linked here, and elsewhere lists the exposures of non-Irish banks with Britain at the head of the list being at risk for 140 billion euros.

How can ordinary citizens prepare for the chain reaction of banking defaults that seem likely to follow an Irish 'NO'  vote between now and next Wednesday evening? As many sovereign nations who stepped in to the breach following the Lehman's collapse are now themselves on the brink of bankruptcy available options for governments appear few and far between. I therefore suggest considering taking the following actions.

In countries with their own currencies get together significant quantities of small denomination banknotes. Stock up on essential supplies and secure your valuables as best you can. If by Thursday the credit crunch continues to totter along you have lossed little, but perhaps in the intervening period you may have wished you had taken other steps to protect yourself and your family from possible financial breakdown and potential chaos...... why not put such actions into place over the coming holiday period, for with the West's present leadership the crunch is unlikely to have then been avoided - merely deferred.

If you are living within a country that has adopted the Euro currency then the fallout is likely to be more severe. Check the National Identification Code for the serial numbers of euro notes from this link. You may decide you would wish to speculate on hoarding large denomination euro notes beginning with the letter X which may eventually be replaced by a new Deutsche Mark. Assume that small denomination euro notes may continue to be honoured in their country of issue, so in France obtain significant numbers of notes with U prefixes, Spain Y, Ireland T etc.  Dispose of notes from periphery Eurozone countries where you do not live and/or are unlikely to visit during the coming period of shortages and stringency. Otherwise stock up on essential supplies etc., as if living in a non-eurozone country.

The luck of the Irish to us all!