Greeks. Cats. Pigeons.

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

Greek PM calls a referendum on the bailout/austerity package.... doesn't tell his own Finance Minister. Trying to nut through the rationale for this move and failing miserably. Any takers?

Cortina, I had never heard of the ants lark before either.
But when I saw Newsnight giving it broadcast time, I knew what they were up to. I think we will all hear more about it in the future, just like we learned about a footprint that none of us had once heard of before - the "carbon footprint". They will roll out teh greens on our TV screens to educate us about the wonders of ants. Of that there can be no doubt.

They had the insects on Newsnight a couple of nights ago. Kirsty Wark was eating them washed down with a nice red. Lots of producers in Sweden apparently. You don't have to crunch them down, exoskeleton and all - they can be ground down to a kind of protein powder and reformed ( and to think I used to think TVP in school dinners was gross).

What's next? Solent Green or whatever it was called? Sounds like some sort of post-apocalyptic movie scenario. How extraordinary.

Edith, I posted the clip of that above. It's an excellent educational clip to see how propaganda works.

A fascinating example of how it is done, is the fact that the ambassador, who is chomping through the ants, has a well prepared glass of beer on the table, next to the posh chef who is enjoying himself cooking up his Michelin dish of locusts, ants etc., and Kirsty then feeds the ambassador the line
"what do you like to drink with it?"
The ambasador then reaches for the beer and says "I like beer".

The purpose of that is to reassure the viewer, that even though they may have to eat ants in the future, at least they will be allowed to carry on drinking beer, just like the "regular guy", the ambassador, who enjoys a beer with his ants.

But of course, they don't break the news to you, that the elite don't want you to drink beer either, because that also increases the catchall - the "carbon footprint".

If you have any doubts about that, check out the climate change guru

www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/5377780/Stop-eating-lamb-and-drinking-beer-if-you-want-to-save-the-planet.html

Yes, Soylent Green.
You couldn't make it up, but they do.

Sorry - didn't realise the link was a video clip (just spotted it was BBC and (wrongly) assumed it was a separate magazine piece).

Cockroach crunch, anyone?

They gave you the credit crunch, get ready for the cockroach crunch, but the bankers will carry on consuming cocktails for brunch.

Claig how do you think everything will play out, you've got a good, interesting brain I think :)

By that I mean what will Europe look like in 20 years time? What will have happened to the economy? There's a question for you. Will we all be buying vacuum packed ants, will there be a McAnt on the corner of every street :)? Will the bankers be driving taxis and the farmer's ferraris? Especially the ant farmers :).

No, unfortunately, they won't let the farmers make much money. They are against the CAP which tries to ensure that farmers can remain in business, producing food for the people.

I think it will be close to a nightmare. They will increase GM crops, big international farming corporations will drive many small independent farmers out of business. We will be rationed, in order to "save the planet". Just like they are pricing energy, fuel, heat and water out of people's reach, so they will also price healthy food out of people's reach. That's why they had the ambassador telling us how "ants are the food of the future", and "there are no alternatives".

They will cut pensions and benefits and services and move towards making people "work till they drop". They will say that anything else is just not "sustainable" in order to "save teh planet", and they will put greens on our TV screens to drive the message home.

I think I'd take turkey twizzlers ahead of ants. I think the 'work till you drop' scenario is almost upon us but still not sure about the ants. :).

I did see something extraordinary the other day some sort of clip about global warming which warned about the inherent dangers of cows. They were pollutants apparently, the methane they produce is destroying the environment. Or something like that.

So how rich do you think we are going to need to be to avoid the coming storm then? I guess that's what it's going to come down to if you are correct. Anyone with the means will surely emigrate? What you describe sounds almost like a communist state.

Do you see anyone escaping or will all be forced to eat ants?

Yes, they have had a concerted campaign against meat for many years. Cows, sheep etc. all harm the planet, they tell us, because they produce methane. The ambassador helpfully told us that ants don't produce methane. They don't want us eating healthy food, they would prefer us to eat ants and GM. Why? Because then we may not make it to pensionable age and that will solve the financial pensions crisis.

Yes, the oligarchs and patricians are rulers. They rule under different systems, sometimes capitalist, sometimes communist. They don't really care which, because they are just rulers. They will need to have a communist type command and control system to control the increasing ageing population and to prevent them having decent pensions.

'So how rich do you think we are going to need to be to avoid the coming storm then?'
Good question. The bankers on their bonuses are just like us, they are all part of the 99%. Their fortunes can change, their banks can go bust, stock markets can collapse. More crashes will probably occur to drive austerity through and to ration growth and the people's growth and future. Only the truly, truly rich will be immune, along with their paid servants and progressive mouthpieces and greens.

'Do you see anyone escaping or will all be forced to eat ants?'
I think nearly all of us will be eating ants, because I believe Newsnight and the ambassador when he said "there are no alternatives". I don't think we will be given any alternatives.

But the elite won't eat ants, they will be like the communist nomenklatura in their well-appointed dachas, watching the people queue around the block for their rationed ant supply. And of course there will be no beer for the masses -just beetle juice.

In fact, they don't really like capitalism, because capitalism provides growth and has led to the increase in the living standards of ordinary people. I think they want "limits to growth" as the elite Club of Rome wrote about - the exact same "limits to growth" that their green puppets always champion.

They want to limit the growth of ordinary people. It is patricians vs plebeians.

What about schools etc? Education system?

When do you see this shift happening? When fully implemented?

Imagining the Cotswolds would be the last bastion of the old regime. :)

Sounds like a book plot. I've been reading up though and your quite right there's a surprising amount about ants as the new food source 'with some extra processing' apparently.

'You're' even - sorry spelling going to pot.

''with some extra processing'

that's worrying. What's in the extra processing?

I think education will get worse as cuts are made and fees for universities are increased.

I think that is what the elite would like. But they don't have it all their own way. They use the media to change people's minds and they promote the greens, but it is not a done deal.

I think the Coalition are good. They reversed Labour's assault on civil liberties and I think they are determined to improve education by increasing standards, getting rid of modular coursework etc. I don't think everybody in the system is part of the elite. The elite are powerful, but they are not all controlling.

If the people react, then the elite have to change their course.

I think the elite want greater centralised control before they really implement full austerity on the people. They may not be able to get it, but I think that engineered financial crashes move them closer to their goal.

The ambassador told us that "there are no alternatives" to ants as the food of the future.

There are also no alternatives across Europe to green, planet saving lightbulbs that contain toxic mercury. Newsnight will tell us about ants as a good source of food, but they don't report on mercury in green lightbulbs. Many of the public are not really aware of it.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363448/We-pick-toxic-new-bulbs-Councils-say-energy-saving-lights-dangerous-binmen.html

Have just read up on his decision to call the referendum etc.

I think it was all theatre and brinkmanship to bring the opposition into line. I think Merkel and Sarkozy theatrically called him in for a stern word and then phoned the opposition with some non-theatrical stern words to them, spelling out the calamity that could occur.

Naturally, after the theatre was over, he dropped plans for a referendum, which he never intended to hold in the first place.

He could very well step down after the vote of confidence, but I think the opposition will now have to drop all calls for immediate elections and agree to some sort of unity government whose priority will have to be to push through the EU bail out, because that is what Sarkozy and Merkel want to happen.

I think he must have read Aesop's fable - The PM who cried wolf.