Passing the Buck
Whatever you think of UKIP, the party at least has a clear political strategy: the European Union is to blame for all the country's problems, so let's get out of the EU, take control of our own borders and stand on our own two feet.
Bonkers if you ask me, but very simple and easy to understand.
Meanwhile, over in Greece, politics is in turmoil once again and an early general election called for 25 January 2015 may bring a new left wing political party to power, Syriza, which is standing on an anti-austerity platform while blaming the EU for turning the Greek economy into a basket case.
Yet Syriza's solution is not to leave the EU, but to stay in and ask other member countries to forgive Greece its huge debts while ignoring the fact that the mess Greece finds itself in has much to do with the country's addiction to tax avoidance - a national pastime that is endemic across all sections of Greek society.
In other words, Syriza's solution is that other European countries should pay for the profligacy of the Greek economy over the years including the terms on which Greece joined the EU club which led to great boom years for a while until the bubble finally burst.
Now I suspect that there won't be too much sympathy across Europe for the dilemma now facing Greek voters because just as in the UK everybody thinks that someone else should pay the price for restoring the national economy to good health; everyone wants to hold onto what they already have and no one wants to pay more in taxes.
Why should Greece be a special case any more than, say, Spain whose economy is, or at least was, in equally bad shape?
Arguably, the same could be said for Italy, Ireland and Portugal never mind more recent members of the EU club such as Slovakia or Hungary.
So it will be interesting to see how these arguments play out in the weeks leading up to 25 January 2015 which also happens to be Burns Night, of course, the annual celebration of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.
Crisis looms over Europe as Greek government falls
Alexis Tsipras, leader of Syriza, proclaimed the end of Greece’s misery at the hands of creditors Aris Messinis/Getty Images
By Anthee Carassava and Charles Bremner - The Times
Greece was plunged into political turmoil and fresh fears about the euro yesterday after the government was forced to call snap elections that favour radical leftists promising to end austerity.
Germany and the European Commission warned Greece to honour commitments to its bailout creditors after Antonis Samaras, the centre-right prime minister, called elections, having failed to win a parliamentary vote for his candidate for the state presidency. Stavros Dimas, the lone candidate in the month-long presidential race, fell 12 votes short of the 180 needed to win in the third round of voting.
In a sign of dismay, the International Monetary Fund suspended talks on unlocking €7 billion (£5.5 billion) in aid until after the elections, set for January 25. Shares on the Athens stock market fell by almost 10 per cent.
The party leading the field in opinion polls is Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, which is opposed to the harsh terms imposed for Greece’s €240 billion of bailouts and other relief measures granted during the crisis that began in 2009.
A jubilant Mr Tsipras proclaimed the end of Greece’s misery at the hands of creditors whose demands are blamed for mass unemployment and years of depression from which the country has only just begun to emerge.
“This is an historic day,” Mr Tsipras said after the vote. “The Samaras government which pillaged Greek society with brutal measures is history. So too are all of the austerity plans. The future for Greece begins now.”
Mr Samaras, who has been governing for two years in coalition with the centre-left Pasok party, said that he was confident that wisdom would prevail among voters and that Greece would not “undo the sacrifices” it had made to meet its international commitments.
“This is the hour, now, of the Greek people. What parliament did not do today, they will [through the elections] rid the country of uncertainty,” he said. Mr Samaras had warned that a Syriza government could lead the nation to “bankruptcy and exit from the euro”.
The parliamentary defeat was a blow to Mr Samaras, signalling rejection of the fiscal discipline imposed as the price of the lifeline that has kept Greece afloat. Although opinion polls show that more than 50 per cent of Greeks oppose an early election, support for continued austerity has waned, boosting Mr Tsipras and his promises of an end to cuts that have squeezed incomes by 24 per cent and forced one in three businesses into bankruptcy.
Mr Tsipras has toned down his anti-euro rhetoric and insists that he is pro-European, preferring reform to breaking up the EU’s currency. However, he wants to renegotiate a further write-off of national debt well beyond the losses imposed on private creditors in 2012.
Hours after the vote, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister and the EU’s chief fiscal disciplinarian, warned that it would be “difficult” to help Greece if it veered off the path of reform. He said that Greeks must not abandon reform because they had no alternative.
In Brussels, Pierre Moscovici, the commissioner in charge of the euro, said that a strong commitment to Europe and backing for reforms would be “essential for Greece to thrive again within the euro area”.
While Mr Tsipras is no longer pledging to rip up Greece’s bailout agreement, investors are suspicious of his promises that include a €13 billion stimulus package, the restoration of minimum wages, the creation of 300,000 new jobs, the return of Christmas bonuses and free electricity for thousands of Greeks.
Many Greeks fear a return to the uncertainty that dogged the country in 2012 after the departure of George Papandreou.
Even if Syriza wins a majority, Mr Tsipras is likely to need partners to form a coalition. The most likely would be the moderate left To Potami party.
Greek Perks (30 September 2013)
If you ever wondered why the Greek economy was in need of a big bail-out from the European Union - here's a story from the BBC web site which helps to explain how public spending in certain areas was allowed to escalate out of control.
Now awarding civil servants an extra six days holiday a year just for using a computer sounds completely bonkers - as does the practice of paying employees a bonus just for turning up for work.
