The massive Euro 5 trillion money printing and bond buying programme of the European Central Bank was undertaken in conjunction with the Central Banks of each member state. Most of the bonds bought were the debts of individual Euro member governments. 80% of the risk on those bonds rests with the individual member states Central Banks. They were required to buy up bonds issued by their own government and are liable for any losses on them. This is an added complication compared to the position in the US or UK where there is just one sovereign state and one Central Bank involved.
The Bundesbank has reminded us that a 1% rise in Euro area interest rates would lead to a loss of around Euro 48 billion on the Quantitative easing positions for the zone as a whole, with the bulk of that loss resting on the balance sheets of the individual member states Central banks. Each member state is responsible for ensuring the solvency and capital adequacy of its own system. The Euro area isĀ now designing a scheme that will allow it to continue to buy up the bonds of any country with weaker finances in order to prevent their interest rate for longer term loans getting too far out of line with the rest of the zone. There will be interest in whether the bonds bought and added under such a scheme will be at the risk of the member state concerned or whether the European Central Bank will take on the risk.
The Eurozone has particular problems with this for another reason as well. Only in the Eurozone did they take rates down so low that many of the better sovereign bonds were for quite a long time offering a negative interest return. This meant that they were particularly expensive evenĀ by the standards of dear advanced country government bonds worldwide, putting them more at risk when rates have to go up.
The Italian general election seems likely to elect a centre right coalition. Whilst they remain committed to EU and Euro membership they may well prove more questioning and difficult in responding to some of these internal EU stresses.
August 26, 2022
Is this rhetorical? If it isn’t then the private sector taxpayer, obviously. They are the only defenceless group of people who can be invoked, summoned and browbeaten into financing the authoritarian actions of political leaders that have become an existential threat to the West
Building an authoritarian environment is costly and requires huge amounts of bond based debt.
We are quite literally financing our own subjugation
August 26, 2022
The wheels are coming off the Eurozone. The Euro is below parity with the dollar. Germany isn’t going to be able to bankroll the weaker members. EU bank account holders are going to get their accounts raided again to try and keep the show on the road. Just like they did in Cyprus.
Meanwhile, over 650 criminal migrants were imported by the Border Farce yesterday to the land of “free” everything. If the Government WANTED to stop this, it could and it would.
And now we have a candidate for the position of Prime Minister announcing that he didn’t support the Lockdown restrictions and the Scientists should never have been given so much power. He thought the policy was wrong; he wasn’t permitted to express concerns or carry out a cost/benefit analysis; yet he didn’t resign and for the best part of 2 years he stayed in Government, officially supporting and facilitating the policy and joined in the PsyOps campaign to terrify the public into compliance. He was one of the Quad (Johnson, Gove, Handcock) who created and imposed the Covid policy. Basically he’s now saying he lied to us for 2 years as he and the other 3 wrecked the economy and ruined millions of lives ….. and now thinks he’s qualified to become PM.
Unbelievable!
August 26, 2022
Good points, Donna.
August 26, 2022
Donna,
Excellent analysis.
Our problem is we get what we voted for, NOT what we thought we voted for. It seems that our anglo-saxon democracies have little if any room for new or even third parties, and so we go to the poles with wishful hope that ‘this time it will be better’, only to find out that it often worse. Our main parties seem to be peopled by those often least suited to hold power over a large, complex society, if not actually socially incompetent in some way. What can we do?
August 26, 2022
+many
And heās lying now too!
It is their default reaction.
They lied to take us into the disaster that is the EU.
And we have a PM chucking our cash around to secure his ālegacyā as the PM who saved Ukraine ( or global peace?) not as the PM who laid waste his own country.
August 26, 2022
+1. Total shyster.
August 26, 2022
Not only did he not resign over shutting down the country for two years, not only did he not resign over the appeasement of the gang rapists he is now indignant about, not only did he not resign over Net Zero, but he then went and resigned over…tittle tattle from the Carlton! How can he be taken seriously?
August 26, 2022
His wife didn’t even take him seriously !!!
August 26, 2022
The value of the money creation is only about one third of European Union GDP, Donna.
Now have a look at the UK’s.
August 26, 2022
Over the last year, the number of foreign nationals being allowed to live in the UK has climbed to 1.12 million – an increase of 70 percent compared with pre-Brexit levels and the highest on record. The figures see a dramatic fall in the number of EU migrants, while the number of non-EU migrants, primarily from countries such as India, Nigeria and the Philippines, has increased substantially.
The points system needs to be radically amended to reflect the true cost of bringing all these workers and their relatives into the UK. Get training British workers instead of allowing employers to take the cheap option for them to fill vacancies.
August 26, 2022
Apparently being a trainee working a coffee shop counts as being an ‘apprentice’ according to the Tories but training seven years to be a Top Link train driver doesn’t.
They purport to want well paid and well conditioned jobs but where they exist want to bring them lower than nurses, the Tory benchmark below which we must all fall.
Ministers should be made to wear boiler suits with their sponsors on them. They’d look like formula 1 drivers.
August 27, 2022
” Lower than Nurses” ,, Are you out of your mind? Every single patient has to be assessed and given life saving treatment. Nurses have to incorporate life long learning into their practice , not a mere seven years. Each new qualification or learning environment means more responsibility. Nurses are Consultants , Doctors , academics , managers , advanced practitioners , prescribers , minor surgeons , investigative clinicians.. Take your blinkers off and don’t get the professional Nurse confused with carers, auxiliaries, HCA’s, Nursing assistants. I will go back to work on tuesday and as I am investigating for cancer , a lump in the breast , a serious disease I will remember joe bogs out there thinks I should be lower than a train driver.
August 26, 2022
A few weeks ago Ursula Von der Leyen announced that the latest wave of EU sanctions would “totally destroy the Russian economy”.Tweet from The Economist this morning:-
“The Economist’s analysis of data from a wide variety of sources suggests that Russia’s economy is doing better than even the most upbeat forecasts predicted as sales of hydrocarbons have fuelled a record current account.”
How are things in the Vaterland,Ursula,liebchen?
