An affront to democracy and a waste of our money

[sir_dave]

The Eu has found only 36% of Britons think our country has benefitted from being in the EU, so they have set up a website to tell us what they are doing for us. This allows 'enquiries', so I have sent mine. If you agree with this feel free to send the same yourself. Here's the content and here is how:When Britain entered the EU, we were denied a

Comments

[sir_dave]

Portugal to be next

This article suggests Portugal will need bailing out no later than the first quarter of 2011. If Spain follows, the EU's capacity to bail out any further countries will be exhausted. In theory the chain would go:

Portugal
Spain
Italy
France
The Euro

But there is no sign the EU can fund this as far as Italy, let alone France and the Euro.

My analysis:

- Portugal will go under and be bailed out. Pressure will come sooner rather than later.
- Spain will begin to come under pressure.
- Before Spain can go under, the Euro zone will fragment as those who pay the bills (Germany, Holland, Austria and the Finns are relatively solvent) realise they are backing a system that must inevitably break, and the sooner they cease backing it, the safer they themselves will be.

Since the debtor countries are not attractive partners for others, they will then have to reinstate their own currencies.

The better financed counties might form their own sub-Euro zone, but to do so they have to agree. If this cannot be accomplished due to public panic, each will again have its own currency.

With the Euro gone, Europe will have to backtrack on its intended ever closer economic and political union, as each nation adopts interest rates suited to saving its own neck.

The EU will then revert, in acrimony, to a free trade zone with no further function, and at last I'll be satisfied.

Exactly how Britain will be affected is difficult to say, but as we are not in the Euro, we can float our currency into safety whereas the rest of Europe cannot. No one is talking about Britain coming under currency pressure; speculators have so many more attractive targets in the Euro zone.