Could this be it?

Things must be getting bad. Sky News this evening has the stock market ticker going in the top corner of the screen, and it’s in black.

The Italians have been on the blower to the US treasury, and the Spanish have been on the phone to Sarkozy.

There is only one way this is going to go; Spain and Italy are going down. I fail to see how the Germans are going to be able, let alone willing to dip into their pockets here. To rescue one of them would be almost impossible, to rescue both? Forget it.

Barroso, so bullish when it was suggested a plan b was needed is now backtracking at an alarming pace.  ”We are no longer managing a crisis just in the euro-area periphery.” He has said. Even the Maoist knows the gig is up. But still, it isn’t the fault of anyone in the EU, oh no. It is apparently the fault of the authorities for failing to prevent the sovereign debt crisis from spreading.

Yes. You read that right. The head of the organisation which has done nothing beyond strip the sovereignty of it members has now thrown that sovereignty into a bush and said ‘Sovereignty? What sovereignty? None of that here. This is nothing to do with us!’ They make Gordon Brown look self-aware and contrite.

No, this is the evil markets, sullying the pure political ideal with their grubby dealings. Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial affairs (and it would seem pure delusion) has branded the market’s actions as ‘unjustified’ and ‘incomprehensible’. You can almost hear him stamping his feet and whining that it isn’t fair.

Well, listen to me, you detestable little shits, you’ve lorded it over us since the 1960′s, and you’ve finally run out of our money. God help you, and any national politician who backs you up. Yes, Cameron, Clegg and Miliband, I’m looking at you.

Your project isn’t dead yet, but it is lying on the floor, bleeding to death. There’s no point in attempting a transfusion, the lacerations are such that any blood that is pumped in will seep out immediately.

Your arrogance, your hubris, your chasing of your own agenda – to the exclusion of everything and everyone else – has ruined us all. I despise you for it. You have imposed your will on us, against the wishes of the majority of a whole continent, you have insulted us, belittled us, accused us of the most unspeakable crimes and perverse predilections and you have charged us for the privilege. You have stolen from us, you have lied to us, you have appropriated the fruits of our toil and you have squandered it.

I defy you. I spit on you. I hope beyond hope that your hateful organisation comes crashing down around your ears, and I hope you find yourself as bereft and destitute as the continent you have defiled and raped for the last four decades.

I hope that you take the domestic politicians across Europe who pander to your every whim and massage your egos whilst committing the most appalling treasons against their own countries with you. I hope you take a financially and politically bankrupt American president, who is cut from exactly the same cloth as you, down as well.

Make no mistake, I would have preferred a moderate, political dissolution to the EU. This is going to hurt. A lot. It will likely hurt me personally as a public sector employee. I care not. My disdain for you is such that I will grit my teeth and gladly pay the price of freedom for my country and the other countries who have been so comprehensively betrayed. We all of us, from the western most tip of Ireland to the eastern most island of Greece, the far north of Finland to the southern beaches of Malta, deserve better than you.

You have failed, utterly. You have left us in a level of debt unimaginable at the end of the second world war, and you’ve done it without firing a shot.

Your Fabian window lies smashed on the ground. And, as it suits your baseless prejudices against me, I shall cheer like a thug on Kristallnacht. Yet it is you who best reflect the perpetrators of that evening, you are the destroyers of nations, races, religions, creeds and cultures. You spread fear, hatred and suspicion. If Stalin and Hitler were alive today they would embrace you as brothers.

Begone. You can still walk away, just. Leave it too long and the entire continent will be chasing you, and it will get damn ugly. It is no more than you deserve, but unlike you, I have the qualities of humanity and compassion. Perhaps even forgiveness.

Take the opportunity and leave. Now.

Also available on thesnowolf.com

This couldn't have come at a worse time.

I'll let you in to a little secret. I don't like petrol and diesel. It is dirty, dangerous, expensive and props up some pretty horrible regimes. It is also finite, the world economy is hitched to a resource which has a limited life. To be so dependent on one commodity is madness.

So when I see this, it gives me cause for hope:

British scientists 'invent artificial petrol' that could cost just 90p per GALLON (and there's no carbon).

Great stuff. Nice to see we're still good at something in this country. It is possible that this could have a groundshaking effect on our way of life.

