Whatever happens next, the Greek crisis has strained Europe to its limitsThe Greek crisis began like the proverbial cloud that was no bigger than a man’s hand and has grown into a perfect storm which has shaken Europe to its foundations. Regardless of the final outcome of the negotiations, what unfortunately can be said with certainty is that the union’s fault lines have all but burst under the pressure.Between France and Germany, between north and south and east and west in the union, and even within nations, there are now profound differences, only potential before, which it will take a long time to resolve. The past few days have seen Paris commit itself to keeping Greece in the euro and the union in a way which puts President François Hollande on a collision course with hawks in the German government, headed by the finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble. France’s mentoring of Greece as that country made its own final proposals did not seek an easy or soft arrangement, but nor did it envisage Greece’s reduction to the status of a debt colony, not too different from the conditions once imposed on Egypt and China in the imperial era, with foreigners in controlling positions in its economy. Continue reading...
With an emergency voting procedure potentially coming into play as eurozone splits widen, how do member states line up on the idea of expelling Greece?
Multinationals were probably waiting for result of British referendum on EU before deciding where to locate, says head of Irish investment authorityGlobal corporations will think twice about investing in the UK while uncertainty reigns over Britain’s European Union membership, according to the head of the Irish state body that has attracted Apple, Microsoft and Google to Ireland.Appealing to the UK to remain within the EU, Martin Shanahan, chief executive of the Republic’s Industrial Development Authority, said “it would be naive†if overseas investors were not factoring in the possibility of the British leaving the EU when deciding where to locate new factories and plants.
by Jennifer Rankin and Ian Traynor in Brussels on (#E397)
Alexis Tsipras remains hopeful for compromise but opinion is divided as France seeks agreement but Germany retains tough stance in climate of bailout mistrustEuropean leaders have started emergency talks in Brussels that could prove decisive for Greece’s future in the eurozone, amid signs of a split between the country’s creditors.Although billed as the last chance to secure “the ultimate agreement†on the Greek debt crisis, a grand political bargain to keep Greece in the eurozone are far from assured. Continue reading...
The extraordinary recent boom-bust trading pattern appears to have been halted, but China’s growth model has to change and become less reliant on investmentThe numbers are mind-boggling. Ten days of falls on the Shanghai stock exchange resulted in losses that exceeded the GDP of Mexico. And 12 million Chinese citizens who opened share-trading accounts in May were nursing potentially ruinous losses. Margin trading – speculating on the stock exchange with borrowed money – increased five-fold in a year to 2.3tn yuan (£230bn).While Europe’s focus has been the crisis in Greece, the Chinese stock market has been gripped by panic. The value of shares went up by 150% in little more than a year, then fell by 50% in just a few weeks. Continue reading...
In recession since 2006, the island is grappling with supermarket items 21% higher than the US average – even as 41% live in povertyPuerto Rico is in a severe fiscal crisis due to its $72bn in debt, which its governor recently declared was “not payableâ€. It has been in recession since 2006, with a generally contracting economy creating an unemployment rate of about 12-13% compared to the US rate of 5.5% and about a 41% poverty rate compared to the US’s 14.3%. While the island is dotted with US chain stores like Walmart and Walgreens – amounting to the largest concentration of those stores in the world – residents face high costs for many necessities, while earning a remarkably low per capita income of about $19,000 per year, half the US average.
by Ian Traynor and Jennifer Rankin in Brussels on (#E2G7)
Pressure building on Merkel and Hollande as currency bloc’s leaders enter last-chance summit amid cancellation of wider EU talksGreece debt crisis: EU leaders’ meeting cancelled with no deal in sight - liveEurope braced itself for its most fateful day in years on Sunday as presidents, prime ministers, and chancellors congregated in Brussels for a summit to decide whether Greece remains in the euro single currency.Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, cancelled an emergency full summit of the 28 countries that was to deal with the fallout from Greece’s ejection, in order to give eurozone leaders a last chance to reach an accord saving Greece and forestalling what would be a devastating schism sowing deep resentment and division between Europe’s leaders. Continue reading...
MPs will not accept any new bailout deal for Greece, public broadcaster Yle says, meaning ministers’ hands are tied in crunch Brussels negotiationsFinland’s parliament has decided it will not accept any new bailout deal for Greece, media reports said Saturday, piling on pressure as eurozone finance ministers tried to find a way out of the impasse.
