Jump to content

Recommended Posts

  • 2 weeks later...
Greece blinked first. Great analysis from BBC's Mark Lowen, who said that PM realised he was riding high in the polls so pragmatically used his popularity as a buffer against widespread criticism of accommodation of what EU (Merkel etc) wanted. In doing so he might lose some supporters on the far-left but so be it.

Robert P


Syriza appears to have transformed itself from what in the UK would be seen as traditional leftists into Blairites. In the reforms proposed by the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis to secure a four-month extension of its life-or-death bailout, vanished are the party's seeming implacable hostility to privatisation, determination to re-hire sacked public-sector workers, and desire for rapid rises in minimum wages. Or to put it another way, the platform on which Syriza won the recent general election has been significantly reconstructed


can't defy maths, sorry my left wing friends

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Couldn't agree more, which is why it's best not to

> give them (or lend them) too much money in the

> first place :)


I'm glad we agree both sides of politics are capable of corruption and deception, I was beginning to get the impression you think there's something inherently corrupt about one side of politics only. (Not getting into whether these two sides are even an accurate division anymore).

  • 3 months later...

Not looking good for Greece at the moment. Even if Greece and the Troika strike a deal, the chances of it being ratified by parliament are small. Even a deal seems to be getting further away, looking at the latest "corrections" made to the last Greek proposal. As someone wrote, one of the main problems is the Troika want to see Excel spreadsheets, but the Greeks keep giving them Word documents.


Tsipras's strategy seems entirely based on the Troika blinking first, but I don't think that will happen. Perhaps the reality will set in next month when, not only do the Greek government have no money to pay the IMF, but also not enough to pay all the pensions they've tried desperately to protect.


But something better give, else we are going to see a massive humanitarian problem if Greece goes bust.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • I suppose all these issues that need addressing are a reflection of the times we live in. Important and necessary but somehow destroy the underlying spirit.
    • Do you know who organised and ran it? Because it must have been quite a lot of work. Who kept track of the credits? What safeguards were they? Was there a lower age limit eg over 18? Was insurance needed? ID? Who checked it? What was the situation if somebody was injured while working in your house or garden? What if someone broke or stole something? What if someone in your house was molested or attacked? What if you weren't happy with the standard of work? Sorry to be gloomy, but whilst this sounds a great idea in theory, in common with many people I know I've had several  bad experiences with supposedly professional tradespeople, let alone someone who wasn't doing it for a living.
    • I think the Brixton Pound lives on, so there must be some kind of appetite for it, but I'm afraid I doubt it would be very useful for me.
    • My primary issue is the noise level and the fact that it begins at dusk and continues well into the early hours, the odd random bang being possibly the worst aspect as you never know when the next volley will occur. This is no longer about celebrating a turning point as the clock strikes 12am, but more a lengthy indulgence in ear shattering bangs, where there also seems to be competition as to who can create the loudest most startling barrage of sustained noise. A new thing is daytime fireworks, where buyers are urged to forget the visual aspect and focus on getting the biggest bang for their buck. I am lucky as I am not super sensitive to noise but I really feel for those who are. As for pets, I am afraid there are now many that require serious medication to get them through- and those meds are not cheap. The fault here is not with the animals or people sensitive to extreme bangs, but with those who insist on their right to impose it on all around them, not just for half an hour a few times a year, but for hours on customary dates and now  spreading to random events throughout the year.I  New Year fireworks is a very recent construct, and now Halloween Fireworks are becoming a thing. Why should we encourage and condone a proliferating societal noise addiction? It really is isn't healthy. Let those who wish to damage their eardrums enjoy their pastime through headphones; they can turn the volume up as high as they like.  If last night was the end of it then that is great but I think there'll be more through the weekend and more discarded jumbo firework boxes dumped in the park. I hope we follow other countries in adopting low noise fireworks and drone shows instead.    
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...