Artificial petrol that costs 19p per litre could be on forecourts in as little as three years.

British scientists are refining the recipe for a hydrogen-based fuel that will run in existing cars and engines at the fraction of the cost of conventional petrol.

With hydrogen at its heart rather than carbon, it will not produce any harmful emissions when burnt, making it better for the environment, as well as easier on the wallet.

The first road tests are due next year and, if all goes well, the cut-price ‘petrol’ could be on sale in three to five years.

It really would be fantastic news for most people. The benefits to the individual's pocket are obvious, for industry, the reduction in costs is just as beneficial. It will bring prices down at the point of delivery of raw materials, it will do the same for transporting the finished goods from factory to the marketplace. It will reduce prices at the marketplace, but will allow an increase in profit margin once those savings have been factored in. Lower petrol prices are good news for everyone, except the petrol producers. That is another benefit, the production of a viable synthetic alternative to oil based fuels will break the chokehold that OPEC has on the world.

Even the greens will be happy.

Or will they?

For true environmentalists this has surely got to be a bit of welcome news. For the normal member of the public who is a Friends of the Earth member, for example, they will no doubt be delighted at the reduction of carbon emissions. I don't buy into the whole AGW theory, but many do, and if this satisfies those people, then it satisfies me.

But for the big ecoloons, the ones who lobby governments and influence policy, this is very bad news as the public are about to learn the truth.

The reason petrol and diesel is so expensive in the UK at the moment is not because of the base cost per litre, but because of the tax, and the tax on that tax, that is imposed by the government. We are told that one of the main reasons for this tax is because of the damage to the environment which using petrol and diesel causes.


Quite how handing large amounts of un-ringfenced cash to a wasteful, inefficient and duplicitous State apparatus is supposed to save polar bears has never been made entirely clear. One thing that will become clear is this, once (if) the use of this fuel takes off, the government will have no option but to tax it to the same eye-watering levels as they do now.

Then the gig will be up, the public will realise that they've been played and that the ecological reasoning behind the taxation on fuel has been an excuse, and the government (of whatever colour when this stuff hits the forecourt) will blow their green credentials out of the water as they continue to harvest huge amounts of unjustified cash from the alternative to petrol that we've all been told needs to come. Meanwhile, the ecoloons will spin against and defame the new fuel, dreaming up reasons as to why it is just as evil as what went before, lest the government cut their funding. They will continue to demand the government hands over wads of our cash so they can then lobby that same government.

Oh, it may drop the price by 15p or so a litre, but more importantly than that, it will help turn the spotlight on the people who view us as revenue cows ripe for the milking.

And so it begins. . .

Doesn't take long for things to unravel, does it? And the Euro, and perhaps the EU, is starting to look like Fraudley Harrison one minute into the third round with David Haye.

The natives are getting restless in Ireland, which is encouraging as their method of showing displeasure is pretty much the same as ours. Demos in Athens are all very well, but the song has remained the same, it takes a steely determination to change the game rather than hysterical displays.

What is galling in Ireland is that despite Fianna Fail (and how apt that name seems now) managing to wave goodbye to two thirds of their market share, the locals have plumped for Sinn Fein, a party which, as far as I can make out, is as slavishly devoted to the EuroProject as any you care to mention. Just as with the SNP, they demand independence (and will kill for it) so they can hook their wagon up to an even more overpowering organisation. England may have been a bad neighbour in the past, but the EU will not rest until they become completely homogenised Europeans. No more green, no more Gaelic, no more St. Patrick's day, just the blue rag with the yellow stars.

The Portuguese and the Spanish must have very twitchy chocolate starfish. The Swedes, those paragons of social-collectivism have come out and basically said that the piggy bank is now empty. Sky have been pointing out the yield numbers on Spanish and Portuguese bonds heading north at an alarming rate as the crowd, in a panic, sprints from Dublin to Lisbon and Madrid. It will take only one member to refuse to cough up for everyone else to follow suit, although I didn't think for one moment it would be Sweden, I was thinking of the Danes or the Germans. Once a bailout is refused, the gig is up. All the little boys in the gang will get very worried, because they know that when the fecal matter collides with the rotating air-cooling device, the big hitters will sprint off towards the horizon. Indeed the Czechs are already making noises about getting the hell out of Dodge, and the Bulgarians, new boys who must be on their very bestest behaviour in the new school are grumbling as well.