August 26, 2022
Breathtaking that Sunak thinks himself PM material. But sadly for us, most of his colleagues are of a similar ilk.
August 26, 2022
Donna. The woke government is unbelievable. Everything they touch is toxic. They know what needs to be done but they are excellent at doing sweet FA.
You’ve written a great post. One that we can all identify with.
August 26, 2022
Too weak to speak up, too weak to lead, too frit to resign.
Or he just agreed with the policy and is lying now.
It has to be one or the other.
August 26, 2022
Donna the wheels are coming off everywhere.. we are currently facing into a European war and we don’t know when or how it will end.. if nuclear destruction is threatened I can see mobilisation of western forces to go in there and deal with this Russian maniac. So First thing to do with the illegal immigrants inclydjng Albanians is to form them up into army battalions and let them show their allegiance to us in this way.. never mind sending them to Rawanda.. because we’ll have need for more recruits for the army yet. And As regards the two candidates when push comes to shove neither of them are up to it as we shall see very shortly – the last thing we should be concerned about is the Dollar Euro exchange rate.
August 26, 2022
We certainly shouldn’t be expected to leave our women at home while these new unknown men are here.
August 26, 2022
Donna – Most interesting is that Mr Sunak thinks it a vote winner to say that he was against lockdown.
August 26, 2022
I think you’re being a little bit harsh on Sunak, Donna. Suppose he had resigned in March or April 2020. The other Quad gang members would have brought in some replacement figure to do their bidding as Chancellor, and the lockdown measures would’ve gone on just the same. Sunak bided his time, and managed to intervene and make a difference at the right psychological moment in late 2021, when it was clear that the Omicron variant was very mild and another lockdown couldn’t be justified. Had he been replaced, it might have gone ahead.
I’m not saying I agree with all his financial decisions since then, just that he was in a very difficult position early on, where resignation (after being Chancellor for only a few weeks or so since the February) would not have been an effective move. The media were in control of the narrative, and what they’re saying about Sunak now, they would’ve been saying even more vociferously. And of course Cummings would have attacked and undermined him in every way possible.
Did he try to argue the Quad out of lockdowns in 2020 or 2021? I don’t know, but for now I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until some evidence surfaces.
August 26, 2022
+many
And re āsubjugationā.
Very interesting comment I read on āYou will own nothing and be happyā.
A FREE man does not have to pretend to be happy!
August 26, 2022
As I have written before my knowledge of economics is zilch. I can read about laffer curves , bonds , gilts , banking systems and I think I understand ,but by the following week I can’t remember. I have just tried to visualise the EU banking structures and I say plural structures due to your comment about central banks in nation states and their losses being their own responsibility.(So the EU is the dictator when harvesting and penalising but otherwise, look out your are on your own) I don’t know how poor Greece stands these days but it seems there is a little levelling there between the nations. The satellite structure I find interesting . I can get that. so back to the UK and who holds the purse strings is still leaving me suspicious.
To read about different views of EU finances papers can cost around Ā£30 for full copies. Who wants to buy these except the poor student quoting the cannoned acceptable papers which have been allowed)
August 26, 2022
Good morning.
The UK I believe had ‘interest’ in the ECB and was, whilst we were members of the EU, liable to any debts. Despite our so called leaving the EU, I believe that that is still the case but cannot find evidence whether or not this is correct. Is there anyone out there that has better information and the UK’s exposure to the ECB / EU debt crisis ?
I would hate for us to be presented a large bill for something we were led to believe that we were no longer part of.
Reply We left the ECB
August 26, 2022
Reply to reply
Thank the good Lord they got something right. How about a similar decision on the ECHR. While they are in the mood for change kick out Mrs May’s two cobras in the wood pile of our lives Net Zero and trafficking. We will be dead in the water if this invasion is not defeated.
August 26, 2022
The ECJ should be the first to be ‘un-recognised’. That body does still have a lot of power over our arrangments with the EU
August 26, 2022
You’re not wrong there Turbo. What is happening with illegal immigration is not in any way sustainable. The pressure cooker is going to burst very soon.
August 27, 2022
Itās whistling its lid off and theyāre not noticing!
If Truss % of the vote already lodged canāt be beaten if every person left to vote votes for Sunak then the contest should be over and this government needs to get back to business and be seen to be acting not talking to each other.
August 26, 2022
Were we liable when we WERE ( if past tense is correct) a member state?
And honestlyā¦would anyone be surprised by a retrospective demand? France now wants an extra Ā£8m for services rendered on the beaches!
August 26, 2022
It is indeed galling to hear the BBC’s outrage at the Foreign Secretary’s very diplomatic reply to whether President Macron is a friend or foe of this country!
August 27, 2022
rose: The perfect answer from Liz in my opinion. Anyone not accepting of that might take off the rose tinted spectacles for a moment & think. Tell it like it is Liz. Speak plainly. Be honest & open in your dealings with us the public also. Ensure your foot soldiers do the same. Letās see the āYorkshireā in you. Understand what the public mood is. Donāt treat us like idiots. Fight your corner. Fight our corner. Donāt be afraid to be disliked. If itās not clear by now that all the basics are in one hell of a mess, the reasons why and what needs to be done & what needs to be done imminently , then it never will be.
August 26, 2022
Well the EU have asked for Ā£40bn …and they’ll get it
It still doesn’t feel like we’ve left
August 26, 2022
reply to reply…..But the point is can UK still be held accountable for costs arising on ECB activity whilst we were a member?
August 26, 2022
The worrying issue here is that there will be people in this country who side with the ECB if we are presented with a bill. These “people” will harangue us through the media telling us we are in breach of some international law and will become a pariah state. These “people” do not have our interests at heart and it is so disheartening.
The EU is not all milk and honey.
August 27, 2022
So much rubbish
August 27, 2022
Thank you Bill – you are exactly the type of commentator I was referencing.
August 26, 2022
If there were, I am 100% certain the EU would have taken that into account when negotiating our liabilities upon leaving. As far as I can remember though, the ECB owed us a lot of money (which we will get in dribs and drabs, if at all).
