Jacques Delors, former European Commission president, and José Manuel Barroso, the current chief of the EU executive, both regretted the national "resistance" and "lack of spirit of cooperation" amongst the leaders of the 27 EU countries in dealing with the bloc's debt crises. The long-serving Commission president (1985-1994) visited Barroso to mark the 20th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty, signed on 7 February 1992, which led to the creation of the euro currency. But Delors' visit also coincided with last-hour talks in Athens to secure a second bailout package for Greece, with the risk of a default now openly cited as a possibility by high-ranking EU officials. Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda commissioner, said in a newspaper interview on Monday (6 February) that the eurozone could survive without Greece, suggesting talks between Athens and the "Troika" of lenders - the Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - were reaching breaking point.
Jacques Delors, former European Commission president, and José Manuel Barroso, the current chief of the EU executive, both regretted the national "resistance" and "lack of spirit of cooperation" amongst the leaders of the 27 EU countries in dealing with the bloc's debt crises.
The long-serving Commission president (1985-1994) visited Barroso to mark the 20th anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty, signed on 7 February 1992, which led to the creation of the euro currency.
But Delors' visit also coincided with last-hour talks in Athens to secure a second bailout package for Greece, with the risk of a default now openly cited as a possibility by high-ranking EU officials.
Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda commissioner, said in a newspaper interview on Monday (6 February) that the eurozone could survive without Greece, suggesting talks between Athens and the "Troika" of lenders - the Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - were reaching breaking point.
European Commission and national officials raided the offices of two electricity exchanges on Tuesday (7 February) following concerns their planned tie-up may thwart competition in the power exchange market. "The Commission has concerns that the companies concerned may have violated European antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices," the Commission said in a statement. It did not however indicate which bourses were targeted saying only that the companies probed were "active in managing power exchanges in several [EU] member states." Confirmation of the Commission's "unannounced inspections" came later from the parties concerned. "Yes, our office was searched today," said a spokesman for Paris-based electricity exchange EPEX Spot. "We expect the raids were carried out in relation to our cooperation with Nordpool Spot." EPEX Spot and Norway's Nordpool Spot, which offer short-term electricity trading platforms for French, German, Austrian, Swiss and Scandinavian power, in September announced plans to create a joint exchange which would cover more than half of Europe's spot electricity trades.
European Commission and national officials raided the offices of two electricity exchanges on Tuesday (7 February) following concerns their planned tie-up may thwart competition in the power exchange market.
"The Commission has concerns that the companies concerned may have violated European antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices," the Commission said in a statement.
It did not however indicate which bourses were targeted saying only that the companies probed were "active in managing power exchanges in several [EU] member states."
Confirmation of the Commission's "unannounced inspections" came later from the parties concerned.
"Yes, our office was searched today," said a spokesman for Paris-based electricity exchange EPEX Spot. "We expect the raids were carried out in relation to our cooperation with Nordpool Spot."
EPEX Spot and Norway's Nordpool Spot, which offer short-term electricity trading platforms for French, German, Austrian, Swiss and Scandinavian power, in September announced plans to create a joint exchange which would cover more than half of Europe's spot electricity trades.
The Russian Supreme Court has backed a decision that disqualifies liberal candidate Grigory Yavlinsky from running for the presidency on 4 March. The Central Election Commission said it had found irregularities in a quarter of the signatures collected by Mr Yavlinsky to take part in the campaign. Mr Yavlinsky, 59, had insisted that all the signatures were authentic. He was the only liberal challenger to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is expected to win the election.
The Russian Supreme Court has backed a decision that disqualifies liberal candidate Grigory Yavlinsky from running for the presidency on 4 March.
The Central Election Commission said it had found irregularities in a quarter of the signatures collected by Mr Yavlinsky to take part in the campaign.
Mr Yavlinsky, 59, had insisted that all the signatures were authentic.
He was the only liberal challenger to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is expected to win the election.
