Strictly European. - Page 2

Originally Posted by FineTunes





Now they are really going to get mad.

UPDATE:

The French Senate has passed a controversial pension reform bill, which has caused a series of strikes and protests around France.

Originally Posted by segovius

Gotta love the French - Neo-Nazis get second in the polls, ghettos outside Paris, wars, murders, French 'culture' stinking like a 10-month old moules marineiere and the only thing that gets them protesting is 2 years onto a retirement age that is 5-7 years lower than anywhere else in Europe.

Originally Posted by jazzguru

France: Strikes costing up to $557 million per day

Originally Posted by segovius

Don't worry...the Tea Party are working on it.

Originally Posted by trumptman

Quoted for future reference. We don't want all the fearmongering to be edited away in the future. You might become like Jimmac with his elections have consequences and Republicans are now a regional party that won't see a majority or win an election for a generation "cycles" predictions that he now all conveniently forgotten.

Kosovo is faced with having to rebuild its young government after the nation's ruling coalition today received a "no confidence vote. That triggers snap elections in December, the first since the Balkan state declared independence in 2008.

The Kosovo assembly voted to disband itself in a 66-1 vote.

The crisis was set in motion when Prime Minister Hashim Thacis main coalition partner, former President Fatmir Sejdiu's Democratic League of Kosovo, or LDK, quit the 120-member assembly. Mr. Sejdiu left office Sept. 27 after a constitutional court, which included US, Bulgarian, and Portuguese judges, voted that he could not simultaneously serve as his political party's president. His party did not show up to vote today....

A number of new parties are expected to join the elections scheduled for Dec. 12 and will challenge an electorate that has soured on government corruption.

This is the end of a discredited government that has literally brought itself down with a lack of proper development for the country, says Ilir Deda, head of the New Spirit Party. We now find a climate for change has been created, and the December vote will show where we are headed for the next decade.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 under considerable controversy and strain and Serbia has steadily challenged that declaration even as the US and 22 of 27 EU members have recognized it.

Last summer the World Court at the Hague said Kosovos declaration was legal; and in September Serbia agreed to stop contesting Kosovos status at the United Nations. (Last week the EU in Brussels signaled the first clear green light for Serbias accession to the EU.)....

Universities in England will be able to charge tuition fees of up to £9,000 per year, as the government transfers much of the cost of courses from the state to students.

Fees will rise to £6,000 - with an upper tier of £9,000, if universities ensure access for poorer students.....

PARIS President Nicolas Sarkozy of France reappointed François Fillon the countrys prime minister and named a new, more rightist cabinet on Sunday, a day after Mr. Fillon and the previous government resigned....

With Mr. Sarkozys poll ratings at record lows 18 months before the next presidential election, the cabinet reshuffle is intended to re-energize and reunite the governing center-right party, to put together a more politically coherent group that can push through budget cuts and other changes.

Last summer Mr. Sarkozy showed a clear rightward shift in government policies, especially on law and order, and on immigration. There were campaigns against criminality among immigrant youth in the poorer banlieues, or suburbs; orders to the police to break up illegal encampments of Roma and traveling people; and a move to deport Romanian and Bulgarian Roma who had overstayed their visas in France.

Mr. Sarkozy also won a major victory by pushing through a change in the pension law that showed voters and the financial markets that he would make difficult and unpopular decisions in an effort to reduce government deficits.

Traditionally a major cabinet reshuffle occurs midway through the five-year presidential term, but Mr. Sarkozy decided to wait until he could sign the new pension changes, which set off weeks of demonstrations and strikes, into law. He also broke with tradition by reappointing Mr. Fillon, who is popular inside the party and whose national favorability ratings are higher than the presidents.

The country's deficit last year stood at 15.4% of its annual economic output, said Eurostat, the European Union's statistics office.

This is higher than the 13.6% figure reported in April.

Due to the revision, Greece said its 2010 deficit would only be cut to 9.4%, not its earlier target of 7.8%.

It comes as Athens is continuing efforts to reduce the deficit through austerity measures that have sparked protests from workers.

The Greek government is also being visited by EU and International Monetary Fund officials on Monday, who will decide whether to release more funds.

Greece is seeking the third part of its 110bn-euros ($150bn; £93bn) rescue deal, which was arranged in May.

The European Union is in a "survival crisis" over eurozone debt problems, the EU Council president has warned.

Irish Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan has said he expects the Irish Republic to accept a "very substantial loan" as part of an EU-backed bail-out.

The UK's information commissioner has said that wi-fi data accidentally collected by Google's Street View cars will be deleted within the next nine months

The story of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Jewish musician and composer who struggled to survive the Warsaw ghetto, was made into the Oscar-winning 2002 movie "The Pianist."

Now a new book in Poland about a cabaret singer with whom Szpilman worked alleges that the pianist collaborated with the Gestapo to survive. The Szpilman family calls the accusation outrageous, and his son is taking legal action to try to stop the book.

About the only thing that Szpilman's family and the biographer of cabaret singer Wiera Gran agree on is that the two Jewish musicians were once colleagues and played together at a café in the Warsaw ghetto in German-occupied Poland.

The café was an important meeting place, an oasis of elegance in brutal times. The two played together until the café was closed by the Nazis after the first Warsaw uprising in 1942. After the war, they had a major falling out when Szpilman accused Gran of collaborating with the Nazis. Gran worked for the rest of her life with only limited success to try to clear her name. There was never any hard evidence she collaborated. They were mostly rumors.