August 26, 2022
+1
August 26, 2022
I think you mean the European Development Nank which spread sheet Phil wrote off on our behalf.
Idiot he was.
August 26, 2022
Just had a look on gridwatch Templar and we’re generating 0.7gw with the 11,700 windmills, this includes the new windfarm just commissioned off Scotland.
There’s still no acknowledgement from the government that they understand they don’t work without wind.
No wonder we have an energy deficiency.
August 27, 2022
Ian, isnāt the main need for extra energy from October through to mid-March, Autumn and Winter, and isnāt this when the wind blows in the UK and increases the power from these windmills?
Everyone was encouraged to switch to Gas, most new homes for 30 years were fitted with gas boiler central heating, these governments lead us down a dead end with no protections for our key needs. Every family is going to hurt this year, just because Dad earns a good salary doesnāt mean he can afford their 80% bills and frankly all this talk about just helping out the economically inactive is grinding.
August 26, 2022
Reply to reply
Well, we ‘left’ the EU but still seem liable to pay them billions each year for donkeys years to come, give free fishing rights to our waters, have a border in our own country etc. The morons who negotiated our leaving ‘deal’ did not seem to do much of a job on that. Can we have confidence that having left the ECB we will not get a big bill out of the blue, which our idiotic government will pay without a murmur. I wish I could be so sure.
August 26, 2022
Somewhere in that vast, ineffable Withdrawal Agreement…
August 26, 2022
Thank you Sir John but being pedantic your answer does not fulfill my original question.
Are we liable for any losses to do with the ECB, EURO and / or EU as a result of this debt crisis within the Union ?
Reply I don’t think so
August 26, 2022
The ordinary people of they EU will end up paying for it all surely as usual.
So Sunak now tells us he was against the extended lockdowns all along and no sensible cost benefit analysis of lockdown was ever done. Just as no sensible cost benefit analysis of the climate change act or net zero was done nor of the ERM or Sunak’s vast and idiotic manifesto ratting tax increases. The problem was not putting scientist in charge (they never were in charge) but not putting the right honest, bright, independent thinking, numerate scientists like the Barrington Declaration one in charge. Instead putting group think, politically chosen ones (often with vested or career interests) in charge.
An over professional video by William Hague promoting Sunak on Spectator TV yesterday. Not the way to win Sunak it is surely all over anyway. You surely do not win votes from party members by serial manifesto ratting, vast tax increases, currency debasement, expensive energy net zero insanity and endless government waste Rishi.
August 26, 2022
I think you have highlighted a great concern in your musings this morning @LL. Both candidates have rowed back from their involvement in lockdowns in recent days but neither has turned that critical lens on the net zero policy. Cost – benefit, risk, unforeseen outcomes, there has been no critical review of closing down our power production in the rush to be seen as virtuous.
Started with Ed Miliband and continues with the current Conservative administration.
August 26, 2022
rowed back ,,thinking about immigrants Critical lens.. media?, The unknown , investigator? Power/ virtuosity ..ethical
August 26, 2022
Your final paragraph is spot on. Except you forgot to mention that being an unprincipled careerist, who just saw the job of Chancellor as a stepping stone to the role of PM and then to a WEF-sponsored Globalist role isn’t the way to win votes.
August 26, 2022
I thought Cabinet discussions were not for public entertainment and are confidential. Seems Fishy thinks differently when it comes to his own advancement. This will not be appreciated by the voting membership and will blow back on him, showing his poor judgement. I would not be surprised if he does not serve in government again and will get his green card back and high tail it to the US to a big bank job. If I were Liz I would not forgive him and make sure he stays on the back benches.
August 26, 2022
The same William Hague who thought it was a good idea to have Jeffrey Archer as the candidate for Mayor for London? Hmmmm….
August 26, 2022
Sunak blame shifting. Nothing to do with me. It was SAGE and I had to follow their recommendations.
He was happy to accept praise during the ādishi Rishiā days though.
August 26, 2022
So 30,000 just last month waiting over 12 hours to get treatment in A&E once they arrive at casualty for emergency care – the worse figures ever recorded. And this is after perhaps hours waiting for (or in) an ambulance first. Is it any wonder overall deaths are circa 13% up. This when after a period of high deaths one would normally expect fewer than normal deaths.
Let us clap our pots & pans for the state monopoly rationing system that is the dire NHS.
August 26, 2022
+ many – the NHS is the pits, along with everything else the Tories have mismanaged. They are either incredibly stupid, or it is a deliberate policy to reduce the population … but why kill off the Brits just to replace them with criminally minded, queue jumping, self entitled invaders?
August 26, 2022
Our elderly relative had to wait for 9.5 hours for an ambulance to even arrive to take her to A&E this week. This follows on from another relative the previous week who had to wait several hours lying on the floor with a broken hip. The sad thing is that they would have arrived in minutes if a channel crosser had needed attention.
The cruelty and mismanagement of the NHS are dreadful. Never again will I be clapping for this organisation. It isn’t fit for purpose.
August 26, 2022
I wonder what % of the A&E workforce was on holiday in August each week, and what % were sick. I wonder how many people went into A&E each day compared to each day in June 2022? Were the staffing levels comparable?
There need to be big changes; they’ve tried training all nurses in universities, perhaps it is time to have 6-year degrees with a mix of on-the-job and university, with 3 days on the ward and 2 days in Uni. How wonder how many days attending Uni a degree student nurse does anyway? This way, we could do a deal on their training cost and their wage provides their living grant without recourse to student loans for those reluctant to take on student loans as other degree students do. I know many nurses who trained on the wards with day releases and two-week full-time courses, they are excellent nurses some of the best and many are at the higher grades now.
August 26, 2022
Sorry to point this out but it is screamingly obvious.
A great many NHS staff are extremely obese. This is because of grannies bringing in tins of Roses. A TV program on NHS obesity showed that there was a box of choccies within reach of every single workstation.