BRUSSELS - Almost a quarter of the EU's population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to statistics released Wednesday (8 February), with 13 member states recording a rise in the number of their citizens considered vulnerable. The figures for 2010 show that 115 million Europeans, or 23.4 percent of the EU population, live in households with less than the poverty-threshold disposable income, in households where there is severe material deprivation (such as a lack of heating) or where the adults worked less than 20 percent of their total work potential. Bulgaria has the highest percentage of population (42%) falling into one or more of these categories, followed by Romania (41%), Latvia (38%), Lithuania (33%) and Hungary (30%). While 13 of the 25 member states that provided information recorded a rise in the numbers affected when compared with 2009, Spain (23.4% to 25.5%) and Lithuania (29.5% to 33.4%) saw the greatest leap from one year to the next. The lowest rates of poverty and social exclusion were recorded in the Czech Republic (14%), Sweden and the Netherlands (both 17%).
BRUSSELS - Almost a quarter of the EU's population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to statistics released Wednesday (8 February), with 13 member states recording a rise in the number of their citizens considered vulnerable.
The figures for 2010 show that 115 million Europeans, or 23.4 percent of the EU population, live in households with less than the poverty-threshold disposable income, in households where there is severe material deprivation (such as a lack of heating) or where the adults worked less than 20 percent of their total work potential.
Bulgaria has the highest percentage of population (42%) falling into one or more of these categories, followed by Romania (41%), Latvia (38%), Lithuania (33%) and Hungary (30%).
While 13 of the 25 member states that provided information recorded a rise in the numbers affected when compared with 2009, Spain (23.4% to 25.5%) and Lithuania (29.5% to 33.4%) saw the greatest leap from one year to the next.
The lowest rates of poverty and social exclusion were recorded in the Czech Republic (14%), Sweden and the Netherlands (both 17%).
ALDE deputy Niccolo Rinaldi has said that homeless people in the EU arebeing "excluded" from their rights to European citizenship and freedomof movement.Speaking at an ALDE press briefing on EU citizenship, Rinaldi said homelessness and freedom of movement was an "important commitment" to champion the rights of homeless people."Citizenship is a very clear concept and is the basis of the entire EU," he said, adding that homeless people are "denied active participation in society, basic services and freedom of circulation"."The number of homeless is increasing with serious speed and EU democracy has difficulty connecting with this. The homeless do not vote or have constituencies."Children sleeping on the street with their families is a growing phenomenon and we are trying to focus the EU institutions on these difficult and vulnerable sectors," said the Italian MEP.
An independent Scotland would be one of the wealthiest parts of Europe, but it would stay out of the euro, deputy first minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon tells EUobserver during a visit to Brussels this week.
(video)
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives are flying high in a new opinion poll, which shows them garnering their best result since her beleaguered centre-right coalition took power in 2009. The Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian CSU allies had the support of 38 percent of voters, the weekly Forsa survey for Stern magazine and broadcaster RTL found. The result, up two points from last week, is the highest for the conservatives since forming a coalition with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) in 2009. But unlike their senior coalition partner, popularity for the FDP continues to wallow at a measly three percent - which is below the five percent threshold to win seats in parliament.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives are flying high in a new opinion poll, which shows them garnering their best result since her beleaguered centre-right coalition took power in 2009.
The Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian CSU allies had the support of 38 percent of voters, the weekly Forsa survey for Stern magazine and broadcaster RTL found. The result, up two points from last week, is the highest for the conservatives since forming a coalition with the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) in 2009. But unlike their senior coalition partner, popularity for the FDP continues to wallow at a measly three percent - which is below the five percent threshold to win seats in parliament.
