Judge them by what they do

Posted on January 26, 2012 by IanPJ

That is the only way to look at MPs these days. They continually spout lies, spin lines, bullshite and bluster, most of it in support of EU agendas (most often hidden in plain sight to the public at least) and present as their own work the implementation of orders and instructions coming from Brussels.

The Bruges Group has ranked Members of Parliament according to their voting in the House of Commons since the 2010 General Election You can check how they voted on the key EU related issues that came before them and see who are the genuine Eurosceptics and who are Europhile. You can also let your Member of Parliament know what you think of their voting record.

Their MP Watch list lists all 650 MPs, which you can sort by MP name, Constituency, Party, Worst/Best, and is worth visiting, to see whether you should be voting for your MP when next they ask for your support.
Green = Eurosceptic, Red = Europhile

So you judge, by what they do, not what they say.

h/t Orphans of Liberty

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Defining Socialism

Posted on January 26, 2012 by IanPJ


From our fellow blogger 13th Spitfire comes this enlightening definition:

Socialism

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama’s socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama’s plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for dollars – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..

The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F. As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed. It could not be any simpler than that.

Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

.. and that Mr Cameron is why every Socialist state in history has failed. No matter that You choose to call it The Big Society, what You and the EU are selling forcing down our throats is socialist communitarianism, and it too will fail.
.


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ECB Ignores Journalist’s Questions, Threatens Ireland with bomb terror

Posted on January 25, 2012 by ianpj

This is so good that it just had to be repeated in full, from The Prudent Investor. If only the BBC had the balls to ask the right questions with such vigor.

In a superb example of hubris representatives of the European Central Bank (ECB) simply tried to ignore justified questions from the Irish public in the video below. Irish journalist Vincent Browne had a very simple question, “why are Irish taxpayers required to bail out the holders of unsecured bonds?” At issue is the repayment of a €1.25 billion bond by Anglo-Irish Bank that will be due on January 25.

Watch this 5-minute video to deepen your impression that the ECB is not only a bad bank with almost no reserves, but also a badly managed bank, whose arrogant representatives seem to forget that they do not dictate the Eurozone. Browne’s question is truly justified. As the name of unsecured debt says, repayment should only happen if the debtor is in the position to do so. It is this difference that pays higher interest to such bond holders as the risk of default is higher than on guaranteed bonds.

Read on afterwards as the ECB Troika has truly threatened Ireland with bomb terror.

ECB Says “A Bomb Will Go Off in Dublin”

Irish website Nama Wine Lake reported during last weekend that the ECB threatened Ireland over the due bond. I am especially disturbed about the language used. Just imagine an ordinary citizen saying the same words. He would be in the flashlight for terror threats. The ECB Troika was allowed to leave the country without further consequences despite their radical speech that is actually an extortion threat.
From the report:

“He [Minister for Transport and Tourism, Leo Varadkar] said that the Troika told the Government that “we don’t want you to default on these payments, it is your decision ultimately but a bomb will go off; and the bomb will go off in Dublin and not in Frankfurt.”

Minister Varadkar has been accused of being unrestrained in his comments but they have been refreshing in illuminating dealings that other politicians want to remain hidden. The Minister’s comments come a fortnight after the ECB refused to release a letter it had sent to the former Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan on 19th November 2010, a letter which was understood to have warned the Minister not to default on senior bondholders.

If you can make out the difference between a mobster and the ECB, please post it in comments. I do not see any. And this is only the ECB with limited powers. Europe is still on the way into the ESM dictatorship whose proposed statutes already outline a much stronger language without the possibility of regress as this institution will be immune and cannot be sued for any wrongdoing.
Help stopping the ESM in its tracks. European countries are democracies where budget sovereignty must not be transferred to the people who watched the Eurozone go down and had no other solution than to make more debts.

 

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ESM Treaty pushed through on the quiet by EU Finance Ministers

Posted on January 24, 2012 by IanPJ

I have many times denounced the ESM treaty and its proposed economic dictatorship akin to an EU mafia bank.

