The Londoner

By Sikander Hayat  The problem with the Euro is that it treats a country like Greece as if it is the same as Germany in terms of its economy, politics, culture and other aspects of its social fabric. We know very well that this is not the case as countries and cultures acquire ways of doing things in their own way. Greece cannot be turned into Germany, Germany cannot be turned into Greece and yet the single currency euro tries to do just that. Since 2008, Greece's economy has gone down 25%, loosing millions of jobs, forcing citizens to emigrate, pension schemes to collapse, loss of sovereignty and directly leading to the rise of ultra right and ultra left wing political parties. Germany is widely blamed by the Greek for their country's problems. People of Greece invoke second world war and occupation by Nazi Germany as an earlier example of German belligerence . Greeks argue that what Germans did militarily during the second world war , they are now doing to ...

Scotland Independence  If the independence debate was over , we’d all be talking about the political intervention going on, writes Brian Monteith AS THE end of 2012 approaches, I am drawn to look back on the generally lamentable quality of political discourse in Scotland and ask what would we discuss if the issue of independence did not dominate the landscape so much? Sadly, it is difficult to answer this question with any excitement or anticipation because it is becoming clearer by the day that were Scotland to be independent , little would change within the existing consensus of our political elite or its corpulent supplicants that form so much of what is called our civic society. It is occasionally suggested that out of the SNP, and following the collapse of the unionist Scottish Conservatives suddenly left without a purpose, a new right-of-centre party will rise up and that Scotland will instead move towards a more ec...

European politics are impotent, moribund and in need of life support Fired up perhaps by his engagement to a woman 49 years younger than himself, the 76-year-old Silvio Berlusconi has announced his return to politics . He will head the centre-right Popolo della Libertà (PDL) in spring elections. His successor – the unelected Mario Monti – is, he says, pushing the country into recession with his austerity programme, and the PDL will no longer support him. In response, Monti immediately announced his resignation. European leaders threw up their arms in horror. The markets got nervous and interest rates on Italian government bonds shot up. Important elements of  Berlusconi's party rebelled and threatened a split; if Monti stands as a candidate for a centrist coalition, they will join him, they say. Meanwhile, the Partito Democratico (PD), the  leftwing opposition, is gloating. With opinion polls giving them a good lead, the election...

A united Europe is not in America 's interest As Britain drifts away from the EU , like a man quietly sidling towards the exit during an embarrassingly disastrous play, the US has begun to express concern. The Telegraph reports: The Obama administration has expressed concern at what US officials see as Britain's slide towards the European exit door. Washington firmly believes that the departure of its strongest partner in Europe would also reduce American influence on the continent , as Britain so often shares American views. "It is important to state very clearly that a strong UK in a strong Europe is in America's national interest ," said a senior US administration official. "We recognise national states but see the EU as a force multiplier." Britain's free trade philosophy is regarded as vital in preventing the union from drifting towards protectionism, while since World War Two, successive British governments have be...

Can The Last Taxpayer Leaving France Please Turn Out The Lights? The fiscal frenzy that has seized French socialists is not only grinding France ’s economy to a halt; it is also attacking the very foundations of French society by destroying entrepreneurship and responsibility. Taxes are raining down on French citizens , and the promised shelters often disappear before they have even been introduced.   The French government’ s 2013 finance bill has announced confiscatory tax rates on incomes and capital gains, and payroll taxes will be increased as well. But the socialists are shooting themselves in the foot, as such tax rates will destroy wealth and drive out entrepreneurs, capital, businesses, and young people . Thus, tax revenues will ultimately not rise but fall. The message could not be clearer: The number of requests by French citizens to leave France are suddenly...

In the course of making an argument about the coming collapse of China and Russia , Jackson Diehl made a rather forceful statement about Russia’s “deindustrialiation” under the malignant influence of Vladimir Putin.  I don’t want to get pulled into a larger discussion about the accuracy of Diehl’s thesis, needless to say I’m skeptical that both China and Russia will collapse in the near future, but I did want to focus in on his comment on the supposed death of industrial Russia (emphasis added): For Russia, the dilemma is summed up in the prices of oil and gas, and the role those two commodities have come to play during the Putin era. When Putin first took office in 1999, oil and gas earned less than half of Russia’s export revenue. Now that share is more than two-thirds. In part this increase is due to rising prices and production, but Russia has also deindustrialized under Putin . According to a report in Business New Europe, this year the country ...

Is Scotland in Europe? The SNP doesn’t even know Alex Salmond, Scotland’s First Minister, is flying by the seat of his pants. Hardly a week goes by without another embarrassing U-turn on his claims about what independence will mean for Scotland. The SNP has had 80 years to plan for this. Yet it is increasingly clear that they are woefully underprepared for the referendum to be held in less than two years’ time. A diet of bluster is proving no substitute for the hard-headed argument needed to win over Scots’ hearts and minds. With each U-turn, Mr Salmond’s party creates a loss of confidence. No wonder the voices of dissent within its ranks are beginning to be heard. Whether it is on Scotland’s admission to the European Union, on what currency we would use, or the impact on energy supplies, the nationalists are all over the place. You might have hoped that the SNP would have thought out a credible positio...