But I remember a somewhat similar agreement being struck in Scotland not that long ago - by Edinburgh District Council in the early 1990s, if I recall correctly - under which the Council awarded an extra 3 days annual leave as part of a new local agreement on the use of 'new technology'.
The local agreement applied only to 'white collar' workers - not 'blue collar' or manual workers and the unions representing these groups of staff (NUPE, GMB and TGWU) all regarded the move as a complete waste of money - as well as unfair on their own members.
So while while the holiday perks of Greek civil servants might cause you to scratch your head in amazement - maybe there's some truth after all in that old description of Edinburgh as the Athens of the North
Greek civil servants lose holiday perks for computer use
Greek Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the annual leave perk belonged to another era
The Greek authorities have scrapped six days of extra holiday awarded to civil servants for using computers, as part of its austerity drive.
The privilege was granted in 1989 to all who worked on a computer for more than five hours a day.
However, Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaking on Greek TV, said the custom "belonged to another era",
The decision comes as part of the government's reform of the public sector in a bid to meet bailout terms.
Greece received two bailouts from the eurozone and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) totalling about 240bn euros (£200bn; $318bn) on the condition that the government imposes cuts and implements restructuring.
The working hours saved by scrapping the computer leave would be the equivalent of an extra 5,000 employees, Mr Mitsotakis told Skai TV on Thursday.
He described it as "small, yet symbolic" step in modernising an outdated civil service. Mr Mitsotakis is the man in charge of overhauling public institutions.
Other perks that have already been scrapped include a bonus for showing up to work and passing on a dead father's pension to his unmarried daughters.
In July, the Greek parliament approved plans to reform the public sector, placing up to 25,000 public sector workers into a mobility pool by the end of the year, when they will either face redeployment or redundancy.
The Greek economy has shrunk further than any other in Europe, with an employment rate of 27%.
Greek Cheek (11 February 2012)
I listened to a chap on the TV from Greece the other day with a novel solution for the mess his country finds itself in - which is that the rest of Europe should just forgive the Greeks for their foolish ways - and agree to write-off their massive debts.
Now the chap wasn't completely bonkers - I have to admit.
Because he did have something of an argument in pointing out that the medicine on offer from the European Union (EU) - a programme of big spending cuts and tax rises - might just kill instead of curing patient.
The logic being that such big cuts and tax rises might choke off the Greek economy's spending power - creating stagnation and leaving Greece in a vicious circle - from which the country can't ever escape.
Yet for all his sophistry - a Greek word which means superficially plausible, but ultimately specious and empty - the chap had nothing to say about how Greece got itself into this mess in the first place.
Which seems a pretty fundamental point to me - even if you are inclined to be sympathetic about how the Greek people dig themselves out of a hole of their own making.
The reality is that Greek politicians have been lying through their teeth to the rest of Europe for years - cheerfully accepting billions from the EU while allowing their economy to spiral out of control.
And while it's not necessarily the ordinary Greek man or woman in the street who have caused the crisis - ultimately it's the ordinary man and woman in the rest of Europe who are expected to bail Greece out.
A country which pays so little tax across the board - even amongst the relatively comfortable middle classes - has no credibility in asking law abiding tax payers in other European countries to pay off the Greek debt.
So given all the dubious practices that exist in Greece - and the fact that the country has been deliberately deceiving its neighbours for years.
Why would anyone believe that they've seen the error of their ways now - and that the country is going to get its act together in future?
Unless of course any new agreement is signed in blood by the Greek government - which is really what's happening just now.
But you've got to admire the cheek of some people - if you don't ask, you don't get - I suppose.
Greeks Bearing Gifts (1 November 2011)
 |
| But which people? |
Yet the democracy of Socrates and Plato was for the elite of society - it was not the modern form of 'one person one vote' - as we practice things today.
Most ordinary people were excluded from taking part in the 'democratic' decisions of ancient Athens and - strangely enough - the self-same thing is happening today.
The Greek government has ruined its economy and run up a pile of debts - the lights are in danger of going out - as the Greeks find themselves unable to pay their bills without outside help.
Help has duly arrived in the shape of a bailout from the 17 Eurozone countries - and the banks which helped fuel the Greek spending splurge have reluctantly agreed - to cut their outstanding debts in half.
Yet just as the Greek rescue package is being finalised the country's Prime Minister - George Papandreou - moves the goalposts by announcing that his government will hold a snap referendum - to let the people decide.
Sounds democratic - doesn't it just?
But who has a vote - not the people in other countries around Europe who are affected by the irresponsible behaviour of their Greek neighbours.
Why doesn't the plebiscite extend to everyone who is contributing towards the Greek bail-out?
Seems to me this is just a cynical exercise by the Greek government - to try and squeeze even more concessions from their neighbours - otherwise they will threaten to pull Europe's financial house down on everyone's head.
To my mind that's not democracy - just good old-fashioned brinkmanship - and pork-barrel politics of the worst kind.
Instead of trying to exploit a difficult situation for their own selfish ends - the Greeks should take responsibility for their actions - and clear up a mess of their own making.
And if you put that question in a Europe-wide referendum - I imagine even the Greeks know what the people would say - in a democratic vote.