The chancellor delivered a budgetary masterclass in how to dish your opponents and discomfit your rivalsThe envy of rivals is the highest compliment that is paid to political success. Since George Osborne delivered his budget to a rapturous reception from Tory MPs, Boris Johnson has been wearing the tortured smile of a man who has swallowed a wasp and is trying to look happy about it. He was compelled to laugh along when he was the butt of a joke in the chancellor’s speech. He had to pretend to approve when a national living wage, one of his pet causes, was appropriated by his competitor for the Tory crown, as the chancellor sought to divert attention from the scythe he was taking to in-work benefits. Overall, the backbencher for Uxbridge and the rest of the Tory party were given a masterclass in what a powerful chancellor can do to disorient his external opponents, eclipse his internal enemies, set the political weather and promote himself.Interestingly, the green-eyed monster can also be glimpsed at Number 10. Friends of the prime minister sound a little put out that so many plaudits have been showered on the next-door neighbour. They want to establish some ownership of the budget for the prime minister. One of his allies is keen for it to be known that “they built it together from the ground upâ€. David Cameron may also be getting irritated when he hears people say – and this is often said by ministers – that the next-door neighbour is the most powerful man in government. Continue reading...
After two world wars, a mere currency must not be allowed to derail a grand European project that has been decades in the makingThe seemingly endless eurozone crisis is coming to a head, but it won’t be completely over in the near future. In the meantime, it has unquestionably precipitated the most serious challenge to the idea of a unified Europe since the Second World War. The common currency, which was dreamed up to drive integration forward, has become a source of strain that threatens to tear apart the eurogroup and mortally weaken the EU itself. It is therefore not surprising that many people see this – for good or bad – as an existential struggle for the soul of Europe.Whatever happens with Greece, the way its debt has been fought over during the past five years has revealed the shallowness of any sense of political solidarity across the continent and the limited legitimacy of the EU’s political institutions. The Greeks complain about German meanness, the Germans about Greek profligacy; the French and Italians are driven by the worry that if Greece goes they may be next; while across eastern Europe people are asking why their money should go to prop up a standard of living in Athens that remains several notches higher than their own. Continue reading...
The chancellor of the exchequer claims he wants to double exports by 2020, but his budget gives little indication as to how that might happenIncomes per head in the west have grown by broadly 40 times over the past 250 years. Economic historians compete with each other for explanations, though none but the very idiosyncratic argues that the key determinant was tight control of the national debt . Rather, the driver is a combination of institutions, rule of law and competition that best fosters human beings exploiting the astonishing and unfolding fruits of science, technology, ingenuity and innovation.In this context, George Osborne’s simultaneously much lauded and deplored “big budget†last week is largely irrelevant, if not actively unhelpful. His book-keeper’s obsession with boxing the economy and society into whatever shape will best deliver a budget surplus by the end of the decade while preserving as much party advantage as possible will damage the country he purports to serve. Lower tax and lower welfare may be desirable for ideological purposes, but any linkage they may have with high wages, greater productivity or investment is at best indirect, at worst, barely existent. Mr Osborne is selling both party and country a false prospectus. Continue reading...
Whatever happens in Athens and Brussels to resolve the Greek crisis, Germany’s chancellor faces growing criticism at homeOn Friday night, millions of Germans sat down to watch the TV political comedy The Icedancer, about a German chancellor whose husband whisks her away on holiday to escape the stress of conflict in Ukraine and the Greek crisis. On the way to catch their train, she is knocked on the head by a falling signpost and wakes believing she is living in the runup to the fall of the Berlin Wall.It’s unlikely that Angela Merkel would wish to return to the cold war era. But the chance to turn the clock back to a time before the Greek euro crisis dominated her chancellorship is something she might have relished this past week. The German leader has faced the biggest test of her almost decade-long tenure in the days leading up to last night’s dramatic debate on whether to bail Greece out again or to cut it loose from the eurozone. Continue reading...
Shops and cafes are nearly deserted and small firms are shedding jobs. Now business owners fear there are only two choices: more austerity, or a brutal existence outside the eurozoneGreece has become so gloomy that even escapism no longer sells, the editor of the celebrity magazine OK! admits. “All celebrity magazines have to pretend everything is great, everyone is happy and relaxed, on holiday. But it is not,†says Nikos Georgiadis.Advertising has collapsed by three-quarters, the rich and famous are in hiding because no one wants to be snapped enjoying themselves – and even if OK! did have stories, a ban on spending money abroad means it is running out of the glossy Italian paper that the magazine is printed on. Continue reading...