German exports fell four times more than economists forecast in December as the sovereign debt crisis damped growth across the euro region. Exports slumped 4.3 percent from November, when they rose 2.6 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists predicted a decline of 1 percent, according to the median of 17 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. French business confidence held near its lowest level in more than two years in January on recession concerns, the Bank of France said in another report. While the German economy, Europe's largest, probably shrank 0.25 percent in the final three months of 2011, data this year suggest it may avoid recession, which is commonly defined as two consecutive quarterly contractions. Business sentiment jumped to a five-month high in January and factory orders gained 1.7 percent in December, driven by demand from outside the 17-nation euro area.
German exports fell four times more than economists forecast in December as the sovereign debt crisis damped growth across the euro region.
Exports slumped 4.3 percent from November, when they rose 2.6 percent, the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden said today. Economists predicted a decline of 1 percent, according to the median of 17 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. French business confidence held near its lowest level in more than two years in January on recession concerns, the Bank of France said in another report.
While the German economy, Europe's largest, probably shrank 0.25 percent in the final three months of 2011, data this year suggest it may avoid recession, which is commonly defined as two consecutive quarterly contractions. Business sentiment jumped to a five-month high in January and factory orders gained 1.7 percent in December, driven by demand from outside the 17-nation euro area.
(Reuters) - Anja has been scrubbing floors and washing dishes for two euros an hour over the past six years. She is bewildered when she sees newspapers hailing Germany's "job miracle." "My company exploited me," says the 50-year-old, sitting in the kitchen of her small flat in the eastern German town of Stralsund. "If I could find something else, I'd be long gone."Stralsund is an attractive seaside town but Anja, who preferred not to use her full name for fear of being fired, cannot afford the quaint cafes.Wage restraint and labor market reforms have pushed the jobless rate down to a 20-year low, and the German model is often cited as an example for European nations seeking to cut unemployment and become more competitive.But critics say the reforms that helped create jobs also broadened and entrenched the low-paid and temporary work sector, boosting wage inequality.
(Reuters) - Anja has been scrubbing floors and washing dishes for two euros an hour over the past six years. She is bewildered when she sees newspapers hailing Germany's "job miracle."
"My company exploited me," says the 50-year-old, sitting in the kitchen of her small flat in the eastern German town of Stralsund. "If I could find something else, I'd be long gone."
Stralsund is an attractive seaside town but Anja, who preferred not to use her full name for fear of being fired, cannot afford the quaint cafes.
Wage restraint and labor market reforms have pushed the jobless rate down to a 20-year low, and the German model is often cited as an example for European nations seeking to cut unemployment and become more competitive.
But critics say the reforms that helped create jobs also broadened and entrenched the low-paid and temporary work sector, boosting wage inequality.
An overwhelming majority of Swedes disagree with Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's suggestion that workers should be ready to stay on the job until they are 75, a new poll shows. In a survey carried out by the Novus polling firm for Sweden's TV4, 73 percent answered no when asked if they thought Sweden's retirement age should be raised to 75. Twenty percent of those polled supported the idea, while 7 percent were uncertain.
An overwhelming majority of Swedes disagree with Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's suggestion that workers should be ready to stay on the job until they are 75, a new poll shows.
In a survey carried out by the Novus polling firm for Sweden's TV4, 73 percent answered no when asked if they thought Sweden's retirement age should be raised to 75. Twenty percent of those polled supported the idea, while 7 percent were uncertain.
getting out and about, mixing with others, having contact with young children in some way would probably prolong people's lives.
one just cannot depend on the free market to take people's frailties into account, because it exploits them, it doesn't work around them.
If there is no income replacement system, then people have to work at regular full time jobs until they keel over. The idea that "we don't do manual labor any more so we can do it until age 75" or "people live longer now so they can work longer" are disconnected from reality. Increasing life expectancy by reducing the neonatal death rate, which is what is happening, has little to do with people working longer.
We as a society have tended to equate any type of effort with economic survival, so we tend to overlook the other aspects of activity which can bring benefits.
She reads up on new techniques, attends courses, and is really, really into anything that is associated with it.
I mean, seriously, if you were going to choose your interactions with others, how you achieved your feeling of accomplishment or choose where and how to move you wouldn't do any of them in the way most jobs demand.