August 27, 2022
They need to urgently train a lot more male nurses, from 16 years of age if that is their calling or 18 and get them on the ward and only at Uni 2 days per week, one of the most important checks should be whether they are naturally caring people, with bedside people skills and the willingness to do the job in itās entirety before too much is spend on their training, give them at opt out after 2 years with an NVQ in care that turns into module sections of their nursing degree.
Then Iād put the extra beds they took out of each ward back in, we know they have the beds they were put in the Nightingale hospitals quickly enough fully kitted out. If there are extra hands on every ward through a new medic training scheme they will be able to cope with the extra patients and improve productivity.
The meal kitchens should have extra trainees, people in hospital for more than 4 weeks should start contributing to their meals, they would have to buy meals at home. If M&S can make a good profit from a Ā£3-Ā£4 meal then the experts need bringing in from the private sector to teach the NHS kitchens how to do it. I wonder how much it costs the NHS for every sandwich and drink they produce internally and for each meal?
I know slim nurses, I also know obese nurses with back and knee problems, no one is willing to tell them they are causing their own medical aches and pains. People say to me ooo itās easy when youāre naturally slim, donāt be ridiculous if you ate the correct size portions, cut out the sugar treats, no unhealthy snacking between meals, and just have treats a couple of days per week you would drop weight. Then take adequate exercise. These are the courses the NHS should be offering their staff, they should have weightwatchers in every week and take their advice on the meals for patients too.
August 26, 2022
Yeah…but half of those waiting are refugees and immigrants
August 26, 2022
Almost 15 years since the anti-EU voices in Britain started prophesying the imminent breakup of the euro, the euro is stil, eh, complicated, but the bonds are holding!
August 26, 2022
Political will and subsidy goes a long way Peter.
August 26, 2022
The problem with the euro, as explained by many economists, is not that it would collapse but that it wouldnāt. (can you name any non-EU economists who think the euro is working well?) It is a political project above all. It could work but massive transfers are needed from German, Dutch taxpayers to the deficit regions in the south. Just as happens in other currency zones. Otherwise itās a machine for endless stagnation and periodic crises.
August 27, 2022
@RICHARD1: I can name COUNTRIES that hope to join the euro, as it has been the case from its beginning last century when it started with 12 countries.
August 26, 2022
Indeed Peter, a triumph. There is, however, no bid for Italian government bonds except from Christine Lagarde.
The one profound statement ever uttered by William Hague was that being in the Euro is like being in a burning building with no exits. I think he was right, there will be no exiting whilst the Euro exists but interpreting that as a success is dubious.
August 26, 2022
So far but with rather large implicit interest rate spreads between different EURO countries!
August 26, 2022
Your problem Peter, I am relieved we dumped the European fraud. I do not even buy the euro produce any more as I must punish the leaders of the con!
August 27, 2022
MFD
How sad for you think of all the good things in life you miss
August 26, 2022
The Euro is fundamentally flawed Peter and exposes it’s weaker members to enormous risks.
It has survived this long partly because of the strength of the German economy but that prop is now failing. When I socialised with German colleagues (admitedly a few years ago now) they were all supportive of the EU but absolutely against funding what they saw as excesses in other parts of it. They had been willing to pay for German reunification but they were not going to fund what they saw as ‘Club Med’. I doubt their views have changed very much since.
The EU is not the United States of Europe, a mistake many seem to make. Unlike the USA it cannot generate and channel Federal funds from the richer states to those states in need and do so as required under a single Federal Government. The Eurozone has muddled along in the good times but times will not be so kind going forward.
August 27, 2022
IanT
All unsubstantiated guess work
August 28, 2022
Not at all, there is plenty of evidence that these views persist.
Last year a E750B fund was challenged in the German courts because some Germans were concerned that borrowing could become a permanent feature of EU policy. The Court was very clear that when it allowed the loan that “Limits apply regarding the volume, duration and purpose of the borrowing to which the European Commission is authorised, as well as regarding possible liabilities incurred by Germanyā
In other words, we are going to “authorise” (e.g. allow) this “temporary” measure but don’t assume that will always be the case. The EU does not have the same funding powers as the US Federal Government and that will become very clear over coming months…
August 26, 2022
Tulips….anyone…?
August 27, 2022
More and unnecessary
August 26, 2022
And well over 60 years since anti-EU voices in the UK said it would collapse quickly
August 26, 2022
Oh yeah.
Like every socialist construct … a pickled cadaver can but put up in office.
August 26, 2022
The Italian election is in name only. Whatever the politicians may puff to get the popular vote, they are run by Brussels. Similarity with closer to home,anyone?
August 26, 2022
The Italians have a particularly dangerous system of government in which the Prime Minister doesn’t have to be an elected politician at all and it has been common in recent years for them not to be but rather some sort of technocrat acceptable to the EU amongst other vested interests. Add to that a PR system with dozens of small parties and behind closed doors horse trading and unstable government is inevitable.
August 26, 2022
The Italians introduced FPTP voting in 2017. It hasn’t fixed the issues they have. The logical conclusion, therefore, is PR voting wasn’t the problem.
August 27, 2022
When I ived in Italy (79/80) they had had over forty Governments since WW2 if I recall correctly – about one a year. Nothing much worked very well in the vast bureaucracy that actually governed the country and the Italians just pretty much worked on that assumption. Everyone (particularly small cafes/shopkeepers) ignored VAT regulations and tax evasion and corruption was rife.
One example I always recall was that you needed a permettere (permit) on your dustbin to get it emptied. I spent a year going to the townhall just about weekly to see if my application had been approved. Towards the end, the offical would see me walk in and just wave me away (saving a 30 minute queue). I suspect my Italian neighbours knew I was sneeking out at night and dumping my rubbish on thier dustbins but it was all part of life there.
So PR most certainly didn’t work for them and saying that the new that the new system hasn’t fixed the problems, so vindicates PR is a deeply flawed argument. Replacing one disfunctional system with an equally bad one doesn’t prove anything…
I should add that I very much like the Italian people, who are articulate, stylish and very family centric. Their food is wonderful and their cars (at their best) a delight to own and drive – although commuting by car in Milan is not for the faint hearted.