Today, there is a post on ZeroHedge by the Prudent Investor telling us that the EU finance ministers push through ESM Treaty in a Fishy Fly-by-night move. Stand by for purgatory folks.

RED ALERT TO EVERYBODY INTERESTED IN THE ESM: THERE IS NO CURRENT VERSION OF THE ESM TREATY AVAILABLE!!!

Europe’s most important treaty on the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which will lead the EU into a financial dictatorship, has been pushed through by EU finance ministers late Monday evening.

But the latest version of the ESM cannot be found on English and German EU websites. A link on consilium EU only leads to a ‘file not found’ message and the German EU website “Europa von A – Z” does not mention the ESM at all. This reminds one of the secrecy around the Federal Reserve Act, that was pushed through in 1912. Is the EU Commission now playing the same fishy game 100 years later?

Media reports from last midnight only said that the ESM treaty was agreed on by EU finance ministers and mentioned January 30 as the date when the treaty will be officially signed.

Significant changes have been made, a few media reported.

The capital of the ESM will now be only €80 billion instead of the €700 billion proposed in the only available draft version from July 2011 (see treaty text below). The finance ministers also agreed to bring the ESM into existence one year earlier by July 2012, putting national governments under immense pressure to ratify the ESM treaty without sufficient public discussion.

German state TV ZDF reported shortly after Monday midnight that the fund shall have a financing volume of €500 billion, but this figure is a moving goal post. IMF head Christine Lagarde proposed a volume of €1 trillion whereas Italian prime minister Mario Monti and Austrian finance minister Maria ‘Mizzi’ Fekter said later that the ESM should be upped to €750 billion. Such important changes cannot be found in publicly released EU documents anywhere on the web. The ESM will be the successor of the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) which lost its AAA rating a few days ago.

It does not exactly reassure Eurozone citizens when European leaders throw around figures between €500 million and €1 Trillion, proving they have no other clue than to fight debt with more debt if the fund is going to be leveraged inthe proposed style.

It all the more troubling that last night’s agreement changes have not been communicated by the EU at all. It reminds one of the ACTA act that was signed in a non-public meeting of the Agriculture and Fishing Commission and is designed to destroy the freedom on the internet. As a side note: Anonymous brought down the websites of three Austrian ministries and the Austrian chancellery on Monday evening, protesting that Austria will be one of the first countries to ratify this attack on internet freedom. This was not reported by Austrian state broadcaster ORF.
I have published my objections to the ESM in this post from last December. Nothing has changed since except for the reduction of the proposed capital and the date the treaty shall go into effect. The ESM and its staff will be completely immune and cannot be sued, but can sue itself. This stinks.

 

Stand by for purgatory!

noun. Purgatory /ˈpəːgət(ə)ri/

A place between Heaven and Hell, where the soul is not bad enough to be sent to an eternity of damnation in Hell, but not good enough to go to Heaven, so it is sent there temporarily where the person suffers

If I used to ask myself over a coffin: “What good did it do the occupant to be born?” I now put the same question about anyone alive.

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In the EU province of Britain life is about to get tougher for homeowners

Posted on January 23, 2012 by IanPJ


Now here’s a conundrum for a ‘conservative’ government. Going to let the EU run roughshod over most of their voting fodder is what will probably happen.

With approximately 1.2 per cent of the 13.6million mortgages in Britain in arrears with homeowners struggling to keep up with repayments, the EU are bringing in changes so that mortgage laws are identical across the Continent – "so it is easier for homeowners to compare deals".

British lenders will be forced to start repossession proceedings when borrowers fall behind on their payments after three months rather than six as at present. Thousands more people will have to hand over the keys to their properties if the change takes effect.

The ‘reform’, which could have a wide-ranging impact, is hidden in an obscure clause within the bank capital directive. Banks will also be given less time to restructure payments to help homeowners avoid defaulting – in a process called forbearance.

The changes, which are being discussed by the European Parliament, could come into effect as soon as next year.

Yup, lets see what the Cameron is made of.. jelly I think.


