Earlier we brought you news of a French source saying that David Cameron is "like a man who goes to a wife swapping party without his wife". Paul Waugh of Politics Home tweets the prime minister's response to that jibe:
Cameron on Sarko attack on him last night: "I have not and have no plans to attend any wife swapping parties"
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#1
These two guys just cooperated in the assassination of Moammar Qadaffy, blew up a whole frickin' country together and now they're sniping at each other via Twitter? Is it like a falling out among thieves?
#3
It would add a whole new meaning to international relations if all the heads of states and their wives were to attend a swingers party. I'm tipping that Carla would be the most popular wife there.
[Dawn] The European single currency could break up and Europe itself unravel if politicians fail to tackle the region's debt crisis, La Belle France's minister for European affairs warned Thursday.
"The situation is serious...the euro can explode and Europe unravel," Jean Leonetti told La Belle France's Canal Plus television, hours ahead of what is being seen as a crucial European summit on the issue in Brussels.
He said that if possible all 27 members of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... should be involved in talks on tackling the debt crisis but that non-eurozone members might have to be excluded.
"When there are some in the 27 who say 'I'm not interested in what you are talking about because I never want to join the euro'," like Britannia for example, "this should not cause paralysis," he said.
The most difficult point of contention at the summit would be "discipline," he said, a reference to La Belle France and Germany's efforts to force other eurozone members to accept legal limits on their budget deficits and automatic sanctions for countries who break the rules.
Leonetti also criticised credit rating agencies, who have warned eurozone nations of downgrades if they fail to deal with the crisis.
"They annoy me a bit...It is not for the credit agencies to be involved in politics, that is for the people and the people's representatives," he said.
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#4
"They annoy me a bit...It is not for the credit agencies to be involved in politics, that is for the people and the people's representatives," he said.
The poor chap is very confused about what politics is. In essence it's about lenders, who are advised by credit agencies and borrowers who are "sovereigns" who have to pay the money back.
Since the dawn of time the dichotomy between these two is what defined what politics is. When money was lent to a regent, very often the debt died when the regent died. Also regents had a habit of defaulting, witness Spain.
Some one in Holland came up with the idea that the country could be turned into corporation and the share holders/taxpayers would be responsible for the debt, under control of a parliament which was elected by the burgers. (no lumpenproletarians, if you didn't accept responsibility for repayment, you didn't get to vote)In a brilliant PR exercise they named the system "democracy" and it stood up well for the next hundred years in their war with Spain.
The idea worked so well for the lenders that they suggested it to the English, who adopted it in the Glorious Revolution. From there it made its way across the pond to the colonials. Everything worked well while the parliamentary franchise was limited to the burgers who paid taxes which guaranteed repayment of loans. But then the franchise was extended to those who didn't pay taxes and after that everything went pear shaped as they took control and started voting themselves entitlements to which they hadn't contributed. Now these borrowers think that lenders shouldn't have the benefit of credit agencies. The guy is living in la-la land.
#5
Bottom line: The pattern is for someone to give a dire warning, which drops the markets, then for the EU leaders to come out with some vague and unworkable ideas, to which the markets recover until the next gloom and doom pronouncement.
Eventually the markets should wake up that there is no solution, but for the time being they are in the arms of Morpheus, enjoying their sweet dreams, and would prefer to remain asleep.
#9
I knew it was a bad idea when Anti-Christ JR Chirac built this horrid combined currency and EU system.
The whole thing was geared to give Germany the upper hand. But with European babies, they take no responsibility for their economies and eventually dragged Germany down with it. Who woulda thunk it?
BERLIN - German anti-terrorism police on Thursday tossed in the slammer a 27-year-old man in the western city of Bochum suspected of links to a local al Qaeda cell and of planning an attack, the Federal Prosecutor said in a statement.
The man, a German citizen named as "Halil S", is believed to have been recruited by the suspected ring-leader of the cell who was tossed in the slammer in April, and of having raised money for a planned attack by fraudulent use of the online auction site ebay.
A front man for the prosecutor's office said there were no signs of specific plans nor of actual targets, and he rejected a report in the online edition of Germany's Focus magazine that the suspect planned to attack a Christmas market.
German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich said people had not been in danger, but that the case showed Germany and Europe remained a focus of Islamist cut-thoat plots.
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