Drama in Athens reflects a bigger truth: precarious countries across the globe owe trillions of dollars to lenders and investors who must be repaidWith its shuttered banks, furious public protests and iconoclastic politicians, the plight of Greece, brought to its knees by a crippling debt burden, has been gripping and heartbreaking in equal measure: a full-blown sovereign debt crisis on the doorstep of some of the wealthiest countries in the world.Yet new analysis by the Jubilee Debt Campaign reveals that Greece’s plight is far from unique: more than 20 other countries are also wrestling with their own debt crises. Many more, from Senegal to Laos, lie in a debt danger zone, where an economic downturn or a sudden jump in interest rates on world debt markets could lead to disaster. Continue reading...
External debts and war have pushed Kiev to the brink while the Caribbean island is suffering because of terms of trade engagement with the USGreece is not the only place in the world that is close to bankruptcy: Ukraine and Puerto Rico are also in serious trouble. Ukraine is now under the wing of the International Monetary Fund while Puerto Rico, a US territory that must get past the US Congress to deal with its creditors, is in freefall. Continue reading...
by Jennifer Rankin in Brussels and Nadia Khomami on (#E0C8)
IMF chief Christine Lagarde and Eurogroup ministers express concerns about Greek ability to deliver on promised reformsTalks aimed at preventing Greece from leaving the eurozone and collapsing into bankruptcy are on a knife-edge amid widespread scepticism from the country’s creditors about whether Athens can deliver on its promises.
The 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre, the austerity crisis in Greece, the Tour de France – the best photography in news, culture and sport from around the world this week Continue reading...
by Ian Traynor in Brussels and Graeme Wearden on (#DYEQ)
Despite a big parliamentary vote in favour of a deal with its creditors, Greece could be cut loose if it fails to win over EU leaders at a weekend of summits
by Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister on (#DYEX)
Debt restructuring has always been our aim in negotiations – but for some eurozone leaders Grexit is the goalGreece’s financial drama has dominated the headlines for five years for one reason: the stubborn refusal of our creditors to offer essential debt relief. Why, against common sense, against the IMF’s verdict and against the everyday practices of bankers facing stressed debtors, do they resist a debt restructure? The answer cannot be found in economics because it resides deep in Europe’s labyrinthine politics.In 2010, the Greek state became insolvent. Two options consistent with continuing membership of the eurozone presented themselves: the sensible one, that any decent banker would recommend – restructuring the debt and reforming the economy; and the toxic option – extending new loans to a bankrupt entity while pretending that it remains solvent.Europe did not know how to respond to the financial crisis. Should it prepare for an expulsion (Grexit) or a federation? Continue reading...
The chancellor’s budget was not about caring for the poor but wooing those who like to think they carePerhaps it’s unwise to admit it, but one of the challenges during a budget speech is to stop your mind from wandering. Even an address of astonishing political audacity – as George Osborne’s was – has its longueurs, its moments when the stats are coming in such a blizzard, the borrowing projections merging with the annual growth percentages, that the brain, briefly blinded, looks elsewhere.On Wednesday, mine wandered to Philadelphia. Not the city itself, but rather the Republican national convention held there in 2000. They gathered to anoint George W Bush as their nominee and laid on a spectacle that had one striking feature. Though only 4% of the delegates in the hall were black, one headline speaker after another was either African-American or from some other identifiable minority.Related: George Osborne took 'much more from the poor' in budgetOsborne has co-opted a halo brand that is not his – the living wage Continue reading...
Social Democrats mostly support Alexis Tsipras’s latest plan, but the chancellor faces mutiny within her own conservative ranks over a third bailout for GreeceGermany’s ruling coalition appears to be deeply split over Greece’s latest reform proposals ahead of a climactic meeting of EU leaders at the weekend.While senior Social Democrats (SPD), the junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, welcomed the list of concessions from the Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, members of her own conservative bloc were scathing about Greece’s position.Related: Eurozone crisis: Greek austerity plans meet warm but cautious responseRelated: Tsipras rattled his sabre until it was blunt – and for what?Related: Greek debt crisis: What's in the proposals from Athens? Continue reading...
by Emma Graham-Harrison in Athens and Angelique Chris on (#DY3B)
On the subdued streets of Athens, Greeks accept that their PM Alexis Tsipras had little choice but to make €13bn offering to creditorsGreeks who turned out in their millions to reject austerity last week seemed more resigned than angry on Friday about the government’s punishing last-minute offer to its creditors of €13bn of cuts and savings.Related: Greek debt crisis: Tsipras urges MPs to back bailout plan - liveRelated: Greeks facing day of judgment in struggle to stay in eurozone Continue reading...
