Except that the last Government squandered a lot of goodwill in Europe and became quite arrogant in its approach. Diplomats report a big loss of Goodwill following the Nice and Lisbon no votes and so the current government has been trying to play nice - with no tangible rewards to date - despite Irish taxpayers bailing out German banks.

The big political problem for us is that there is no understanding in Germany that the bailout funds were intended and used not to bail out Ireland, but to bail-out German banks who had invested in bankrupt Irish banks. I think a NO vote would force a greater appreciation of the interdependencies of our economies and banking systems, and perhaps also start an education process that the net effect of all the bailouts has been to bail out the elites and the expense of the poor.

Index of Frank's Diaries