You know that scene in the film Groundhog Day, when Bill Murray is woken up by his alarm clock to find it’s the same old re-cycled pattern to his day, day after day? I really need to change radio stations for our alarm clock, every weekday morning I’m woken up at 6:45 am by the talking heads at radio 4. I’ll guarantee that before 7 they’ll mention the words “euro crisis”, in fact if there’d been a spread bet available I’d have cashed in nicely over the past few months…
This morning’s show was pitiful drivel, once again our unelected prime minister was given too much air time… Hey Greece and Italy, we beat you in the race to have an unelected premier, but at least your two have a professional background. He generally gives a horse racing tip as part of his ‘human, caring facade’, then the subject of Meryl Streep playing Thatcher in the Iron Lady film was discussed. The interviewer asked Cameron if he’d like to be portrayed in celluloid one day (actually it’s all digital now) and with feigned modesty he audibly blushed at the thought. It’d be a great movie though, a real blockbuster and no mistake;
The rags-to-riches tale of a young boy, who can trace his family’s ancestry back to King William IV, who despite all the odds, overcame the disadvantage of an Eton/Oxford education to become a Tory MP after a couple of years in ‘job land’ working in public relations.
His courageous style (voting for the Iraq war) and being the best in a very bad bunch helped our hero rise to the top the very top of the Tory Party. After over-coming a terrible wisteria problem on his chimney stack at his country pile, (he had a go at courageously cutting it back, but valiantly withdrew to fight another day and paid the local gardeners £1500 to tackle it, then claimed on expenses) he then led his party to a cobbled together collation train wreck of a government and became Prime Minister..Wow..
Amongst the prescribed questions delivered by the fawning interviewer was the inevitable ‘Euro question’ and his decision to veto. We’re then subjected to the usual platitudes; “doing the right thing for Britain, putting our country’s interests first..” to be fair he can hardly say;
“have you seen our combined debt versus GDP ratio when you take into consideration bank liabilities and personal borrowing? It’s at circa 900%! How the hell can we get our 9% deficit down to 0.5% inside three years to be part of the Euro fiscal compact? We’d have to sack every civil servant, increase the highest rate of tax to 80%, introduce a property tax of 15% on houses worth above £500,000 and sell the Queens estates…Not on my watch Son, so I had to come up with a diversionary tactic that would appeal to the Jonny Foreigner hating xenophobic right-wing press and its dumbed down readership. I can’t take all the praise, Olly Letwin’s idea really..”
Even the slightly more intelligent sectors of the mainstream media can become wrapped up in the ‘euro bashing’. Hurrah! ran the headlines yesterday, pound up versus the euro meaning you’ll get more euros for your pound when booking your summer holiday, “why not book the euros now?” Unless that is the company you work for is in the manufacturing sector who then suffer badly from a rising pound. It cuts back it’s exports (to it’s biggest market place) and lays of staff, meaning you. Sadly that holiday with the kids and wife won’t be happening this year. And this is where the media has a huge responsibility to educate the public with regards to the devastation a euro collapse and Eurozone break up would cause… but at least my Groundhog Day news would be changed..
” as the Eurozone area enters it’s second year of a disorderly break up the FTSE opened 200 points down at 3500, a fall of 40% year on year. Pension fund managers suggest that pensions will now take thirty years to recover the losses. Unemployment figures just released reveal that the number has spiked from 13 to 14% and youth unemployment in the UK is now approaching Spain’s levels of 40%.
House prices are now at 2003 levels according to the Halifax, a 40% fall from the 2007 peak. There are currently 5 million mortgage holders in negative equity. With Brent crude at $175 a barrel petrol finally breached the £2 per litre mark this morning. The police and armed forces reported a quiet night in our major towns and cities overnight as the indefinite curfews continue, the cost of the damage suffered during the summer riots now put at £100 billion.
The civil service strike enters its third week after the govt. admitted that the unfunded public sector pension liability of circa £1.5 trillion could never be honoured..and in the studio this morning we have the prime minister, any racing tips for the meeting at Haydock prime minister? “