I've avoided having a real job for decades now for exactly that reason. And because I can, just about.
I must admit, I'm really confused on this issue. The government wants its citizens to stay on the job longer, yet older workers continue to get the boot. When jobs do appear, older candidates aren't even considered. What part of this makes sense? Why not hire an energetic young workforce (who desperately need jobs to prepare for their own future) straight out of school with the requisite skills, train them the way you need them to do the job at hand (preferably using your best workers to do the training). The amount saved by hiring young people could be used to provide retirement benefits to the older folks who really don't want to be working at all. Wouldn't this be a fairer, more equitable solution, rather than having us old folk work until we drop?
From a personal standpoint I'm quite enjoying my retirement. I view it as yet another dimension of my life. It provides time for hobbies, reflections, and learning new things. Things I never had time for in the hustle bustle of working since age 15. Maybe these hobby ideas will spawn into a money making idea someday, and maybe they won't. Money isn't everything and once you've got your fill of possessions you get over that too. I'm happy just living on my savings and Social Security and would rather find creative ways to adjust my needs and wants downward if necessary. But then again, that's just me and my opinion FWIW.
BRUSSELS, Feb 8, 2012 (IPS) - European leaders have mapped out a bold agenda ahead of the Rio summit, vowing to transform development aid, help provide renewable electricity to the world's neediest people, and bulk up the United Nations environment body.The European Union's `Agenda for Change' proposal calls for pumping foreign aid into sustainable growth and energy access, while European Union officials have also floated the idea of transforming the U.N. Environmental Programme into an agency with expanded influence and greater power to promote research and development. Janez Potočnik, the EU environment commissioner, on Tuesday reaffirmed the 27-nation block's pledge to provide the equivalent of 0.7 percent of gross national income (GNI) for aid to the world's poorest countries, while urging that there be a focus on sustainable growth. "The potential for investment and gains are massive compared to official development assistance," he said in a speech. "But at the same time the poorest countries need help, to make this promise good.
Green Paper: Restructuring and anticipation of change: what lessons from recent experience? Target group(s) Employers' organisations, trade unions, national, regional and local authorities, academics, NGOs, other stakeholders as well as individual citizens with an interest in restructuring and anticipation of change. Period of consultation from : 17/01/2012 To : 30/03/2012 Objective of the consultation This Green Paper aims to identify successful practices and policies in the field of restructuring and adaptation to change in order to promote employment, growth and competitiveness as part of the Europe 2020 strategy and in particular the industrial policy flagship initiative of October 2010 , the "Agenda for new skills and jobs" adopted in November 2010 . The Green Paper is also intended to contribute to improving synergy between all relevant actors in addressing challenges related to restructuring and adaptation to change and takes into account the important work carried out in recent years by the European Commission, the social partners, Member States, regions and many other stakeholders. The Commission will build upon the outcome of this consultation to consider new ways to better disseminate and effectively implement good practices, including at EU level, for dealing with both immediate concerns related to the economic crisis and long-term competitiveness objectives as identified in the industrial policy flagship initiative. The Commission will feed the results of this Green Paper consultation into the revived flexicurity agenda, also with a view to steering a renewed debate at EU level on a possible approach to and framework for restructuring.
Target group(s)
Employers' organisations, trade unions, national, regional and local authorities, academics, NGOs, other stakeholders as well as individual citizens with an interest in restructuring and anticipation of change.
Period of consultation
from : 17/01/2012 To : 30/03/2012
Objective of the consultation
This Green Paper aims to identify successful practices and policies in the field of restructuring and adaptation to change in order to promote employment, growth and competitiveness as part of the Europe 2020 strategy and in particular the industrial policy flagship initiative of October 2010 , the "Agenda for new skills and jobs" adopted in November 2010 . The Green Paper is also intended to contribute to improving synergy between all relevant actors in addressing challenges related to restructuring and adaptation to change and takes into account the important work carried out in recent years by the European Commission, the social partners, Member States, regions and many other stakeholders.
