Silence follows....

keep to the Fen Causeway

 This is my last summer planning these outdoor gigs!  I've enjoyed learning to event plan, but it's a ton of work for music that really isn't my fav. Next week brings a cello/violin concert from a foundation called   Intercultural Journeys ) which aims to promote world peace and understanding through world class music and performances. That's more my interest.  

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

When I first wrote about the sexist abuse of women online, collating the experiences of nearly a dozen writers, the response was largely positive. Many hadn't been aware there was a problem; they were shocked. Others had assumed that they were the only ones whose every word on the web was greeted with a torrent of abusive, threatening comments.

But a few reactions stood out, among them that of Brendan O'Neill, the Telegraph blogs section's resident contrarian. He wrote that feminist campaigners pointing this out was a "hilarious echo of the 19th-century notion that women need protecting from vulgar and foul speech". We were, he said, "a tiny number of peculiarly sensitive female bloggers" trying to close down freedom of speech.

The best response to that argument, incidentally, comes from Ally Fogg, who wrote recently:-...

Terrifying. I have no idea what it feels like to be subjected to such abuse but it must be hellish

keep to the Fen Causeway

Telegraph - Ed West - Rioters were having a 'spiritual experience', says bishop. This is why Anglicanism is dying

It's the Church of England's General Synod, when atheist commentators traditionally tell the Church that it must adopt more progressive policies in order to win their approval.

Which is a bit strange. I don't really care what policies the Socialist Workers Party adopts because I'm never going to join however they dress up their creed, which I believe to be fundamentally false. So I don't know why atheists care what the Anglican or Catholic Churches do with themselves.

Not that Anglican leaders do not deserve the scorn they attract; this year's award for silliest comment must surely go to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, who said that last August's riots were a "spiritual experience"

What we know now is that Germany will not agree to mutualised deposit insurance. It cannot even agree to give the European Stability Mechanism a banking licence so that it can leverage itself. If Germany cannot do the minimum necessary now, why should anybody think it can agree a political union? This is less credible than the promise by an alcoholic to give up drinking in five years.

...

Angela Merkel's answer was revealing. She told them that there is nothing to worry about. The banking union was about joint supervision, she said. There will be no joint deposit insurance. She has a very different understanding of a banking union than the European Central Bank. At most, I expect this new banking union to cover the 25 largest banks, and leave those cajas and Landesbanken in national control. This is like an alcoholic who promises to drink only the better cognacs from now on.

...

If something is neither sustainable nor self-correcting, there are only two courses of action left. The first is to wait patiently until the situation breaks down. This is the strategy pursued by the European Council - and by alcoholics. The alternative is to start making preparations - and be careful not to trigger a breakdown in the process. It is hard to envisage an exit without breaching hundreds of national and European laws. This is why nobody is doing it. One would have to use a force majeure defence. One cannot prepare for such an event. It took a decade to create the euro. It will take more than a long weekend to undo it. A collapse would constitute the biggest economic shock of our age. But among a list of bad breakup choices, some are a better than others. I will write about these in a future column.

Hollande wants to ratify the fiscal pact as soon as possible

According to Le Monde Francois Hollande wants to ratify the fiscal pact as soon as possible, perhaps even as soon as this month. In order to make good on his electoral promise to "renegotiate" the fiscal pact, he wants to present the parliamentarians with a package of fiscal pact and growth pact, which he claims amounts to a renegotiation because it put growth on top of the European agenda, the plans for a financial transaction tax and the plans to build a Eurozone banking supervision. The government submitted the package to France's constitutional council for checks if the laws are all in line with the constitution. Once the green light is given, the government would like to proceed with the ratification.

Remind me, What competence does the ‪#ECB‬ have on this??? @ekathimerini Troika urges full recognition of private college degrees

Infatti mi ha detto: "Noi abbiamo lavorato in quattro per preparare il memorandum sulla futura architettura dell'Unione europea. Un po' come gli spagnoli, quelli del calcio s'intende".

Quelli del calcio, certo. Gli altri, i ministri, i capi delle banche, non lavorano affatto tutti insieme e soprattutto sono molto lenti. Sanno che debbono promulgare una legge, firmare un documento, avviare una procedura, ma rinviano e tutto resta fermo. Queste considerazioni Draghi le ha fatte più volte pubblicamente e più volte le ha comunicate alle autorità spagnole interessate, ma i risultati finora non si sono visti, gli spagnoli continuano a rinviare con il risultato che le loro banche sono ancora in pessima situazione. Per far intervenire il fondo "Salva Stati" e "Salva banche" ci vuole una richiesta del governo ma il governo finora tergiversa.

...

Ma mi piace sentirlo ripetere. "Però il governo interessato lo deve chiedere e ancora non l'ha chiesto". Sono hidalghi.
Possono fallire se non lo chiedono? "Penso a Balotelli".

Che c'entra? "Niente, ma mi viene in mente quando piangeva".

In fact he told me: "We worked in a team of four to prepare the memorandum on the future architecture of the European Union. A bit like the Spanish, those of football it's understood".

Those of football, certainly. The others, the ministers, bank heads, they don't work together at all and above all they are very slow. They know they must enact a law, sign a document, begina  prodedure, but they postpone and everything remains still. These considerations Draghi has made many times in public, and many times he has communicated them to the interested Spanish authorities, but we haven't seen results up to know, the Spanish continue to postpone with the result that their banks are still in a very bad situation. To make the "state-saving" and "bank-saving" fund intervene a request by the government is needed, but the government prevaricates.

...

But I like to hear him repeat: "But the interested government must ask for it and they haven't yet". They are proud.
Can they go bankrupt if they don't ask? "I think of Balotelli".

What does that have to do with it? "Nothing, I'm reminded of when he cried".