August 27, 2022
The problem in Italy is their constitutional structure, not their voting system.
That’s why introducing FPTP hasn’t solved the problems they have as they are still happening. It’s also why the problems seen in Italy aren’t replicated in the dozens of other European countries which also use forms of PR voting.
August 27, 2022
For whatever, the Italians seem to be as a people a generally far happier bunch than do the English, with all the metrics on that giving clear evidence.
August 27, 2022
That might be true but I can assure you that it has nothing to do with their Government, they generally accept that things may not change and just get on with life. A very pragmatic approach and one which is gaining traction here I suspect. Why worry about things you really have no control over, just look after you and yours as best you can.
August 26, 2022
Don’t worry about Italian elections, there’ll be another one along shortly.
August 27, 2022
Yes, at least they get to vote on their likely PMs.
August 26, 2022
Yes, the twitching of curtains usually precedes the clutching of pearls.
August 26, 2022
Don’t look out your window then.
August 26, 2022
Is that supposed to enlighten us in any way, or just that you have nothing to say but will say it anyway?
August 26, 2022
You are clearly someone who can employ cliches “until the cows come home”.
August 26, 2022
I imagine that there was always a huge fault line in the initial cobbling together of the EU.
Especially when it created a currency.
It did to Europe what was done to half of Germany upon reunification.
Rob Peter to pay Paul.
EU has been scrabbling about since 2008 trying to keep the dream/project up and running.
Does it now think that a Bank Union is the answer?
Who pays?
Who always pays?
Ordinary people got Europe back up and running after the parasite classesā half century of devastation and now look at it!
August 26, 2022
So much rubbish
August 26, 2022
Oooā¦so much anger!
August 27, 2022
Unlike the US constitution it does not give 30,000 gun deaths a year and a general murder rate five or six times higher.
August 26, 2022
And in other news, weāll done to the woman who had a go at Steve Barclay about the ambulance service. Absolutely mirrored what many of us are thinking.
You have had 12 years to sort things out and there he was brazenly talking as if we will believe things will change in the future. The usual waffle, zero detail/timescales.
His response was equally telling, no acknowledgement of failure/acceptance of blame, just the usual politicians fall back of āweāve put more money inā. Magicking in people from abroad, more immigration, denuding other nations etc. No mention of using some of the Ā£140 billion or so to create new training colleges, fast track home grown talent. Short termism reigns.
NHS dentistry was mentioned. I guess zero politicians use it. Itās been known for years for teeth pulling not saving and in the main is appalling.
August 26, 2022
@ Nigl – when similar happened to prime minister Blair (re. some different NHS failure) it was shrugged off as “a voter off message”. The political class will do the same now. Alas, the people are very forgiving when it is time to vote.
August 26, 2022
Basically the state sector is hopeless at almost everything they try to do – they have made a mess of health care, schools, driving licences, social services, test and trace, HS2, the rather ineffective and often dangerous Covid vaccination programmes, mental health, passports, driving tests, the border force migrant taxi service, the universities and duff degrees, airports, trains, NI protocol, the criminal justice system, the do nothing if at all possible police force, the energy market and energy provision, the net zero insanity, the collection of bins and refuse, planning, the road blocking, the pushing of electric cars (which are far more environmentally damaging, and expensive, than keeping your old car, the dire state health care and dentistry systems are generally a sick joke, trains, water, sewage, the absurdly complex and hugely high tax system.
They cannot even provide a few decent public loos and a few street litter bins nowadays it seems.
Only really interested in taxing, licencing, charging, inconveniencing and fining the public, businesses and motorists. This when & wherever they possibly can so as to pay their “workers” and their gold plated inflation linked pensions.
August 26, 2022
Trouble is, the poor woman was so het up she flounced off and let him off the hook. Wish she had held her ground and demanded a proper answer instead of the usual claptrap that is the one thing politicians are actually good at.
August 26, 2022
NHS Dentistry was done for by Blair and Co.
It is what would happen to our NHS and schools if people like Lifelogic got their way. People that can afford get their regular check-ups and best care because they can afford it. The poor find it difficult to get check-ups and to pay for treatment, so have to depend on a weakened NHS dental service that does the basics and still uses metal fillings and is packed with long waiting lists. I would be interested to know how much is paid to NHS dentistry services compared to 2006.
However, we have known about this for years “12 Apr 2012 ā Half a million fewer patients are seeing National Health Service dentists since Labour introduced a controversial new contract.” source the standard.
17 Jan 2008 ā “Then in 2006, they introduced a new dental contract, and the result – like the new contracts for GPs and hospital consultants – was a disaster.” even Blair now admits this.
It’s complicated when people pay for their own care at a much higher rate now; Private Dental Payment Plans are expensive (starting at Ā£15 per month and that is if you have perfect teeth, Ā£180 per year and includes 2 checkups and certain treatments) the prices go up as you age. It does amaze me though that so much is spent on cosmetic type dental treatments in poor areas with people taking on.
August 26, 2022
What about Grant Shapps going on about getting the transport industry going again in Ukraine? Has he not noticed the transport system in the UK is crap at the moment. Never mind the Ukraine. Get this country up and running. My friend who lives in Sussex has to get to me in Shropshire at the beginning of Sept. At the moment there are no dates published for strike action even though we know they will go ahead. How can anyone plan a journey at the moment?
August 26, 2022
HS2 can’t go to Leeds but it can now go to the Ukraine
August 26, 2022
I watched the vid of that.
The really odd thing about it was when that fantastic woman said āā¦you have done nothingā and left the Minister looked really stunned and surprised.
WHAT ON EARTH DO THEY EXPECT?
Gratitude?
(1million visas granted per annum and 97% of all immigration legal and a Rwanda type agreement with Albania! No intention whatsoever of stopping it. Encouraging it more like!!)
August 26, 2022
Taxpayer of course.
But they will not be told and remain unaware.
Iām praying for a record breaking cold winter.