The Commission will build upon the outcome of this consultation to consider new ways to better disseminate and effectively implement good practices, including at EU level, for dealing with both immediate concerns related to the economic crisis and long-term competitiveness objectives as identified in the industrial policy flagship initiative. The Commission will feed the results of this Green Paper consultation into the revived flexicurity agenda, also with a view to steering a renewed debate at EU level on a possible approach to and framework for restructuring.
Merkel and her government have struggled fiercely to create a fiscally united Europe of balanced budgets and "structural reforms"--a euphemism for lowering the cost of labor, including wages and benefits. It's her prescription for pulling the Eurozone out of the debt crisis. At the moment, her eyes are on the nightmare in Greece where even politicians are preparing for the "afterwards." Read.... Now Even Greek Politicians Are Taking Cover. Sarkozy has been her most powerful ally during the debt crisis. Without him, she couldn't have pushed through her policies, which have been a resounding success, in Germany: in a recent poll, 64% of Germans have a favorable opinion of her, and 90% were satisfied with her crisis management. ... With her intervention in the French election, Merkel has created the impression that preventing Hollande from becoming president has morphed into a government policy, and it doesn't necessarily enhance Germany's image abroad. Already, its reluctance to pay ever more to bail out the Eurozone has made it a global punching bag. Yet the amounts it has committed through a myriad of bailout programs are staggering.
Sarkozy has been her most powerful ally during the debt crisis. Without him, she couldn't have pushed through her policies, which have been a resounding success, in Germany: in a recent poll, 64% of Germans have a favorable opinion of her, and 90% were satisfied with her crisis management.
...
With her intervention in the French election, Merkel has created the impression that preventing Hollande from becoming president has morphed into a government policy, and it doesn't necessarily enhance Germany's image abroad. Already, its reluctance to pay ever more to bail out the Eurozone has made it a global punching bag. Yet the amounts it has committed through a myriad of bailout programs are staggering.
Yet the amounts it has committed through a myriad of bailout programs are staggering.
Greek parties fail to agree on a key aspect of the package - the request for pension reform; troika gives the Greeks 15 days to plug what is now a €300m gap; a eurogroup meeting of finance ministers takes place tonight to discuss the situation; the tussle also threatens to hold up the debt swap talks; insiders says there is still a little bit of wiggle room, but the debt swap still face a number of considerable risks; the Wall Street Journal reports that the ECB would sell its Greek bonds to the EFSF, which would resell them to Greece, a transaction that would yield a gain of €11bn for Greece; other commentators are doubtful that such an agreement has already been reached; Ireland said it would consider an ECB participation in the Greek restructuring as a precedent; Francesco Papadia of the ECB talks about "mission accomplished"; German trade surplus narrows in December, while the pattern of exports shifts towards Brics and central and eastern Europe; Le Monde worries about France's decline as Germany's economic partner; The French court of auditors warns of a debt spiral in France; court also warns about risks building up at the Banque de France; ECB is likely to extend the collateral framework and lower quality requirements for Eurosystem central banks today; Wolfgang Proissl defends Mario Draghi's ,,morphine shot strategy"; Wolfgang Munchau, meanwhile, says there are four ticking time bombs under the eurozone, of which only one - the liquidity crunch - has been defused.