True to form, the BBC are at pains to point out leaving the Euro would be like, really difficult, and y'know, really expensive. Whereas what Ireland and Greece are going through, and what looks likely for Portugal and Spain is a walk in the bloody park and as free as a bird.

Is this how empires end?

Even if this isn't the coup de gras, the EU will be so badly wounded that the merest knock could finish it off. It won't be pretty, and I'd much rather that the EU was wound up by referenda in the individual member states, but we have to be realistic, the powers that be would never allow it. What they can't control is the markets and the markets do not like what they see. This isn't down to a financial accident, it isn't bad luck, the whole show has been built on a foundation of sand and the hope that nobody realises the Emperor is striding around bollock naked. What the EU mandarins want, almost as much as complete, unaccountable power, is cash. Without cash they cannot feather their own beds or grease palms and hand out bribes to their drones.

Make the EU bleed to death financially. I'll not be mourning.

To get all geeky for a moment, this reminds me of the Genesis planet in Star Trek 3. Created by accident when the Genesis device goes off in a battle, Ceti Alpha 5 is transformed in an instant into a habitable planet, only to tear itself apart a few months later because of the instability of the 'ingredients' in the device. Sounds like the EU to me, in geo-political terms it was cooked up in an afternoon and will fall apart just as quickly. It is unfortunate that this result in great discomfort for many people.

So obsessed have the Manadarins been with rushing headlong to the gate marked 'Statehood' that they've built a shack, and what happens to a shack when it suffers a direct hit from a hurricane?

Ooooooooooh, scary.

A few people have touched on the Channel 4 documentary last night 'Britain's Trillion Pound Horror Story'.

For many, (and if you haven't watched it, the above link is to the 4OD showing, aren't I nice?) the revelations will come as a big shock. No shock here. Although I was surprised to see that the government of the 'liberal', 'democratic', 'free market' United Kingdom actually controls more of its domestic economy than their counterparts in PR China.

It is all over, the only question is do you have the cojones to rip the plaster off, or will you let the wound fester under the infected dressing?

The only person who can make that decision is you. I'll give you a hint; next time you are asked, if you vote Conservative, Lib Dem, Labour, Green, BNP, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Sinn Fein, Ulster Unionist or pretty much anyone else, you'll be laying out the welcome mat for gangrene.

There is an alternative, but if you won't be brave, why should anyone else?

Actually, forget it. Sell your kids into penury, bankrupt your childrens' children. Who cares, eh? X-Factor is on tomorrow night, that's much more important.

The One That Might Have Been Wrong. . .

Now the priest has his body bowed over the death bed of this rotten parliament and is giving the last rites I've been asking myself what the single most important issue surrounding this election is.

For some it will be immigration, for others it will be education, or Europe, or the expenses scandal, or the erosion of civil liberties in the face of an ever more pervasive state. Without doubt these are all hugely important issues, but I think the stand out one for most people will be the economy. It really does all come down to the bottom line, and it was ever thus in the dying days of a Labour administration.

Normally most people will look to the Tories to effect some kind of rescue, and to give the Tories their due, normally they are not afraid to take the action, however unpopular, to remedy the situation. Thatcher is an easy hate figure and is a demonic visage conjured up with alarming regularity by Labour. But she couldn't have been all bad, she did after all win all those elections.

The big difference this time round is that the Tories do not have anyone who embodies her traits. Cameron is as close to being like Thatcher as I am to being like Barbara Cartland. The electorate look at the Tories and do not see any radical difference between Cameron and Blair.

What is beyond doubt is that Brown is despised. A more unpopular leader in the history of this country I struggle to think of. Perhaps King John? I don't know. But it is painfully obvious that the public just have not taken to Cameron. It could be him as a person, it could be his policies, but I think it really boils down to people having no faith that he will be much better than Brown.

I do have faith that Cameron would be better than Brown. But that is akin to selecting death by stoning over death by crucifixion. I'd rather not have either, but if I absolutely have to have one, then let's go with the rocks, eh?