The tax payer will not be told they are freezing because of the āgreenā agenda but when thereās ice on the window and you canāt pay your heating bill at least the EU taxpayer will be aware of their overlords failures.
August 26, 2022
Can we look forward to another Ā£1,600 being given tax free to benefit claimants Sir John?
The view is good form the cheap seats while everyone else pays for it.
Gas and electricity bills will soon become like social care where those with “broad shoulders” pay a premium to pay for others to access it.
I rather like the idea that is being floated that the first x Gwh of a household’s use is at low price and then all use thereafter is charged at a premium. That is fair to all and rewards judicious use.
August 26, 2022
Wages must NOT be made to chase benefits. Alas this is the way it looks it’s going to be under this 80 SEAT TORY MAJORITY !
Remember the Free School Meals fiasco under Prime Minister Rashford ?
Working families who couldn’t afford school meals but had to go with packed lunches were ignored too. The will be again. Headlines headlines headlines. 24 hour rolling news agendas.
August 26, 2022
Yes thatās what we are all really worrying about on the day our energy bills are going up by 80%.
Anyone got any useful ideas there?
August 26, 2022
No other news today.
August 26, 2022
Yes, Boris Johnson made a lightning visit to the UK to tour a hospital.
August 26, 2022
Comment of the day !
August 26, 2022
Any group of ordinary people that created endless debt to buy each other’s debt in order to carry on living far above their means would be arrested and go to jail for fraud and embezzlement. Bankers and governments regard themselves as above such mundane concerns. We are all paying the price for allowing them to become so arrogant.
August 26, 2022
Very interesting interview with Rishi Sunak in the spectator. It seems he was alone in the cabinet questioning the assumptions made for the disastrous lockdown policy foisted on us by the public health blob, not challenged by Boris (though he ignored it himself), and loudly trumpeted by the left. Good for Rishi, it shows he has the training to think the right way. The rest of them seem to have just gone along with the preposterous nonsense spouted in order to whip up fear. We see the results of this policy now in the excess cancer deaths, the hopeless state of the NHS, the missed years of education and of course in the slow economic recovery. To challenge lockdown was apparently viewed as challenging Boris. Is this really how decision making works in the U.K.? Iām afraid Boris deserved to be kicked out just for this.
Letās think about whether the same thing has been happening with ānet zeroā, where again any questioning of assumptions is treated as heresy, with anyone however expert who doesnāt buy into the hysterical prognoses of doom and the expensive energy policies adopted is denigrated and shouted down.
Reply When I and other MPs were voting against lockdown measures Rishi was one of four main exponents of lockdown to Parliament and the nation through the press conferences. the rest of the Cabinet did not get much of a look in.
August 26, 2022
Collective cabinet responsibility I suppose
August 26, 2022
Bond: a connection between surfaces or objects that have been joined together, especially by means of an adhesive substance, heat, or pressure.
The EU is a pressure cooker.
A 5 Trillion Euro debt = 500 million people stuck with the hot expense of 10,000 Euros each.
August 27, 2022
Yes and ours is even more
August 26, 2022
I am no longer interested in what the EU decide if it does not involve us.
What I am concerned about is the fact that 17,000 people have officially been denied refugee status by our Government departments, but we have only deported 21 people in the last 18months, whilst another 170,000 await investigation.
Likewise the simple solution for the energy crisis is to fix the Unit rate of electricity and gas to all customers at a sensible rate, and for the Government taxpayer to fund the suppliers the difference against the true market cost rate.
Perhaps then and only then, will the Government then realise how important and urgent a real energy production strategy and solution is needed, as the present pathetic half baked solution is going to lead to huge personal debts and company closures.
The Government have caused this disaster, and that is what it is, because they failed over many years to recognise the risk and to act accordingly.
August 26, 2022
Not un noted by the UK population who are now livid since hardships are hitting home.
Who’s side are the Tories on ???
Either shit or get off the pot.
August 27, 2022
NLA, Iām not sure hardships are hitting home yet, Iām still seeing plenty of spending and calm people at the moment, but just wait until October though, when the cakes and pop have to stop. The government wants us to cut our energy but why donāt they start closer to home.
Leaving lights on every car park all night long with no cars parked there. Subsidising bus companies so they can afford run dirty old double deckers around rural runs that get 5 passengers at most. Single use taxis for hundreds of children on mobility as well as mobility payments to parents to the tune of one quarter million per month for one council. Paying to heat all their now empty offices. Has anyone even checked if all the desktop computers have been switched off. The people working at home will soon start bleating about wanting higher energy contributions from their public sector/large company employers, that is the last big chance theyāve got to get people back in the office if they cave in to union demands (and they will) it is a complete energy waste.
What did the governments think was going to happen when they curtailed Russia? Surely they looked at the consequences first before making that decision.
August 26, 2022
Oh, here’s some other news:
https://euobserver.com/green-economy/155873
“EU draft report ramps up climate ambitions ahead of COP27”
August 26, 2022
The Eurozone needs to have a single Central Bank and to only issue EU-wide bonds , anything else makes no sense at all. As long as the present ramshackle arrangements are in place which favour strong economies like Germany at the expense of weaker ones like Greece then their joint claims they want a deeper union is just so much hot air.
August 26, 2022
O/T but the new ministerial team in the Treasury is going to have to give urgent support to small businesses struggling with energy bills. The political focus has been on domestic consumers – many of whom are going to be losing their jobs in the autumn and winter when their employers become insolvent.
August 27, 2022
Quite! The stall all want an inflationary increase this October, the customers donāt want to pay extra as theyāre going to try to cut all costs and use weaker/slower services, its going to go bang š„.
August 27, 2022
Staff not stall sorry.
August 26, 2022
It is obvious that the more debt that is purchased centrally, the higher the exposure of the individual states will be to their own paper. Whatever fudge they come up with for the new bond-purchasing scheme, the German Constitutional Court will inevitably step in if the scheme implies any responsibility on Germany for those debts.
It therefore appears that to keep the whole show on the road, Brussels will be piling even more debt on the weaker countries like Italy, and they will rapidly reach a position where the sheer amount of debt is unsustainable.