Here I tell CNBC that Sisyphus' optimal strategy is to stop pushing the rock up the hill. And that the assumption that if Greece defaults it must exit the eurozone is a motivated lie
It has taken two years of futile efforts for governments to finally start talking about growth and employment as European aims again. This change in attitude is prompted by shock. The credit-rating downgrades for France, eight other eurozone countries and the European Financial Stability Facility bailout fund at the start of the year all show that the capital markets are predicting a downward spiral. It was particularly insightful to see how Standard & Poor's justified the downgrades: "We believe that a reform process based on a pillar of fiscal austerity alone risks becoming self-defeating, as domestic demand falls in line with consumers' rising concerns about job security and disposable incomes, eroding national tax revenues." We need to set a new course now and implement a far more consistent and precise strategy. First and most importantly: the current situation requires us to create the right conditions to ensure private capital flows into the real economies of crisis countries. For this to happen, there needs to be a guarantee that these crisis countries and their banks can pay their debts - from a robust European Stability Mechanism, which can provide itself with liquidity from the European Central Bank, and a common debt-reduction pact as suggested by the German Council of Economic Experts. Growth needs private investment, and these investments need security! Secondly, we need to remove any obstacles to investing in Europe and give hope for an upturn in the economy in order to bring back hesitant private investors who have lost confidence. Our most important task is therefore to create a comprehensive European investment programme, which will increase the competitiveness of crisis countries, expand Europe's industrial infrastructure - particularly its energy networks - and promote research and development. In order to ensure that the momentum of change is not lost in excessive red tape, the European Investment Bank must play a central role. A crucial aspect of the project is that it will not be financed by new debts, but by a European financial transaction tax, which could bring in up to €50bn if Europe - or at least the eurozone - is united on the issue. For European solidarity has two meanings and it is time to show we are committed to both.
We need to set a new course now and implement a far more consistent and precise strategy. First and most importantly: the current situation requires us to create the right conditions to ensure private capital flows into the real economies of crisis countries. For this to happen, there needs to be a guarantee that these crisis countries and their banks can pay their debts - from a robust European Stability Mechanism, which can provide itself with liquidity from the European Central Bank, and a common debt-reduction pact as suggested by the German Council of Economic Experts. Growth needs private investment, and these investments need security!
Secondly, we need to remove any obstacles to investing in Europe and give hope for an upturn in the economy in order to bring back hesitant private investors who have lost confidence. Our most important task is therefore to create a comprehensive European investment programme, which will increase the competitiveness of crisis countries, expand Europe's industrial infrastructure - particularly its energy networks - and promote research and development. In order to ensure that the momentum of change is not lost in excessive red tape, the European Investment Bank must play a central role. A crucial aspect of the project is that it will not be financed by new debts, but by a European financial transaction tax, which could bring in up to €50bn if Europe - or at least the eurozone - is united on the issue. For European solidarity has two meanings and it is time to show we are committed to both.
You know, the evil versus stupid dilemma is increasingly irrelavent. Fai de bčn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
And, in Germany they of course also have a reasonable alternative, Die Linke, unfortunately the Germans have a particular theological aversion to the left, suspect that is why Marx was writing about their ideological foibles over 150 years ago... Fai de bčn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
I don't know, I may be wrong but they appear to be able to count on the support of the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland... tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker
The Swedish Left party had the same problem until recently, with lots of old semi-fossilized DDR-, Cuba-, Soviet-, and North Korea-lovers in leading positions. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
However, in the eastern countries, and this really holds for Die Linke, you have to remember that there is a core constituency, in the eastern lander, who genuinely have some level of positive connection to the more recent past. Communism was not Stalinism, not in the 1970's, not in the 1980's, and it is a mistake to say that the system, albeit with some need for more reforms, was the same as it was in the 1950's or the 1930's any moreso than it is a mistake to say that the liberal democracies are the same as they were in the 1950's and 1930's, back in the days of routinely censored press, overt collusion between the monied classes and the government and security apparatuses (violent strike-breaking, massacres of peaceful protestors and example of which we commemorated here in Paris the day before yesterday). The fact is, that communist past is not looked upon with the same amount of shame by core eastern constituents of Die Linke as might be desired by segments of the Western population who nonetheless have no real alternative to Die Linke if they wish to have their interests defended in the public sphere. But I think having Oskar Lafontaine take such a positive initial role went a long ways to bridging that gap, and recall Gregor Gysi being warmly welcomed, while campaigning, in the western parts of the country.
