Can I have a Budget rant please?

[Bradders]

I'd rather vote for Corbyn and have Labour fight to convince the voters that their plans and ideologies are right, fair and workable, not a Labour party that will back Tory cuts with a "well that must be what wins votes" attitude.

[eFestivals]

But then I look at what's just been inflicted on Greece by the Eurocrats....#ThisIsACoup.

yes, because the EZ has held a gun to Greece's head to make it run up all those debts in the first place, and to force Greece to beg for more and accept the terms of a new loan.

Not paying the bills you've taken on is nothing left wing.

 

Don't fall for the nationalist (=right wing!) bullshit of the those who wish to blame others for their own doings.

 

 

[phillyfaddle]

Not paying the bills you've taken on is nothing left wing.

 

Agree. I wasn't defending Greece's successive corrupt governments and widespread culture of tax avoidance. But the the fact that this bailout 'deal' is based on wholesale privatisation of everything from power companies and ports, to bakeries and drug stores (!) is wrong. It's a similar ideology that's being aggressively pursued by our own government, as our public services get slowly dismantled. Difference is, this is being imposed on Greece, whereas in the UK, a majority voted for it.

[eFestivals]

Agree. I wasn't defending Greece's successive corrupt governments and widespread culture of tax avoidance. But the the fact that this bailout 'deal' is based on wholesale privatisation of everything from power companies and ports, to bakeries and drug stores (!) is wrong. It's a similar ideology that's being aggressively pursued by our own government, as our public services get slowly dismantled. Difference is, this is being imposed on Greece, whereas in the UK, a majority voted for it.

 

Nothing is being imposed on Greece. Greece has an offer which it can take or leave. No one had to even make Greece an offer.

 

It was only Greece which had put itself in a place where taking that disliked offer was the better thing than the only alternative open to it (a return to the Drachma, and [at least for the short term, if not forever] destitution).

 

I'm all for public ownership and yet there's very good reasons why Greece should be forced to sell these things off - because ultimately it's the only way Greek financial culture will get reformed into something that can be self-financing. It's more about breaking the corruption culture around Greek enterprises than it is about changing the ownership.