The Lib Dems of course have a complete non-entity at the helm, I'm not convinced even his wife can remember his name. We can discount them getting any serious gains in this election.

Or can we?

I've been very harsh on the Lib Dems. And with good reason. They are neither Liberal nor Democratic and are wrong, wrong, wrong on pretty much every subject you care to name. And they simper. If it is one thing I cannot stand, it is simpering. Wossisname's pep-talk to the troops on Sky News this morning was cringe inducing. He has all the charisma of an over laundered vest.

But the Lib Dems have a significant ace in the hole.

Let's look at the right hand men, shall we? If the election is to be all about the economy, then the guys who have designs on being the Chancellor come May 7th are going to play a huge part in this election.

Darling is done, spent. He and Brown have overseen a disastrous spell in charge of the bank account. Even if you don't trust the Tories, only a madman would consider that Labour have done a good job with the finances.

Osborne, just doesn't have that zing. Labour will play very strongly on the toff angle. It's lazy but I think they're punches that will connect, and to be honest, there is a slight hint of truth about it. Osborne just doesn't seem like the normal bloke on the street. He's another Tory character that it is difficult to warm to. He doesn't inspire confidence, and I think what people expect to hear from the Tories, what they want to hear is that the Tories would stop taking so much of your cash, and stop spending so much of your cash. We ain't going to hear that from this lot. Not this time.

And so we finish with Vince Cable. I don't think he's got a great deal to offer, although it's hard to tell. The Lib Dems specialise in 'blue sky thinking', trotting out plans and policies they know will never come to pass, and so it doesn't really matter, it doesn't have to add up. But, and here's the big but, Vince Cable has a certain cache, he is widely respected by the media and the public. He looks like the sort of person who has a shovel purse. He manages to be avuncular and parsimonius at the same time, the sort of chap who, when his grandson asks him for 50p for sweets, would open his shovel purse, examine the contents, ruffle the youngster's hair and then give him 30p. In short, he projects the sort of image you'd want a Chancellor of the Exchequer to have and his credibility is far, far ahead of Darling and Osborne. I expect him to be very busy indeed over the next month, and the Lib Dems, if they've any sense will give him a lot of airtime flying solo, rather than just standing behind, errrrm, no, his name's gone, that bloke that leads the Lib Dems, his shoulder.

They won't win. They won't even come close. But with a late and well planned attack with Vince at the front, they could actually make some impressive gains as the economy forces its way up the agenda. Quite who will suffer the most damage as a result of this is anyone's guess.

I really think we're in for a very interesting time indeed.

The One That Is Face-Palming. . .

I despair, I really do despair. Even with my tenuous grasp of economics I understand that this is utter, utter nonsense.

The working week should be cut to 21 hours to help boost the economy and improve quality of life.

And who came up with this excellent idea?

The New Economics Foundation.

Who?

a left-wing think tank.

Ah. Right-ho.

the reduction in hours would help to ease unemployment and overwork.

No, no it wouldn't. Well, it'd cerainly ease overwork, because no-one would be working. The simple truth of the matter is that unemployment would shoot through the roof.

Why?

Well, one of two things would have to happen.

A: People would expect to be paid what they are paid now. Read as: Rabid Socialists with no grasp of market economics would demand and legislate for businesses shutting the fuck up and paying people exactly what they are paid now, whilst in a single stroke doubling the size of their workforce and all the associated costs in training, HR and equality issues etc, etc. The result? Private business would disappear. Unemployment goes through the roof, the burden on the public purse stretches past tolerance levels, the country goes bankrupt, gangs of very, very angry people start roaming the streets to kill and steal.

B: People will not only halve their hours, but will also halve their incomes. People will have no disposable income, they will not be able to afford food, prescription charges, fuel for their cars. Retail business in this country will fall apart as people simply would not have any money to spend. They will default on their mortgages and fail to make rent payments. Evictions and repossessions would spiral out of control. The result? Unemployment goes through the roof, the burden on the public purse stretches past tolerance levels, the country goes bankrupt, gangs of very, very angry people start roaming the streets to kill and steal.

Heres' the kicker:

The foundation's policy director Andrew Simms added: "A cultural shift will throw up real challenges (no shit, like survival for example - Wolfers), but there could also be massive benefits for our economy (like it would cease to exist - Wolfers), our quality of life (we could go back to hunter gathering - Wolfers) and our planet (we'd all be dead in ten years - Wolfers).

