Cicero's Songs

Viewed from the perspective of the Euro's newest member state, the British political and media narrative still seems completely off the point with regard to the single currency. To reiterate: this is not a currency crisis, it is a debt crisis. The majority of the members of the Euro zone have controlled their deficits and are retrenching their debts. It is where deficits are not being controlled- in Greece and in the Latin bloc that the crisis has its centre. There are two sources of deficit pressure: one is fiscal incontinence, that is to say that the structure of debt is wrong or as the result of welfare or other general calls on the public purse government expenses are not being controlled versus government income. The second is the need to recapitalize the banking systems following a largely property inspired meltdown. The scale of the recapitalization is so large, because governments have undertaken not merely to compensate depositors, but all those, including bond holders...

More news from the sick world of the British media: Apparently Clegg is a "Communist", and Cable is a "Socialist" . Ha ha ha! Meanwhile, in other news:  The Daily Mail is a formerly fascist supporting right wing rag which is obsessed with cancer, house prices and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. It is mostly committed to gossipy stories about Z list celebs. News Value= 0  The Daily Telegraph editorial staff mostly consists of UKIP nutters, and various other sociophobes committed to an agenda far more right wing and out of date even than the modern Conservative party. It too is mostly committed to publishing stories it has stolen illegally and gossipy stories about C list celebs. News value =0 Being insulted by that lot should certainly reinforce Nick Clegg's and Vince Cable's self esteem, I would have thought. Only an real right wing extremist would think Liberals were Socialist, let alone Communist.  Even Jack Straw, who was one, does not like...

Living in the latest country to adopt the Euro, it is clear that, to say the least, the British media has a "different" perspective on the single currency. If you believe the British press, the Euro not only will collapse, but it should collapse. The propaganda spread by such "newspapers" as the Daily Mail and the Express, is unrelentingly hostile, not merely to the Euro, but even to continuing British membership of the European Union itself. Continuing campaigns against the Union, which is consistently portrayed in the most negative light possible, have undoubtedly contributed to a sharp decline in British popular support for the EU. The polls now show a majority backing British withdrawal from the European Union. However, the departure of the UK is not the same as the end of the European Union, or even the Euro itself. In Estonia, as in many other Eurozone countries, the idea of restoring national currencies is not merely not on the national agenda, it is ...

I believe Rebekah Brooks presided over a conspiracy to corrupt British politicians and undermine our democracy. That is not what she is being charged with. She has been charged simply with attempting to pervert the course of justice. She has only been charged essentially with the destruction of evidence. In my view she is probably guilty, but these are the lesser charges in any event. It seems to me that Brooks was a primary figure in Rupert Murdoch's blackmail and bribery of the British political class. She also, I believe, orchestrated the bribery and corruption of the Police and various other significant parts of the British establishment. She represented an organisation that is a malign and criminal influence. The Tories - as the party in government- are getting more abuse than Labour. Yet it was- in my view- Labour that was even more corrupted by the Murdoch money and the Murdoch blackmail. The testimony of James Murdoch- attempting to destroy as many current ministers as ...

There is no doubt that we are all in the middle of a serious economic crisis. However, in Britain this crisis is overlaid with a stupidity crisis too. The Daily Express is not noted as the intellectual paper in the UK, but their latest European scare story is more or less total fiction. "Senior Eurocrats" are apparently "plotting to destroy Britain"- even though there is not a shred of evidence for the conspiracy the Express is determined to unmask. It is total crap. It is a paranoid pack of lies either by fools who know no better or by crooks who are deliberately lying. Either way it is a total disgrace that this garbage can be published in any newspaper that professes to have any concern for the truth. And that is the problem, the crisis in Britain is as much a crisis of the MEDIA as of the politicians that are taking the blame. When such utter tripe can be presented as a serious contribution to the national debate, and no one condemns the bastards who publis...

The rather tactless comments by newly elected Francois Hollande about the UK are not an auspicious beginning to the new relationship between London and Paris at a time when the pressure on the Euro is reaching another crisis. The likely inability of Greece to form a new government without a further election, and the substantial chance that even a new election will not result in a stable government anyway, probably puts paid to Greek membership of the single currency. Now the Euro faces the moment of truth. The German response to Hollande's political posturing: "No changes, no renegotiation" is going to create real problems. Either they are serious, in which case the lack of flexibility bodes very badly for the Paris-Berlin axis, or they are not, in which case the pressure on the northern tier members, such as Estonia- which has already had to double its national debt in order to subscribe capital to the rescue funds- Finland and the Netherlands, will increase sharpl...

May day is a day of ancient pagan revelry that traditionally marks the beginning of summer. In the Celtic world it is Beltane, in the Nordic countries it is Spring day. For the last century or so, it has also been the international workers day. This Mayday in London, the usual demonstrations were held in Trafalgar Square. To my disgust, I noticed that one of the largest flags draped around Nelson's Column was the flag of the defunct Soviet Union- the Hammer and Sickle. This was the flag of a system that killed and enslaved more people than Hitler- and under its Chinese, Cuban and North Korean versions continues to do so. This is the flag whose false values oppressed trade union rights- crushing the Polish Solidarity trade union, and any other workers organisation that dared to challenge the vindictive power of the one party state. The fact that so called workers representatives can rally under such a vile symbol of murderous repression is a bit more than willful ignoran...