WHO WILL SAVE US FROM POLITICIANS ?

As the politicians in the Eurozone countries, and much of the rest of the western world, try to paper over the massive chasms in their economies that they themselves, and their predecessors, have created, one wonders what is the point of politicians at all.

Today, 2 more stories of political incompetence have come to light. Firstly, Home Secretary, Theresa May, has been forced to make a statement about the shocking goings-on in the UK Border Agency. Specifically, the Agency stopped checking many foreigners coming to this country last year, meaning that an unknown number, quite probably in the tens of thousands, entered the UK without any proper immigration check. Of course, Ms May is blaming the entire episode on officers of the Agency and several have already been suspended, but the reality is that this is a state run organisation that has failed completely in its duty. Can the politicians truly exempt themselves from any blame ?

The second story to come out today involves another huge government Agency, HM Revenue and Customs. This monstrous organisation has, apparently, been found to have been entering into dubious and underhand arrangements with some of our largest companies, leading to enormous reductions in their assessed tax liabilities. It seems that while the ordinary man in the street is routinely harrassed and threatened by the bullyboys of the Revenue, large corporations can have cosy little chats and get their liabilities largely written off.

Politicians are always very quick to distance themselves from shocking revelations such as these. Despite the fact that it is the politicians who set all the rules, when things go wrong they use every possible arguement to ensure that the blame is placed elsewhere. The truth is that politicians are pathologically incapable of keeping their hands off of anything and everything that they see as being of interest, but most of them lack the skills needed to understand the true complexities of the systems concerned, to design new systems or to run ---- anything.

These people dabble in everything and end up making a mess, which they then leave to others to clear up. In extreme cases, they make an extreme mess which really can't be cleared up, as they've done with the economies of most of the major western nations and, in particular, with the Euro. In the end, they all walk away having become very wealthy, while the ordinary people, you and me, are left to pick up the pieces and pay the bills.

ARCHBISHOP OUT OF ORDER, AGAIN.

Once again, the 'Bearded Wonder' that is the Archbishop of Canterbury has felt it right to enter discussion on a matter well beyond his remit.

This time, he's reported to be in support of the so-called 'Tobin Tax', an opportunist tax to be applied to all financial transactions between banks and other institutions. In truth, of course, this would be a further imposition on investors and shareholders and is simply a mechanism for governments to screw a few more pounds out of their already hard-stretched populations.

What expertise the Archbishop has to enable him to speak out on such matters is a mystery to all. As Andrew Neil has said on today's 'Daily Politics' programme, if he'd known that the Archbishop was an expert on financial issues he'd have consulted him on these, rather than thinking of him as the man to speak to on religious matters. Perhaps now that he's shown his true expertise, we can expect the Archbishop to be called in to advise the Treasury on future budget plans.

Tragically, the Archbishop is a relatively young man and we may well have to put up with him being in office for a good few years yet, quite probably to at least 2020 which will make him the second longest serving incumbent since the early days of Queen Victoria. We can only hope that someone steps heavily on him very soon as, otherwise, we can no doubt expect to hear his learned opinions on everything from pensions to schools, the NHS to railways and, no doubt, membership of the European Union to Scottish indepence. Nothing at all, of course, of any significance on religious matters. 

As King Henry II was famously reported as having said, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest ?"

EUROZONE STUMBLES ON AS GREEKS DROP THE BALL.

Less than a week ago I wrote that the solution to the latest Eurozone crisis might well last no more than 2 or 3 weeks, but I didn't reckon on the Greek Prime Minister throwing all the balls into the air with his announcement that the deal reached last week would be put to a referendum of the Greek people.

The Greek people are not a happy bunch, despite the fact that they've been enjoying a lifestyle in recent years that's way beyond their ability to pay for it and that a substantial part of the cost of putting things right was now going to be picked up by other European Union member countries. For some reason, the Greeks think that it's all very unfair for them to have to be 'put upon' in this way and the initial reaction to Mr Papandreou's statement is to expect them to vote the Greek equivalent of 'Up Yours', when it comes to the referendum in December or January.

Why Mr Papandreou has, effectively, reneged on the agreement reached last week is anyone's guess. His announcement certainly seems to have come as a complete surprise to all and sundry and stock markets have nose-dived as a result. Is he playing a game designed to screw a few extra drachmas out of Brussels ? Is he simply trying to save his own political skin ahead of a confidence vote due on Friday ? Whatever the reasoning, the view of most pundits seems to be that he may well lose Friday's vote, thus precipitating a general election. The announcement of a referendum on the proposed solution to the Greek debt crisis, while unsettling to say the least, is probably no more so than would be the collapse of the Greek government and so Papandreou really had very little to lose, but quite a lot to gain, at least in the short term.

What will happen next is in the lap of the Gods, almost literally so in the case of Greece, the home of Mount Olympus. Will Papandreou survive ? If he does, which way will the Greek people vote in the referendum ? If he doesn't, will there be a referendum at all ? Should the people vote against the proposed deal, it seems quite likely that Greece will then have to leave the Eurozone, possibly to be followed by others such as Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. If they vote for the deal, or don't get the chance to vote, the Eurozone will likely hold together for a few more months, until the next crisis, unless the fall-out from the current meleé proves too much for Italy to withstand, as already seems a possibility.

What fun times these are.