We have always been told that Italy, like Spain, is too big to bail out. This is therefore nothing more than a sophisticated method of kicking an increasingly large can down the road yet again.
As if it were needed, all this is doing is reminding everyone of the basic flaw with the Euro : because the weaker countries do not have the ability to devalue in order to improve competitiveness and keep their debt under control, they are stuck in an ever increasing debt spiral. This will not end well.
August 27, 2022
PVL and Bill disagree with you Chris, the Euro is doing great and better than the pound according to them.
August 26, 2022
How will this āmassive Euro 5 trillion money printing and bond buying programme of the European Central Bankā affect us ?
Will we have another massive inflow of European economic migrants?
Perhaps learning from the Albanians coming across the Channel every day?
A trip in a dinghy to just halfway across so as to be safely collected by the Border Force/RNLI/RN.
Then look forward to endless free health and dental care, free board and lodging in a 4 star hotel, Ā£40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam the streets and to take a back market untaxed job if wanted.
No worries about inflation, fuel and food cost rises, where to get shelter or the next meal. Take part in any free activities and programs available.
In the words of another poster on this site, whatās not to like?
August 26, 2022
The survival of the Euro through thick and thin, is causing me to doubt whether the theory of Gravity is in fact correct: it is amazing just how far fudge can go. It is also amazing, though characteristic of Euro governance that the scheme for the continued buying of bonds of countries with problems, is even now only at the design stage, when it could have been foreseen from the start. I should have thought that for such a scheme to confer any real benefit, the liability must fall on the ECB and its shareholders, rather than back on the Central Banks of the troubled EU members.
August 26, 2022
The speculated dream team Truss cabinet is getting ex-journalist Alastair Campbell frothing at the mouth as he tweets:
“If stories of Redwood, IDS, Frost back in government are true, (not to mention pro-law breaker Braverman as Home Secretary and Rees-Mogg I/c levelling up) Johnson and Co are going to have a strong rival in worst PM/Cabinet in history contest. What a mess after 12 years of Toryism.”
This lineup must be bad news for Labour.
August 26, 2022
Two years ago the average household was paying 8 pence a kWh for their dual fuel energy bill. Today that has gone to 24 p/kWh. Next January it will be nearer 40 p/kWh; and you are worrying about losses on Euro Bonds, WTF !?!?
Anyway, the people who sold the bonds got their money back with a little profit; the ECB put those bonds in the shredder and stopped paying itself any interest due on them.
August 26, 2022
It’s good news.
At last the British people are being forced to wake tf up !!!
Tolerance is wearing thin – finally.
August 26, 2022
I think we ought to question how a war between two of the poorest countries (in per capita income) in Europe (Russia and Ukraine) with which we do very little trade (about 1% of our trade) and in financial terms even the rest of Europe does not trade a lot is pretty much wrecking our economy and way of life. The whole system has become so ‘sophisticated’ and interdependent that it has become very fragile with negligible resilience. That matter now requires more analysis and thereafter systemic change to much reduce its now evident vulnerabilities.
August 27, 2022
Use ppp for Russia and you get a different picture.Russia is not a poor country.Ukraine,however, is a basket case.
Furthermore the Russian economy is real,those of the west are fantasies;have you seen the rubbish that goes into calculating GDP?
August 26, 2022
A headline today
Zahawi ” I am working flat out ”
It jumped out at me the other day when I heard him say
” My official John Smith is working flat out round the clock”
Can’t remember the actual name.
It must have jumped out at someone else too .
August 26, 2022
As I understand the ECB’s Transmission Protection Instrument, it must surely be in breach of the EU treaty, in that, when you boil it down, it effectively finances an individual member country (whichever country’s bonds the ECB buys up, of course, in particular Italy) using monetary means. (Art 125 TEU off top of my head).
Of course, it’s perfectly OK for a major EU institution to infringe an international treaty, isn’t it?
Btw, I see there are increasing and noisy growls in the Netherlands, including an editorial in De Telegraaf, pushing for the ECB to focus on its core mission, price stability.
August 26, 2022
Money, money everybody needs it but that is today. What about the tomorrow especially when all these madcap Net Zero schemes start to click in?
They cannot say they have not been warned.
In 2018 the alarm bells were ringing that the automobile industry was not up to speed on Cobalt prices as China was taking control of the supply chains.
Essential raw materials are now seven times higher. The batteries are the biggest expense on EVs.
With the world taxpayers having to get their countries out of the hole they have dug for themselves, how the hell are they ever going to change and let alone afford new EVs? That’s if China allows it to happen when they hold, control of all the supply chains.
Very thought provoking entry on the Not a Lot of People Know That website
https://www.iea.org/reports/global-supply-chains-of-ev-batteries
August 26, 2022
Macron can be as unfriendly as he wants to Boris Johnson: 25 Apr 2022 ā Speaking about the UK, the President said: āIt is sad to see a major country with which we could do huge numbers of things, led by a clown.
Macron can get away with ‘unguarded remarks’ about the British AZ vaccine.
“He has threatened to cut off the UK’s electricity interconnectors, whipped up French fishermen to blockade Jersey, is one of the main EU cheerleaders to hijack clearing operations from the City, lured foreign investors to Paris with juicy tax incentives and been unhelpful about migrants on the Channel border. ” maggie pagano
“Meanwhile, relations with the UK remain strained over fishing rights, migration and security because the British government cannot be trusted,” Macron said.
Its not just a Boris thing:
17 Apr 2018 ā Emmanuel Macron has delivered an embarrassing snub to Theresa May by claiming that he is the closest world leader to Donald Trump.
Is this all friendly?
August 26, 2022
a-tracey.. it’s as you say “not just a Boris thing” and today we have the answer to “friend or foe” from Truss and on and on it goes the ignorant politicians feeding the ignorant classes and then the rag press? So why talk about ‘friendly’- it’s nonsense talk
August 26, 2022
Sir John,
Why are the Conservative leadership candidates saying that fracking can only take place with the approval of the local people?