As share prices rebound to record best two days since 2008, there is debate among analysts about whether the government’s action was too heavy handedAs the east coast of China was put on high alert for the approach of super-typhoon Chan-hom, it was not clear whether the financial storm that has rocked the country’s stock markets had blown itself out.Share prices rebounded to record their best two days since 2008, but many individual investors would still have been nursing big losses after the Shanghai Composite Index plunged nearly a third since its mid-June peak.It is a running joke that no one starts their real job until 3pm, when the markets closeRelated: Why is China's stock market in crisis? Continue reading...
Americans already work more than our European counterparts, but the former governor wants to enact policies to force people to work even more hoursRelated: Jeb Bush says Americans ‘need to work longer hours’ to earn moreFormer governor Jeb Bush’s announcement this week that he thinks people should work more hours puts him in direct opposition to the two leading contenders on the Democratic side – both of whom are pushing proposals that will allow people to work less. This could mean that 2016 will be an election in which work hours play a central role.
After five months of negotiations, and a dramatic referendum rejecting the demands of the country’s creditors in the EU institutions and the IMF, the Greek government has produced a set of proposals with which it hopes to find agreement in Brussels. We look at where they differ from the point at which negotiations were abandoned nearly a fortnight ago Continue reading...
Our current 20% tax rate is the lowest of the G7 countries. The money would be better spent on preserving public services that benefit citizens and businessWednesday’s budget in some ways typifies the tensions between corporate welfare and social welfare. Tax credits are a good example of a provision that falls into the categories of both corporate welfare (in that they act as a wage subsidy for employers) but also social welfare (in that they provide essential support to low-income families).Increasing wages at the lower end is good for low-paid workers, and it has the advantage of reducing the cost of in-work benefits and, potentially bringing in higher tax revenues. But it’s also likely to force up the cost of the wages bill for employers. Thus employers and employees alike are likely to lose out in the short term. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies showed yesterday, the new “living wage†will fail to compensate low-income workers from the cut in tax credits. Those who face the biggest barriers to work – the sick and disabled, and those with more than two children – exactly the types of families for whom wage supplements were originally devised, are set to be the biggest losers. Continue reading...
by Phillip Inman, Helena Smith in Athens, and Kate Co on (#DX8E)
Finance ministers receptive to package laid out by Alexis Tsipras, who faces greater challenge in getting MPs in Greece to back his proposalsEurozone finance ministers are poised to offer their tentative backing for Greek bailout proposals, after Athens caved in to creditor demands for further austerity measures in return for the promise of limited debt relief.
Five months of brinkmanship has caused untold damage to the Greek economy for no purpose whatsoeverPart tragedy. Part farce. No happy ending. The final stages of the Greek drama have begun.The tragedy is that there is no end in sight to the suffering of the Greek people. They have seen their country’s economy shrink by 25% in five years and it was already back in recession when the banks closed their doors two weeks ago. Continue reading...
Acquiescing to the troika template of austerity has resigned the Celtic Tiger to long-term damage to the economy and to repeat mistakes. Athens take noteThroughout Europe, Ireland is held up as an example for Greece: we took the pain, engaged with the troika, and worked our way out of crisis to become the fastest growing economy … or so the story goes.This myth, however, is based on much that is misunderstood and more that isn’t mentioned. It’s true that Ireland’s relationship with the troika was not contentious – for good reasons. When the troika came to Ireland, they did not have to impose a programme, hand down edicts or enforce decrees. The government had been pursuing a troika-like programme for more than two years before the three institutions – EU, IMF and ECB – arrived in December 2010.Ireland is not only not a model for Greece and other European countries; it shouldn’t even be a model for itself Continue reading...