"After all, hands up who wouldn't like a four day weekend?"

I'm sorry? Are you really, really advocating a return to the three day week?

Fuck me backwards over a yak with a pineapple and goose fat, they really are completely, completely mad. This goes beyond normal throwing a nokia, nose-mining loopiness, this is full on destructive, murderous, criminal insanity. If you think you can stomach it, the whole suggestion is detailed here, although as suggestions go it seems to be as inviting to me as being asked if I'd like to put my genitals in a food-blender.

The One That Is Asking 'What Is WRONG With These People?'. . .

I was scrolling through BBC teletext this evening. I don't have a screen capture of it, but thankfully it is reproduced to a lesser extent on their website.

The first story on the news page (101) on BBC teletext is entirely predictable:

Darling 'must cut £36bn', IFS think tank says.

Fair enough.

Scroll to page two and the top story says:

UK to have dedicated space agency.

Errrrrrm. Guys? Hello? HELLO! Anyone home?

For crying out loud. . .

The One That Thinks That's A Really Good Idea . . .

One of the more easily indentifiable indicators of a recession is that businesses close down. That may come as a shock to you. We've seen Woolworths, MFI, Adams, Xavvi, Whittards and a number of other shops close for business, and it happened without the government pouring billions of pounds of our money into them.

It is a shame, but that's the world. Everything must come to an end, and for whatever reason these retailers have run their course. There is an opportunity here to turn this into a positive result. For years now we've been hearing about the indenti-kit High Street, from Perth to Penzance every High Street in the country is a carbon copy of the other, although rather than indentical shops selling identical goods, they're now indentical plateglass windows pasted with indentical whitewash.

I'd like to see some incentive for independent retailers to go in and take these premises on, a tax break or somesuch. Nobody likes to see shops empty and with their windows whitened out, and giving a local indie the chance to go in and get a crack of the whip, I think, just adds a bit of character to the High Street, and makes it a more interesting place to be.

Whilst I'd like to see the locals given a chance to regenerate their own local economy, give some training and skills to local workers with the proper chance to learn how to run a business, rather than relying on head office to do it all, what I don't want is for these local indies to be beholden to the local authorities. A new business is like a new fire, you need to start off with delicate twigs and leaves to get it going, chuck bloody great logs on it from the get-go and you'll just snuff the flame out. Unfortunately the public sector doesn't do delicate and subtle, it would only offer help with huge the logs of conditions regarding diversity training, targets, inspections and mountains of paperwork. They wouldn't stand a chance.

So, local authorities won't be doing anything to help get the money flowing around the High Street. Indeed the Local Government Association (I can feel the veins sticking out on my head already) has decided to do just the opposite, Al-Beeb reports that:

It is calling for new powers to allow town halls to temporarily use shops as sites for community projects.

Councils fear the derelict buildings could become hotspots for anti-social behaviour and cause further decline.

Oh, Jesus, here we go. . .

The LGA wants to make it easier and cheaper to use the premises for libraries, youth clubs, training centres and bring-and-buy sales.

Give me strength.

Bring and fucking buy sales? That'll have people tearing down the street, won't it? For crying out loud, what is wrong with these idiots? So you're going to spend huge amounts of taxpayers money to rent these premises, pay people to stand around in them and to go on community inclusion social diversity outreach courses, to be glorified open day exhibition stands.

Libraries? What? Do you not already have libraries? Or did you close it? And why did you close it? Because no-one was going in there. (Why that is, is a different story altogether)

Youth Clubs? Leave that to the communities, to the parents. On the High Street? You must be bloody barking. Then to train all the new people in child protection and blah blah blah, and then youth club kicks out at 8pm on a Friday night and it's on the Hight Street, next to the Yates' Wine Lodge? C'mon can't you see what is going to happen?

Training centres? What the fuck is a training centre? Oh, you mean like a school or college? Well surely you've already got them? Why do you need to open a centre to train people when they've already been to school and/or college? Is it because they don't learn anything of any bloody value whilst they're in there? So we have some nightmarish version of a training centre run by people like Pauline and her bloody pens from League of Gentlemen.