All of this hand-wringing about sympathies for Castro seem to me to be a red herring, and of course we know which press are publicly accentuating that aspect of the party, which is as unfortunate as it is predictable.
As usual, it will take generational change, perhaps many. The ideals of the first French republic were drowned out by counter-revolutionary forces and reaction to its initial excesses for the better part of a half-century, and did not really take hold for another one. The same will be true of the Soviet experiment. Fai de bčn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
Prominent Social Democrats arguing that the solution to recession is private-sector investment... </facepalm>
well when government expenditure is a. reduced by austerity, b.largely dedicated to stupid megalomanic monuments to folly (including subsidising archaic energy forms), millennium wheels et al, then where else is the investment money going to come from?
he's being disingenuous, as he may be a Prominent Social Democrat, but he's a Captured Prominent Social Democrat, thus In Name Only.
IOW, i broke your game, (oops, the one i was supposed to be rooting for and helping to build), now we have to do it for profit without pesky public services offering free competition, tut tut, isn't that a shame, now we'll have to do it the other way, TINA, and my buddies will be considerably enriched by selling you the very air you breathe.
and if i, a socialist, tell you it's true you can believe me because of my impeccable cred as such.
hollande, blair, milliband, zapatero, prodi, clinton, obama, see any pattern yet?
excellent market-soothing reforms! flexicurity! third way! new labour!
and when the public's ire strays above simmer with one set of betrayers, reach for the trusty alternative lawn-order party till the repulsion builds to breaking point, and the pas de deux flounders, and all the money's siphoned off somewhere safe, just move in the Goldman Sux technocrats! ...who, untroubled by demagogic need to please any voters, (we're w-a-y beyond that now), will patiently, tactfully, calmly, benignly explain to us ignorant lambs why the shearer is going to visit twice as often, and shave us harder, but not to worry, because the sacrifice will be equally shared, and we must be humbly contrite and respectful of the market's omniscient wisdom and how lucky we are to live in such a great system, Hint, look at africa or china before you start whinging too loud, suck it up and go watch a football game.
best idea yet, call it democracy! it doesn't get better than that! privatise=fail, so nationalise=fail, so round and round and round we go.
it's all built to fail, happy people don't consume as much, they don't care about politics like they don't care how their car engine works, they just want it to work FFS, and and then their grim, grimily polluted landscapes slathered with pharaonic grandiosity to boot, easter island all over again. little men and women with big words and noble rhapsodies spun gossamer BS, fast food statesmanship.
i am amazed (and grateful) when anyone under 30 is remotely interested in politics. it's so crushingly depressing and unennobling, spirit-sucking. at least try to have some kind of free life before the weight of teh stupid social yoke is fully felt. the smarter ones do care early...
how can it become exciting again for the young to show they're better than just exchanging likes on FB? maybe only when we see their parents and family enthused by intelligent government by our peers?
well, i guess events have a way of taking their historical course, no one ever promised us a rose garden, or an enlightened species to share life's travails with...
there must be some way out of here. or through... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
"Did you lose your job to a Pole, a Bulgarian, a Romanian, or any other Central or Eastern European? We would like to hear about it," it says on the website Hotline Central and Eastern Europeans. ... The party, headed by Geert Wilders, hopes to provide an outlet for complaints that otherwise remain unattended, it says. It will then present the results to the country's social affairs minister. "It can go from 'They're sleeping on my doorstep' to 'They're still barbecuing at night'," Ino van den Besselaar, Dutch MP and PVV social affairs spokesman, specified to public broadcaster NOS.
The party, headed by Geert Wilders, hopes to provide an outlet for complaints that otherwise remain unattended, it says. It will then present the results to the country's social affairs minister.
"It can go from 'They're sleeping on my doorstep' to 'They're still barbecuing at night'," Ino van den Besselaar, Dutch MP and PVV social affairs spokesman, specified to public broadcaster NOS.
