France and Greece Election results!

[LadyWithEDS]

So, what do you think it means for Europe?

i guess the upside of France slowing austerity, or at least trying to, is we can see if it is possible and does it work.

reading a bit about Greece, it appears we have already picked up their tab: the last set of debt was largely private, so investors took a risk, this time it did not work for them etc etc.

however the current Greece debt is main owed to the European Union and I.M.F. i.e. US and European tax payers......

@Novak and her tin foil hats! Are you hoarding food then Novak?

Mandelson is on Newsnight now and they are discussing austerity, Greece and France and what the rejection of austerity by the people will mean for Europe.

thanks, just turned over!

Mandelson and the Eurocrats didn't foresee what would happen, but Paxman didn't mention Farage who did foresee it. Why isn't Farage on the show rather than all the socialist propaganda?

Probably because Farage is comes across as just a ranting racist?

I have no idea what Mandleson was going on about, I accept that, I don't accept that! I am off to check my long life milk and tin foil collection

German's are not going to compromise???? I get the impression that Merkel wants to run the economies of weaker members.

Madelson, what a creep. Claig please stop saying that Mandelson and Blair are socialists.

Have you heard him? I haven't heard much of his stuff, so I googled him on youtube. He calls it spot on, foresaw what would happen and explains the real situation which Mandelson et al. don't even discuss. Google some of his speeches in teh EU parliament. It's a shame he isn't in our parliament rather than wasted over there.

I'm off to pickle some veg. Night

He si over there because he likes the gravy train and his extremist views would never get him elected in the UK. He uses the proportional election system that means any extremist can get enough votes out of a large enough country to get them a seat in the EU parliament. Unfortunately that then gives him a platform.

i worked for a investment bank at the start of the euro project and someone very senior predicted all of this.

his story went: its a politicians vanity project, not financially sound and it will work until there is a problem then there will be a crisis. i thought he was biased and wrong but what did i know!!

i think Mandy and the Eurocrats were too obsessed with their own grandeur in hte project to think would it actually work.

Night, mini, remember to readjust the tin foil hat and make sure you filter your water

Wasabi, Farge says similar and I can't see any racism in what he says.
This is from an interview on Russia Today

thank you claig. i will watch it in the a.m.

Now to me Farage should be pronounced Fa-ridge (rhyming with garage pronounced 'in a Northern style')
but he says it Fah-rah-je...which sounds French to me.

so is he (a) a French stooge...some kind of split the UK from the EU to weaken Germany/UK conspiracy theory (b) a social climber?

i think we should be told

"Richman - the reason for China's rise is not because it's not a democracy - it's because it has a huge population and is coming from a very low starting point. Had it been a democracy it would probably have reached that point earlier."

Bread yep- I explained my point very badly. I guess what I was saying is that once China decided to engage and turn over to a market economy, not being a democracy helped keep control of the process and helped them play catch up very quickly (eg put on 400mt of steelmaking capacity in a few years). If democracy had accompanied or immediately preceded the economic changes, then things might have turned out very differently (prob got worse before they got better) However, I agree that had China been a democracy for longer (say since early 20th c), then it would probably be at the same point, or further forward.

Successful dictatorship: Hong Kong, Singapore, China.

I think the key issue with politics is that although democracy is (and should be) the gold standard, the man on the street the world over doesnt give a shiny shite who the government is when he's got money in his pocket and he believes his kids will have a better life than him. The problems (for all systems) start when he doesnt.

Well King Constantine could always get an easyjet back from London to lead Greece but I doubt he'd offer after how dreadfully they have treated him the last 40 years. :)

claig - does it not strike you as hypocritical that Farage hates the EU so much but is prepared to squash his principles and get paid loads by the EU?

Do as I do not as I say.

Aaargh - the reverse I meant. Long day...

Not really, because you've got to be in it to win it.

A politician may not like first past the post elections and may prefer proportional voting, but to change things, they may have to get voted in using first past the post and then work for change.

They have to work with the system, it's no use going against the grain and looking in from the outside.

I think a hypocrite is a New Labour MP who campaigns against private schools for other people and then sends their children to a private school.

And he certainly is winning it all the way to the bank. kaching kaching

faraaaaaaaaaaaage is just milking the EU tit supping up the gravy and making himself a laughing stock. He's lucky if there is anyone left in the chamber when he speaks.