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USS Abe Lincoln in the Gulf

Posted on January 23, 2012 by IanPJ


Movements of these carrier groups is getting harder to confirm, but this report looks fairly solid. As we have previously reported it first looked like the USS Carl Vinson made the journey through the straights on Jan 12, although that now looks as though it was a bluff, but the Arabian gulf is getting decidedly busy if there is a fourth carrier group (USS Enterprise) due to be on station in March, joining the Carl Vinson, Abraham Lincoln and the French carrier Charles de Gaulle.

DEBKAfile reports:

Three weeks after Tehran threatened action against any US aircraft carrier entering the Strait of Hormuz, Washington made two moves: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta disclosed Sunday, Jan. 22, that the USS Enterprise Carrier Strike Group would steam through the strategic strait in March; a few hours later, the US Navy sent the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier through the strategic strait without incident, accompanied by British and French warships.
They continue:
Sunday, Jan. 22, Defense Secretary Panetta stood in a hangar of the Enterprise clad in the uniform of a ship’s crewman and told an audience of 1,700 personnel that the carrier would be sent to Hormuz in March. His statement was a red herring. A few hours later, the Abraham Lincoln was already through. 

Something of a war of words, bluff and counter bluff.
On Saturday, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards stated it considered the likely return of US warships to the Gulf part of its routine activity. They were not climbing down from their original threat. The statement came only after Tehran saw the USS Stennis, the object of threat, exiting the Gulf Friday, Jan. 20, and decided it was the Americans who had backed down.

Panetta’s comments Sunday aimed at correcting that impression and making it very clear to Tehran that although the Stennis was gone, the Abraham Lincoln was there and the Enterprise was coming "fully prepared to deal with any contingency."





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SOPA and PIPA ‘shelved’

Posted on January 21, 2012 by IanPJ


From The Hill:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) announced on Friday that he will postpone consideration of his Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) until there is wider agreement on the controversial legislation.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," Smith said. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products."

Smith’s announcement came just minutes after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced he would shelve the Senate’s version of the anti-piracy legislation, the Protect IP Act.

The move is a stunning acknowledgement of failure for the powerful chairman.

Smith was the author of SOPA and its most vocal proponent. He had repeatedly said the bill did not need to be changed and accused the critics of "spreading lies."

But support for the bill collapsed after a massive Web protest on Wednesday. Major sites including Google and Wikipedia either shut down in protest or displayed messages opposing the legislation.

h/t ZeroHedge

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Sometimes…

Posted on January 19, 2012 by IanPJ

Sometimes the real world and other projects just get in the way of consistent blogging.



I’ll be back as soon as I can.

thanks


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Fuel Price comparison for rip off Britain

Posted on January 17, 2012 by IanPJ

The Market Observatory for Energy presents consumer prices and net prices (excluding duties and taxes) of petroleum products in the EU member states each week. The Oil Bulletin is designed to improve the transparency of oil prices and to strengthen the internal market.

From time to time (typically ahead of holiday periods) MAPS with the € prices for Automotive Gas Oil and Euro-Super 95 at pump in the 27 Member States are published.

Updated on 09/01/2012:

Automotive Gas oil (Diesel Oil) Map pdf - 2 MB [2 MB]

Euro-Super 95 Map pdf - 2 MB [2 MB]

Total Taxation Share in the end consumer price for Euro-Super 95 and Diesel Oil pdf - 3 MB [3 MB]



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EFSF loses its AAA rating, downgraded to AA+

Posted on January 16, 2012 by IanPJ


Poor Nicholas, poor poor Nicholas. He gambled his entire political being on the French economy.. and lost. Now as if to rub salt in his wounds, Standard & Poors have dashed his last hope of saving his troubled fiscal future.