Alexis Tsipras firmly believes the EU would not dare let Greece go. But is the prime minister right about his country’s strategic importance?The arrival in a week of more than 9,000 refugees in the Greek islands highlights the fact that Greece’s euro drama is being played out in a turbulent neighbourhood. “I have no doubt this will affect Europe, also in a geopolitical sense,†Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, told the European parliament this week.But how? Continue reading...
by Helena Smith in Athens, Graeme Wearden in London on (#DW9C)
Prime minister Alexis Tsipras has submitted proposals to European creditors for €13bn worth of cuts that include rises in taxes and pension ageStock markets have raced ahead across Europe amid renewed hopes that a deal can be reached to save Greece from crashing out of the eurozone.The Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, has submitted proposals for a harsh new round of austerity measures totalling €13bn (£9.35bn) in an attempt to break the deadlock over its bailout and is now seeking the backing of parliament in Athens.Related: Greek crisis: Markets surge after Athens submits reform plan - live Continue reading...
The measures drawn up by Alexis Tsipras and his cabinet to help broker a dealRelated: Greek crisis: Alexis Tsipras urges MPs to back bailout plan - live updatesRelated: Greece's euro drama: geopolitical concerns may have already played a role Continue reading...
Australia’s net foreign debt is on a unrelenting upward trajectory, leaving us vulnerable to the whims of foreign investorsThe sharp escalation in the level of Australia’s net foreign debt, the economic problem of years past, has the potential to unleash a wealth-destroying wave that could knock Australia down the list of rich countries.
by Phillip Inman, Graeme Wearden and Helena Smith in on (#DTX5)
Greek cabinet backs a 13-page package of reforms and spending cuts worth €13bn to secure third bailout and modest debt writeoffThe Greek government capitulated on Thursday to demands from its creditors for severe austerity measures in return for a modest debt write-off, raising hopes that a rescue deal could be signed at an emergency meeting of EU leaders on Sunday.Related: Greek crisis: Government agrees reform measures - live updates Continue reading...
But changes to bank levy and launch of new surcharge will also result in other banks – including Lloyds and RBS – paying moreHSBC and Standard Chartered – two of the UK’s biggest international banks – will pay more than £1bn less tax a year as a result of the summer budget, according to estimates from City analysts.The changes to the bank levy came just weeks after HSBC announced a formal review into whether to keep its headquarters in London or relocate abroad. HSBC had blamed the cost of the bank levy for hitting returns to shareholders.
The economics thinktank has once again identified, then costed, the gap between George Osborne’s rhetoric and realityIt all seemed to be going well for George Osborne. A confident display in the Commons. A big increase in the minimum wage. Headlines to die for in the Conservative-supporting papers.Then the Institute for Fiscal Studies came along. Over the years it has become almost a ritual, whichever party is in power, for the IFS to pick the budget to pieces. This was no exception and Osborne’s latest offering got the full treatment.Related: Budget 2015: tax credit claimants will be up to £1,000 a year worse off, says IFSRelated: Taking the measure of the ‘national living wage’ | Letters Continue reading...
The ousting of Barclays’ chief executive appears to send a clear message: banks are back to business as usual and genuine reform is as far away as everRelated: Barclays fires chief executive Antony JenkinsWhen recently sacked Barclays chief executive Antony Jenkins was appointed three years ago, he was seen by some as a sensible successor to Bob Diamond, a man widely blamed for turning Barclays from a primarily UK retail-focused organisation into a global, universal bank where systematic and illegal manipulation of Libor and foreign exchange interest rates took root. In May this year, Barclays was hit with the biggest single bank fine in UK history – £284.4m – for forex rigging as part of a total settlement with the Financial Conduct Authority and four US regulators totalling £1.5bn.Related: You need never use a bank again. Here's whyRelated: Turning RBS into local bank will protect us against next financial crisis Continue reading...
by Phillip Inman Economics correspondent on (#DSR8)
Investment in high-quality training is crucial to help youths avoid chronic long-term unemployment, says OECDYounger workers struggling to find jobs after the financial crisis risk a lifetime trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder unless governments move swiftly to improve their skills and boost investment, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).The Paris-based organisation said the global jobs recovery was slowly gathering pace, but long-term unemployment remained a headache for many countries, especially in Europe. More than one in three jobseekers in the 34 OECD countries have been out of work for 12 months or more, equivalent to 15.7m people.Related: Not in Education, Employment or Training: Europe's lost NEET generation detailed Continue reading...