Aside from the fact that our communist fifth column will organise their usual rent-a-mob and the BBC to whip up opposition, do they not realise that as a result of their Net Zero Strategy to curb oil and gas exploration/production and fracking we now have a very serious national energy emergency?
If HMG can forcefully clear the 560 acre 2012 London Olympic site of businesses and homes, and destroy ancient woodlands and houses to build a railway to get our elites from London to Birmingham 20 minutes quicker, then surely it is possible to get moving immediately on fracking?
Of course, local people should be well compensated for any inconvenience or issues but then are local people being compensated for the noise and shadow effects from onshore wind farms?
August 26, 2022
PS : As I write wind is providing 0.72GW (2.49% of demand) from an installed wind capacity of 27GW.
Solar is zero of course.
If HMG/BEIS/Ofgem/renewable fanatics really believe that our electricity supply can be decarbonised by 2035 using just wind and solar and no nuclear (which will be almost zero if not actually zero by 2035) then why don’t they prove it by building a grid scale demonstration supplying a city before forcing it upon the whole country?
No doubt there are city mayors who are so desperate to go green that they would be happy to take part in this experiment.
August 26, 2022
OR, something like 10,000 Kw/h of free gas per year (or the equivalent in other fuels) should sway a few minds with a promise of free repairs in the unlikely event of any structural damage to dwellings as was the case with the old National Coal Board.
August 27, 2022
Original Richard
Your last paragraph.
When and who are these people in my part of Scotland people have been fighting for over ten years on the destruction of their home life bought
about by wind farms. A very lucky few got bought out with rules nor being able to dicuss the silence agreement.
August 26, 2022
Iād be surprised if it wasnāt us. We foot the bill for everything.
Iām an even tempered sort of chap. But I find myself more and more agitated. When the **** is your government going to put a pontoon across the English Channel and turn the boats back. When are you going to stop this bloody nonsense? Weāll all be wrapped in duvets this winter while a load of freeloaders have nothing to worry about in 4 star hotels. Iāve a good mind to throw my passport away, buy an inflatable, pop along to Dover and claim asylum. We all should. Weād be a damn sight better off.
August 26, 2022
+1
The People are really noticing it now.
August 26, 2022
2024… tick tock … tick tock…
August 26, 2022
80 seat majority … out of the EU… WHY are you waiting ????
Football stadia of fighting aged men invading the UK every year !!!
Useless USELESS Tories. Yet they bang on about wage/inflation spirals among people who keep the country running.
August 26, 2022
Some simple sums for the ECB and Brussels.
EU consumption of gas is about 4,000TWh x price increase of ā¬250/MWh is ā¬1trillion a year
EU consumption of electricity is about 2,700TWh x price increase of ā¬500/MWh is ā¬1.35 trillion a year
How do you propose to fund this? The gas is essentially all imported. Your industry won’t be able to make competitive exports.
August 26, 2022
Get rid of the Commons and the Lords.
More trouble than they’re worth. Worse than the coal mines of the ‘8os for the health of the nation. Seriously.
August 26, 2022
Dear Sir John, Th eurozone conundrum is just another example of how desperate measures taken since the 2007-08 crash have so distorted the system that money interest rates can no longer play their normal function. As you have stressed, a big fiscal squeeze just when cost-of-living pressures are triggering recession is not really feasible so the only “solution” to inflation is just to hope that it goes way after gas prices peak, perhaps in January to March 2023.
August 26, 2022
No one in the media or politics is asking the right question
Q ā Why is the wholesale energy futures price increasing
A ā Western governments imposing policies of net-zero
August 26, 2022
25 August 2022.
Number of migrants detected in small boats: 804
Number of boats detected: 16
August 26, 2022
O/T
Solar 0.19% Wind 1.79%
Just saying
August 26, 2022
āThe Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said: āThe UK has highly diverse and flexible sources of gas supply through domestic production and extensive import capability, protecting our supply and keeping prices down.
āThe decision to close Rough (Gas Storage) will not have a material bearing on current UK gas prices.ā FT 16th August 2017
We know where to point the finger
August 26, 2022
gc :
Yes, but a deliberate Net Zero Strategy policy, not an unfortunate mistake.
August 27, 2022
CORRECT
August 26, 2022
In his tweets Sir John wants the French president to show friendship to UK by arresting people smugglers on French beaches but as we know President Macron is not a friend of UK it is unlikely this is going to happen so then why even bother writing about it?
Next Sir John say’s he wants a PM that will stand up to the EU especially on things that matter to him – put another way he wants A PM that will do as he want’s or more correctly do what the ERG want. Say’s a lot about Liz Truss if she falls for this and what we can expect – same old
August 27, 2022
It wouldn’t be “same old” Gary because the two policy changes you talk about haven’t happened before.
August 27, 2022
But what I have never understood is why MM seems not to want to go the extra mile to improve / solve the situation for the sake of his Calais residents, businesses, daily life there and the general surroundings plus all the other smaller coastal places we’ve seen reported as being launch pads at some time or another for that matter. I used to go to Calais regularly and recall speaking to a lady & daughter in the street and it was clear what problems were being faced & what the general feelings were & that’s a few years back. We have an idea of the difficult extent of the problem but surely there ARE things that can be done or done differently which are clearly not.
August 26, 2022
In these circumstances, who would be a Greek (State debt 190% of GDP) or an Italian (State debt 150% of GDP)?
August 26, 2022
Pretty Useless is going to veto councils to get migrants sent to provincial towns and cities.
Good.
In time for 2024.
EVERYONE gets to experience what’s happening. The uselessness of an 80 seat Tory majority.
Seriously. The coal miners had a better claim to a job than you lot.
August 27, 2022
What do you think Labour and the SNP would do any different NLA, it seems like a plan, why do you think weāre concentrating on diversity right now, from advertisements to tv shows. We are about to see minority % sky rocket in all areas, but coronation st. Had to prepare everyone for the change first.
August 27, 2022
Your factual evidence is wrong both Denmark Norway Sweden and Switzerland and Japan have had negative rates on their sovereign debt and bonds for a long time