November 2011

Italian writer and politician Giuseppe Mazzini called for the creation of a federation of European republics in 1843. This set the stage for perhaps the best known early proposal for peaceful unification, through cooperation and equality of membership, made by the pacifist Victor Hugo in 1847. Hugo used the term ‘United States of Europe’ (États-Unis

Whilst all eyes are on Italy’s bond crisis, Greece’s potential default and France ultimately being ordained into the dishonorable members of the inglorious PIIGS (finally putting the f in the ‘efin PIIGS) a real bombshell was dropped by one of the European Central Bank council members Jens Weidmann on Tuesday afternoon when he reminded the ‘inglorious insolvents’

I thought this Between The Lines blog entry would be a light hearted joke given ‘the Mark’ relates to money, you know the script; 666, Berlusconi (beast), Rome, “muhahahahaha” etc. Then the parallels got a bit scary once I engaged in a bit of fact finding research. The rise of a supranational currency in the

It’s been bonfire “weekend” in the UK. Lots of the festivities and many of the organized displays now have funfairs running alongside. Not so great as parents, as your pockets get emptied, but if indirectly the proceeds go to the organizers then all’s good given many of the shows are put together by volunteers and charities, many local events