What is going on in Europe? We hear that Britain is holding some protester against immigration incommunicado with all news of him quashed, Italy on the verge of civil war (figurative) because the President didn't like the result of an election, and Soros wants a new Brexit vote to help stabilize the EU. What is the real story?
Nothing really new. The struggle between Eurosceptics and Europhiles on the continent is as old as the European Union (EU) itself. There are many people, now also and partly organised in political parties, who want the European project to fail and to get back to the status quo ante of the late 1990s, i.e. to a more loosely defined EU consisting of fewer member states all having their own national currencies based on fixed exchange rates. The euro area does not seem to be working anyway due to the North-South divide in Europe. See Greece, see Italy, see Spain and the Balkan states. Some countries don't really want the EU, such as Poland, Hungary, UK. Now there are some people who are worried about the EU, e.g. Soros who wants a second Brexit referendum. Futile exercise. Italy is just as sick and tired of the EU as is Greece the main reason for that being that both countries miss solidarity and assistance in dealing with the refugee crisis. I don't see a civil war in Italy, not even a figurative one. It's always been a drag to form a government in Italy. The next elections there will be about the Euro. If Italy wants to leave the euro zone and/or the EU, in contrast to Greece, it will be pretty much left alone because its economy is too big to be bailed out by the other EU member states. My guess is that that won't happen. The five-star-movement and the league have already watered down some basic anti-EU elements of their joint government program. Despite all those economic arguments against a smaller EU, there are many good reasons for letting those go who want to, getting back to a smaller EU with a smaller euro zone within it made up of fewer countries as a so-called core Europe. Maybe it takes a big bang. Let's just see what's gonna happen.
Haven't kept up much with EU all that much. I get where Brexit was about sovereignty, although it seems to have morphed into economics, but Italy puzzles me. It seems they want to remain in the EU, but transition out of the common currency. I guess the theory being they would have more control over their own economics and debt. Yet most of the debt is in Euro currency, so Italy would have to keep parity, which is currently set at 1,936.27 Lira per Euro. Italy does not have the means to support such a parity and the Lira would indeed fall, making debt service in Euros much more expensive. This applies to any other country within the Euro (Greece, Spain) as well. So much for the Euro. Time to refocus on the serious debt problems of the U.S.
Here is one source, Holly. It was in many more when it first happened, but the judge imposed a gag order on the reporting of this case: https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/n...pts-uk-judges-gag-reporting-british-activists
Oh I didn't realise you were referring to the arrest of Tommy Robinson @Don Alaska . I must have been one of the first to see the videos of the arrest, and hadn't realised that later there had been a ban on it being broadcast later....I'm bloody disgusted, sorry for the language, but I'm furious this has happened. Thank you for the link
Remember someone said they are jailing the gays and I said nothing because I am not gay. Then they came and jailed the Gypsies and I said nothing because I am not a Gypsy. Then they came after the Jews and I said nothing because I am not a Jew. Finally they came for me and there was no one there to say anything. If you sit back and ignore injustice it will come after you next.
Exactly...that's one of the quotes I've always remembered in my life, and I'm definitely not one of those who will stand back and watch injustice happen to anyone..without doing what I can to make a difference.
I always thought that Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that quote, but it was another German, Martin Niemoller.
It's not surprising..... They're rioting in Africa, They're starving in Spain, There's hurricanes in Florida, And Texas needs rain! The whole world is festering with unhappy souls, The French hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Poles, Italians hate the Yugoslavs, South Africans hate the Dutch, And I don't like anybody very much! (From the "Merry Minuet" by the Kingston Trio) Check it out on YouTube! Hal
We'd all like to know the answer to that here in America too Don. It seems that those who do know the answers don't want any of us to know them...and most of our Government has no idea what is really going on either. I think it's pretty much the same story in Europe.
There's fury going on here because this was immediately hushed up..no-one knew Tommy Robinson had been charged immediately and given a 13 month sentence from the British media, yet the rest of the whole world knew...where the hell are we?. I didn't realise we'd suddenly been moved to behind an iron curtain 1950's... I'm trying my best to sit on my hands here, because my policy is not to discuss politics on a chat forum other than a political one , simply because I would never shut up so I'm trying to keep calm... however , my feeling about this are entirely conscionable