All that money spent and no tangible or economic benefit to the community at all. Still people persist in the opinion that Government has all the answers. They don't, it isn't a magic wand. Government cannot take over the personalities of those who work there. They are just as clueless, lazy and an incompetent as you and me, these qualities do not get magically washed away when they walk into the civic centre. Don't give me all that guff about excellence and blah blah blah, if they were that good, they'd be running a flourishing business, not opening bloody training centres telling people how to do it.

The One That Wishes It Were True. . .

I've not said much on the continuing economic situation, this is for a number of reasons. Mainly because I am not an economist, to be honest the theory behind all this makes my brain hurt, I just do not understand the details.

Sometimes the fog clears and I have a moment of something approaching clarity, this afternoon I have had one of those moments. I've just been watching Sky News and apparently McBroon has said that the UK 'can and should be a beacon of light' in these troubled times.

Well, I'm sorry, I don't get it. You can stand there and point at a pile of shite saying it is a pile of golden coins sat on a silver platter until you are blue in the face, it does not alter the fact that it is a pile of shite.

From my simplistic point of view, we have this week seen Woolworth and MFI go to the wall. What the fuck? Are there two bigger names in the UK retail sector? Gone, winked out of existence. I know that MFI have a rep for producing furniture made out of cardboard that falls apart when you look at it, and Woolies is the place where you can get anything you want, unless you need to get something specific, but this is a serious indicator of something.

HBOS were on the brink, Northern Rock saved at the very last minute, a run on a bank, in what we are told is the 4th biggest economy in the world or somesuch.

We have Richard Branson, telling us that 'the economy is fucked.' I've never travelled on his trains, but I've been on his planes and shopped in his music shops, as far as I'm concerned, this guy has some idea what he's talking about.

We now have a government which as of the end of last month, borrowed £16bn. Does that amount of money even exist? If we added up all the coins and banknotes that the Bank of England issued would it add up to that? I don't think so, and if I understand it correctly, we are due to print more cash. Well what is that based on? Didn't Gordon sell a shit-load of our gold at the bottom of the market? What connects these banknotes to something tangible? I was told as a kid that if I took a fiver along to Threadneedle St, then a man in a pinstripe suit and bowler hat would have to give me £5 worth of gold if I demanded it. I've just looked at a £10 note it says 'I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of Ten Pounds' it's signed by some bloke called Andrew Bailey, the chief cashier.

Well, £10 of what? Fresh air? Printing more money? Isn't this what happened in inter-war Germany and just recently in Zimbabwe? Fucking Hellski, as DK would put it, I don't even own a wheelbarrow, should I buy one to move my valueless banknotes around in?

How the hell do we pay off £16bn? That's very nearly €350. And this is the problem, as the £ plummets against the €, we're told it is good for export? What are we exporting beyond stag parties to Riga who now faint at the cost of a Latvian pint? What do we make that people want? As far as I can make out, we have one chap selling imaginary money to another bloke, who pays the first chap with more imaginary money he got from a different imaginary source. How the hell that does work? What happens when (like now) no-one wants to buy our imaginary money any more?

And now we look towards those who are taking the piss, Tata, the Indian firm who are the owners of Jaguar want a £1bn bail out, but then fork out Lord knows how much to stick their name on the side of the Ferrari F1 car for next season (H/T to OH). I've been in a Tata truck, believe me, it is hard to imagine anything further removed from a Ferrari.

I understand that everyone across the globe has it tough, although I don't understand what event has brought this situation to a head, but as far as I can see we are not well placed to deal with it, we are well placed for a longer, harder time than most people anywhere else. I also understand that for the last ten years our prosperity has all been down to Gordon's prudent stewardship, except for the last year when it has been a global problem.

In prosperity we were in glorious isolation under the guidance of an economic genuis, in poverty it's nothing to do with him. When do we start blaming the Jews or the Romans as our former colonial masters? It was good enough for Hitler and Mugabe.

Me? I've got a €5 note in my wallet, I'm going to buy some land, some sheep and hire some Kiwi farmers and some Dutch weavers. It worked in the 16th Century and people will always need clothes and food. If no-one buys it, at least I won't be cold and hungry. . .