Say NO to bailing out Portugal

[longfingernails]

They ran up huge structural deficits, just like Labour in the UK - but with the additional deadening weight of the euro.

They have decided not to implement austerity measures - let them pay the price. Their borrowing rates are soaring; meanwhile in the UK, thanks to the confidence of the markets in the Osborne plan, our borrowing rates are more or less the same as Germany's.

The Portuguese have choices. They can leave the euro, for example, and naturally devalue until they become competitive. If their politicians choose not to leave the euro, let the people of Portugal who elect them pay the price - certainly not British taxpayers.

Write to your MP TODAY to insist we don't bail out Portugal!

Oh yawn they weren't communists. Communism reigned for a mere 3 years in Russia til 1917. Stalin then killed the real communists. Yawn. Discrediting socialism by citing Stalin, Mao etc is yawnsome in the extreme. So much capitalist propaganda and so many victims of it. Most dangerous plutocrat to my mind is Rupe Murdoch. He who warps people's minds against anything vaguely socialist.

Get off your high horse claig and name the pernicious few lording it over us. You'll find they're all capitalists. Must go do the dusting now wearing my hammer and sickle t shirt.

Of course Stalin displaced them, because he was a puppet. The overlords aren't capitalist or communist, they are just overlords. It is they who push the global warming scare, which is anti-capitalist. Wear your hammer and sickle t-shirt, but please take off your hammer and sickle blinkers.

Buon pranzo.

glasnost "Communism reigned for a mere 3 years in Russia til 1917."

Is that 1914-1917? Just checking. Checked, Nicolas II is in power and the country is a monarchy. Ok, next post...

Profit making is defining characteristic of the plutocrats and capitalism. I see you've not the kahunas to NAME them though. Come on, could be interesting.

No pranzo for me btw. Too busy fighting the evils of capitalism to ,like, lunch. (Actually looking after boisterous 6 mth old!)

Hasta la victoria siempre!! And bail the poor Portuguese people out. Not their fault the plutocrats and their puppet bankers are shafting us all.

YOU try looking after 1 6 mth old and remembering yer dates! (Or your own name.)

Have got hammer and sickle ts in baby sizes too btw.

I can't name them because I don't know who they are. They are too powerful to announce who they are. They are not the puppets you see on TV.

Portugal can just close its borders and cancel the money glasnost. No need to bail anyone out.

They are not the cast of the Muppet Show. They don't answer questions in the House.

They can re-create war communism. They can suspend legal system and just shoot those who disagree in the backyard as they used to do in Russia 1917-1921 (do get your dates right).

Have you ever wondered why your version of communism lasted for only 4 years? Because these what is how long it took them to finish all the supplies and they had to resurrect castrated version of the capitalist system. Funny that.

I think you should stick to child rearing.

Errr no. It failed in its original sublime state because socialism didn't catch fire in other countries (Germany, principally) . Socialism cannot survive isolated and must be transnational to work. Also post tsarist Russia was a peasant, depleted state with rife illiteracy. Socialism can only really succeed in countries with at least semi literate masses. That's why it'll be difficult to implement in Sun reading Britain. Tee hee.

Think you should stick to sniding from sidelines bemybabe. Oops I've got babies on the brain. Must be the hormones. My job is politics not child rearing you patronising oaf.

"My job is politics." Hahaha.

Come on claig these overlords aren't difficult to pinpoint. They live not in the shade or under a rock.

'Socialism cannot survive isolated and must be transnational to work.'

Exactly the same as globalisation. They don't care how they achieve it - international socialism or international globalisation.

Heads they win, tails you lose.

Globalisation or global warming. It's all the same to them.

'Socialism cannot survive isolated and must be transnational to work.'

Because it is a nasty virus. Since it does not produce, it need supply of new victims to keep it alive. Thank goodness, the extreme versions (like war communism) is akin to ebola. It kills its victims too soon to allow it spreading far around.

"international socialism or international globalisation".

claigy waigy don't be so cynical. One is good, t'other un's bad.

You can Google the plutocrats if you so choose.

Anyone got a fly swat for bemybabe?

Great definition of capitalism akin to a virus you supplied me with though. Can I use it? Cheers!

Be my guest , it is not appropriate as capitalism is conductive wealth creation though.

Are you getting twitchy?

Twitchy to get out in the glorious sun yeah!

Ciao for now.

I am off too. Sunshine is beautiful.

purplebrickroad - in my public sector employed household (in ireland), yes, we've effectively had a 25% paycut (before factoring in additional taxation), and there are rumblings of further paycuts in the offing. 1 in 10 mortgage holders here are struggling to make their repayments, a circumstance that european central bank interest rate increases for the benefit of the german economy will not ameliorate.

and for those who are banging on about giving out money for a bailout - this is a profit making situation for the givers, if the extortionate rate at which the money is being lent doesn't so cripple already struggling economies that it can't be repaid. and while you are bitching about this, i am looking at my two year old dd, who will no doubt still be paying for this bailout - which benefits private speculators across europe and is nothing whatsoever to do with any financial action of mine.

and before anybody says it, yes, i realise that there was a problematically high level of public spending which was based on what has been called here 'windfall' income, which would have needed to be adjusted for, but if we weren't in a position where we have to bail out a load of privateers in order to keep the euro afloat, then the 'austerity measures' we would have had to face would not see us in penury for the foreseeable future, with no services or laughable ones.

i am a little angry, really.

still paying for this bailout *in her thirties

sorry, and your suggestion is...

my suggestion is that, by all means disagree with loaning money, for profit, to any distressed economy you like, but stop talking about it as though it were an act of generosity being made at your personal expense, because it's not.

sadly, i have no useful suggestions for the predicament my country finds itself in: we are apparently fucked any way we turn, and even controlling the direction in which we will fall has clearly been taken out of our hands

stripeywollenhat can you please define "profit" in the case of emergency funding to countries who are incapable of managing their own finances.