Quote of the day 15th July 2015

"It is the fecklessness of the Greek government’s negotiating strategy and their utter separation from reality which have been the primary causes of a deal far worse for Greece than it should have been. It is the Greek people, above all the poor, who will suffer most from the game-playing of this supposedly left-wing government.

"In a makeshift alliance of charlatans and lunatics, Tsipras deserves only limited credit for deciding at the last minute that he was just a charlatan after all."



(Kevin Feeney, a Labour party member, in an article on "Labour Uncut" called

"Look at Syriza, look at Greece: that's what Jeremy Corbyn would do for Labour and Britain.")

Comments

Jim said…
He was calling a clear bluff from the start. He never had a hand to play. Come on, the Economy is less than that of Volkswagon, its not going to crash the Euro, it never was.

The Colleagues had a far stronger hand than Tsipras ever did, they knew it, and he did too. Thats why he was always going to fold, always.

We know they dont want to leave the Euro, more than the Eurozone want to keep them, this means he would fold his hand and Greece would remain in the Euro at a heavy price. I told you that a while ago, come on Chris, Keep up.
6:53 pm
Chris Whiteside said…
You did say you thought Greece would stay in the Euro, and I did say that I certainly would not rule out the possibility that you were right. And it looks that way for now - until the next crisis which might well be before the end of the year.

Mind you, if I had Syriza's views on the right economic policies for Greece (or for that matter the ones I actually do have) I would be trying to negotiate a "friendly divorce" managed exit deal. Most of the German government and the ECB actually want the Greeks out, they just don't want to be seen to push them out. Consequently the terms available for a "friendly divorce" might well be less punitive than the eye-wateringly painful deal the Greeks have signed up to today.

Although that is relative. Greece had no good options - it was a choice between bad (managed and agreed exit from the Euro), terrible (swallowing the painful deal imposed by the creditors) or catastrophic (no deal and the country's banking system goes under or they get a non-managed exit).
12:58 am
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten year ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by the
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

Image
I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more