Fund reduces prediction for global output from 3.5% to 3.3%, with economic outlook for for four G7 countries skewed downwardsThe International Monetary Fund has cut its global growth forecast for 2015 after a harsh winter led to a weak start in the US.In an update to its World Economic Outlook (WEO), the Washington-based IMF said it now expected global output to expand by 3.3%, down from the 3.5% it pencilled in three months ago. Continue reading...
by Šarūnas Černiauskas in Vilnius and Pauls Raudse on (#DSNQ)
In Latvia and Lithuania, pensioners and other poor people wonder why they are being asked to pay to bail out their far richer Greek counterpartsHalf a continent away from Athens, Milda is unimpressed. Watching reports of the Greek predicament on the news, the Latvian pensioner has little sympathy for her counterparts 1,800 miles to the south.“Can’t they get by on €120 a week?†she asks, referring to the latest cash limits on pensioners introduced in Greece. “Life’s less expensive down there. It’s warmer, they don’t have to pay for heating or winter boots, and fruit and vegetables must be cheaper.Related: Unsustainable futures? The Greek pensions dilemma explained Continue reading...
Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank warns that low-income workers will not be compensated by ‘living wage’ measures announced in chancellor’s budgetGeorge Osborne’s new “living wage†will fail to compensate low-income workers for the £12bn cuts in the welfare budget, some of which will leave tax credit claimants up to £1,000 a year worse off, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.In its analysis of the chancellor’s budget, the IFS said the budget was regressive, taking “much more†from the poor than the rich. IFS director Paul Johnson said: “Unequivocally, tax credit recipients in work will be made worse off by the measures in the budget on average.â€Impact of tax and benefit reforms between Jan 2010 and April 2019 (incl. universal credit): http://t.co/Gd3KOr1mA2 pic.twitter.com/LkDwX4SGzXRead the devastating @TheIFS verdict on the Budget. Then look at this picture again. Nasty Party is well & truly back pic.twitter.com/f0c7Ysfp6t Continue reading...
Democrats pounce on remark as proof Republican presidential candidate is ‘out of touch’ with ordinary AmericansJeb Bush has said Americans should have the chance to work longer hours, a remark that drew criticism from Democrats.The Republican presidential candidate said the remark was intended to highlight that an improved US economy could create more full-time jobs.Related: Clinton v Bush: America is getting the dynastic matchup it said it didn't wantJeb Bush's "Americans should work longer hours"...wow, that's a line against him for as long as he's in this race Continue reading...
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, reiterates that the global financial institution can not bend its rules when it comes to Greece. Lagarde says that Greece's massive debt will need restructuring, calling the current situation an acute crisis. France and Germany have told Greece to come up with serious proposals in order to restart financial talks with the goal of negotiating a new bailout plan Continue reading...
by Phillip Inman Economics correspondent on (#DQCQ)
More of the tax burden will be heaped on young people – stripping them of housing benefits and making them wait longer for extra childcare subsidiesIn March, George Osborne was all tough talk. To repeat one of his favourite phrases, there was a need to “fix the roof while the sun shines†– and that meant driving down public spending to create a budget surplus in 2018-19.Now the surplus can wait another year. A smoother path of austerity will ease the tension inside Whitehall and economic growth will take up the slack, lifting wages and tax receipts. Continue reading...
With austerity dividing north and south, and young and old, it’s not just mad Ukippers and odd Tories questioning the idea of a European identityTo be Eurosceptic used to mean believing all sorts of rubbish about no longer being allowed to say “two fat ladies†for 88 at the bingo and being forced to eat straight bananas. Being anti-Europe meant tutting over Euro-madness stories in the Daily Mail and railing against “human rights†in general or the metric system specifically. My grandad held out against decimalisation until his dying day. It was the beginning of the end, he reckoned.For my generation, though, being pro-Europe was as easy as getting on a cheap flight, and as the flights got cheaper, many people felt a little bit more European, in a “Wow, isn’t Barcelona great†way. We consumed the culture without asking who produced the politics. Anyway, the mantra is still that being in Europe is good for business and business is always good. The left takes for granted this kind of pro-Europe attitude. So does Cameron, in assuming a referendum to stay in Europe will easily be won with cross-party support. It’s only mad Ukippers and odd Tories and swivel-eyed Little Englanders who bang on about Europe, who refuse this modern European identity. Oh, and Tony Benn and Bob Crow, when they were alive. But let’s forget that old left tradition, shall we? Continue reading...