Now a new biography of the cabaret singer titled "Accused: Vera Gran" by Polish journalist Agata Tuszynska says Gran long believed it was Szpilman, in fact, who worked with the occupiers. In the book, Gran calls Szpilman "a Gestapo man" and makes other charges including that he once worked for the Nazi-controlled Jewish police rounding up Jews....

Originally Posted by Frank777

Thatcher saw it all coming, and tried her best to stop it.

Originally Posted by Frank777

That's the kind of retarded analysis we've come to expect from your side Sego.

The fact is (and which you refuse to address) is that Thatcher's 1993 biography laid out how the problem of European monetary policy was doomed to suffer a catastrophic economic failure.

The current PIGS crisis vindicates her analysis and stance on the Euro. In return, all you have are insults.

Originally Posted by Frank777

While it's true the world's major currency's are all part of a similar basketcase (and a shadow currency war that is bordering on insane) Thatcher's point was that the European situation would be seriously endangered by a one-size-fits-all monetary policy that doesn't take into account the diverse economies that are in the mix.

Your comment only makes her analysis seem more correct. If you dump the PIGS overboard, does that make the overall European situation better or worse?

Originally Posted by segovius

Better...obviously.

Originally Posted by trumptman

How do you reconcile the insanity that notes that all the countries you want to dump overboard are following your worldview with regard to spending and the public sector and all the countries you want to keep are being run by that horrid and rising tide of rightists?

Originally Posted by segovius

I think it is more simplistic than that: it so happens that all the countries that are failing - whether they are in the Euro or not - happen to be following the Chicago School of Economics 'rampant unfettered markets' model.

Originally Posted by segovius

I think it is more simplistic than that: it so happens that all the countries that are failing - whether they are in the Euro or not - happen to be following the Chicago School of Economics 'rampant unfettered markets' model.

So in this case it has gone slightly beyond the political Right and is a case of treating the patient's insanity (or perhaps isolating society from the madness if it turns out to be incurable)...

When the patient is cured - or nullified - then we can discuss political allegiance.

As it is not we have a situation that needs dealing with where the lunatics have control of the ambulance and are jumping every red light at 90 in a built-up School zone.

Best to deal with this first...

Originally Posted by segovius

Better...obviously.

Russia's lower house of parliament has approved a resolution recognizing that Josef Stalin's regime was responsible for the 1940 massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers, signaling a thawing of relations between Poland and Russia, state media reported.....

MIDDLE class families are among millions of Britons who cannot afford to heat their homes this winter, as elderly ride on buses all day to stay in the warm.

After a week of snow and freezing temperatures a shocking picture has emerged of the bleak months ahead for 5.5 million households.

Pensioners, who are among those most vulnerable to the cold, are resorting to extraordinary measures to keep warm.

Many have been using their free travel passes to spend the day riding on buses while others are seeking refuge from the cold in libraries and shopping centres.

About half of the people forced to spend over 10 per cent of their income on energy bills – the official definition of fuel poverty – are aged over 60.

But working families also face a tough time meeting the cost of keeping the central heating turned on as fuel prices continue to rise.

Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at price comparison service uswitch.com, said: “Middle-class households are now in fuel poverty.”

National Energy Action estimates that 5.5 million households will have plunged into fuel poverty by early next year due to price rises.

This is up 400,000 on the group’s last estimate and represents 21 per cent of the UK’s 26 million households.

Originally Posted by jazzguru

BRITAIN IS FREEZING TO DEATH

But at least nobody is going bankrupt in Britain due to medical bills.

Originally Posted by jazzguru

BRITAIN IS FREEZING TO DEATH

But at least nobody is going bankrupt in Britain due to medical bills.

Originally Posted by Mumbo Jumbo

This has nothing to do with the cost of the NHS, which the nation can afford. That isn't an issue anywhere in the world apart from in certain sections of extremely right wing America, apparently. Thanks for your concern, but relax. Britain can afford the NHS.

I think if Britain can afford to give the banks £850 billion it can afford the 7 billion the NHS costs, don't you?

Oh, I forgot. We've been over this before and facts don't matter to you.

Originally Posted by Mumbo Jumbo

This has nothing to do with the cost of the NHS, which the nation can afford. That isn't an issue anywhere in the world apart from in certain sections of extremely right wing America, apparently. Thanks for your concern, but relax. Britain can afford the NHS.

I think if Britain can afford to give the banks £850 billion it can afford the 7 billion the NHS costs, don't you?

Oh, I forgot. We've been over this before and facts don't matter to you.

Originally Posted by Hands Sandon

Most things die back or simply die off completely in harsh winters. For those in their dying years, the cold typically finishes them off.

Originally Posted by Frank777

It's going to be interesting to see how the left side of the board reacts to this.

Because we all know what would happen if a conservative on the board said something this callous.

Originally Posted by Frank777

It's going to be interesting to see how the left side of the board reacts to this.

Because we all know what would happen if a conservative on the board said something this callous.

Originally Posted by jazzguru



People in your country are literally freezing to death because of ridiculously high energy prices. NHS (which is broke and running a deficit) doesn't do much for people who are dead.

Energy minister Greg Barker admitted last week that the system to deal with fuel poverty was “completely broken” and said he was “very worried” by the NEA figures.