On this news alone, I am now expecting in the short term Germany to announce that it is leaving the Eurozone and will be returning to the Deutchemark. What a mess these politicians have created for us, not them, but for us. We are the ones who pay whilst failures like Barosso get awards. Truly sickening.

http://youtu.be/rWFHZupO1wY


From S&P:

European Financial Stability Facility Long-Term Ratings Cut To ‘AA+’; Short-Term Ratings Affirmed; Outlook Developing

Overview

  • On Jan. 13, 2012, we lowered to ‘AA+’ the long-term sovereign credit ratings on two of the European Financial Stability Facility’s (EFSF’s) previously ‘AAA’ rated guarantor member states, France and Austria.
  • The EFSF’s obligations are no longer fully supported either by guarantees from EFSF members rated ‘AAA’ by Standard & Poor’s, or by ‘AAA’ rated securities. We consider that credit enhancements sufficient to offset what we view as the reduced creditworthiness of guarantors are currently not in place.
  • We are therefore lowering our long-term issuer credit rating on the EFSF to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’. We are also affirming the ‘A-1+’ short-term rating on EFSF.
  • The outlook is developing, which reflects that we could raise the EFSF’s long-term rating to ‘AAA’ if we see that additional credit enhancements are put in place, but also the likelihood that we could lower the rating further if we conclude that the creditworthiness of the EFSF’s members will likely be further reduced over the next two years.

Rating Action

On Jan. 16, 2012, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services lowered the ‘AAA’ long-term issuer credit rating on the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) to ‘AA+’ from ‘AAA’ and affirmed the short-term issuer credit rating at ‘A-1+’. We removed the ratings from CreditWatch, where they had been placed with negative implications on Dec. 6, 2011. The outlook is developing.

Rationale

When we announced the placement of the ratings on the EFSF on CreditWatch on Dec. 6, 2011, we said that, depending on the outcome of our review of the ratings of the EFSF’s guarantor member sovereigns, we would likely align the issue and issuer credit ratings on the EFSF with those of the lowest issuer rating we assigned to the EFSF members we rated ‘AAA’ (as of Dec. 6, 2011), unless we saw that sufficient credit enhancements were in place to maintain the EFSF rating at ‘AAA’ (see "European Financial Stability Facility Long-Term ‘AAA’ Rating Placed On CreditWatch Negative," published Dec. 6, 2011).

On Jan. 13, 2012, we announced rating actions on 16 members of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU or eurozone; see "Standard & Poor’s Takes Various Rating Actions On 16 Eurozone Sovereign Governments," Jan. 13, 2012). We lowered to ‘AA+’ the long-term ratings on two of the EFSF’s previously ‘AAA’ rated guarantor members, France and Austria. The outlook on the long-term ratings on France and Austria is negative, indicating that we believe that there is at least a one-in-three chance that we will lower the ratings again in 2012 or 2013. We affirmed the ratings on the other ‘AAA’ rated EFSF members: Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, and The Netherlands.

Following the lowering of the ratings on France and Austria, the rated long-term debt instruments already issued by the EFSF are no longer fully
supported by guarantees from the EFSF guarantor members rated ‘AAA’ by Standard & Poor’s, or ‘AAA’ rated liquid securities. Instead, they are now covered by guarantees from guarantor members or securities rated ‘AAA’ or ‘AA+’.

We consider that credit enhancements that would offset what we view as the now-reduced creditworthiness of the EFSF’s guarantors and securities backing the EFSF’s issues are currently not in place. We have therefore lowered to ‘AA+’ the issuer credit rating of the EFSF, as well as the issue ratings on its long-term debt securities.

Outlook

The developing outlook on the long-term rating reflects the likelihood we currently see that we may either raise or lower the ratings over the next two years.

We understand that EFSF member states may currently be exploring credit-enhancement options. If the EFSF adopts credit enhancements that in our view are sufficient to offset its now-reduced creditworthiness, in particular if we see that once again the EFSF’s long-term obligations are fully supported by guarantees from EFSF member-guarantors rated ‘AAA’ or by securities rated ‘AAA’, we would likely raise the EFSF’s long-term ratings to ‘AAA’.

Conversely, if we were to conclude that sufficient offsetting credit enhancements are, in our opinion, not likely to be forthcoming, we would likely change the outlook to negative to mirror the negative outlooks of France and Austria. Under those circumstances we would expect to lower the ratings on the EFSF if we lowered the long-term sovereign credit ratings on the EFSF’s ‘AAA’ or ‘AA+’ rated members to below ‘AA+’.



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