David Cameron signs up to more joint military operations with Europe Under a deal reached in Brussels yesterday, leaders of all 27 EU countries promised to “strengthen” Europe’s ability to deploy troops “rapidly and effectively” in any future crisis. They committed to “systematically considering cooperation” across Europe whenever EU member states begin drawing up their national defence plans. Downing Street sources said the Prime Minister was “entirely happy” with the new arrangements. Britain already has a formal treaty with France for sharing defence capabilities, such aircraft carrier capacity. Government sources said the new agreement would pave the way for Britain to extend this collaboration beyond France to other countries. However, the Prime Minister immediately faced a backlash from his own Conservative MPs, who warned it was the first step to creating a European army. Th...

Political Economy Finest Hour for Draghi and Europe Who is Europe’s most powerful man? If one phrased the question differently — who is Europe’s most powerful person? — the answer might well be Angela Merkel. But the deliberate use of the masculine excludes the German chancellor, leaving the field open to Mario Draghi. This answer can, of course, be disputed. How can one compare power in economics with power in, say, religion? Is it possible to rank the technocratic European Central Bank boss on the same scale, for example, as the pope? The best place to start is with an attempt to understand what power is. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell said it was the production of intended effects. By contrast, Steven Lukes, one of the top contemporary power theorists, said in an interview last week that power was the capacity to make a difference in a manner that is significant. What’s appealing about the way that Mr. Lukes, a professor of sociolo...

Italy’s latest mess has shocked European leaders. But their problems run even deeper THE resignation of Mario Monti as Italy’s prime minister, provoked by Silvio Berlusconi’s attempt to return to power, is worrying Europe’s chancelleries. It again raises questions about Italy’s ability to reform and the capacity of the euro to survive. And it stirs fears of self-serving politicians who incite voters against the European project. Mr Berlusconi’s electoral strategy seems to be to pin Italy’s problems on German-style austerity. Some see hopeful signs amid the dismay. The outcry over Mr Berlusconi’s possible return, they think, demonstrates that Europeans are at last developing an elusive sentiment: a common political consciousness that might serve as the basis for further integration. Just look at the horrified headlines and statements across Europe. “Bunga-bunga comeback” declared Bild , a German tabloid. “The Mummy Returns” shouted the front page ...

  EU leaders have agreed on a roadmap for eurozone integration beyond the deal on centralised banking supervision, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Specific dates have not yet been agreed for the phases of integration. But the EU summit chairman, Herman Van Rompuy, said a deal should be reached next year on a joint resolution scheme for winding up failed banks. Mr Van Rompuy's far-reaching roadmap was the main topic of the two-day Brussels summit. Speaking after the summit talks, French President Francois Hollande said: "There is no doubt today about the integrity of the eurozone - Europe cannot now be taken by surprise." But beyond the banking reforms, he said, Europe must address the problems of unemployment and feeble growth. The deal to make the European Central Bank (ECB) the chief regulator should pave the way for direct recapitalisation of struggling eurozone banks by the main bailout fund, the...

WASHINGTON – The Schengen Treaty, which is one of the basic tenets of the European Union and allows people to move freely among member countries, is increasingly being threatened as the economic situation throughout Europe becomes progressively serious, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin. What the treaty did was eliminate border controls among the E.U. members. It has become what has been described as one of the most visible symbols of that union. Nations throughout Central Europe to West European have done away with their internal border controls. Twenty-six countries belong to the Schengen Treaty, which includes all of the E.U. countries except the United Kingdom and Ireland. Other non-E.U. countries which are signatories to the Schengen Treaty are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. For Europe, the Schengen Treaty has not only been a symbol of unity but also success of the E.U. – until now. With the influx of people from non-E.U. coun...

David Cameron 's strategy of exploiting the euro crisis to renegotiate the terms of Britain's EU membership and claw back powers from Brussels has run into stiff resistance from France on Friday. At the close of an European Council summit focused on the future shape of the single currency, François Hollande declared his opposition to an "a la carte" Europe where member states may choose which bits of EU law should apply. The French president insisted member states had to comply with the terms of EU treaties they had signed and ratified, saying: "Europe is not a Europe where you can take back competences. It is not Europe a la carte. Hollande, however, added that he was open to a debate on the issue if the Lisbon treaty needed to be reopened as part of the effort to make the euro more fit for purpose. His remarks highlight...

The 2006 World Cup in Germany seemed like a fairy tale come true for the country. Suddenly, years of troubling history seemed to lift amidst euphoria over the cosmopolitan twist fate had brought to the country. But this year, amid fresh debates over xenophobia, many are left wondering if the ugly German is back. How splendid we were in 2006. The world liked us, even loved us, because we were so good at exuberantly letting our hair down. The Germans danced to celebrate the football World Cup they were hosting, and almost everyone was pleased to join the party. Sixty years after World War II and the Holocaust, the nation of perpetrators seemed to have come out from under its depression, and the world seemed prepared to take these Germans into its heart. Now we seem ugly again. When the Greeks or the Spaniards protest against the supposed dictate of the Germans in euro policy, some of their posters depict ...