On the road to break-up?

telemachus'

Perhap if we had Gordon at the helm a solution would have been found

David L

Cards on the table time yet? I had thought that Germany was either using brinkmanship to make the eurozone countries comply with basic fiscal discipline, or would eventually cave in under pressure from the USA, France and others to save the workd from the consequences of a euro collapse.

It now seems that Mrs Merkel's her own lady, and is quite prepared to jettison the PIIGS cuntries and refound the euro within a smaller core.

The question then becomes: whether the resultant flurry of panic can be controlled, as people in the non-core countries see the value of their savings reduced to junk. Could be a lively Christmas.

wrinkled weasel

It is an established tactic of despots and tyrants to "fight to the last drop of blood" whilst keeping a 737 on the runway with its engines running.

Confronted by the truth, doled out recently by Nigel Farage, I discerned that Van Rumpuy and co were checking their pension schemes as Farage delivered a coruscating philippic.

Commentators suggest that the delay in the fall of the Euro is mostly now down to the need to get a plan in place to cope with it.

The bugger in all this is again the despot's other characteristic of hanging on when the generals tell him that the game is up.

The mechanisms, beloved of the unelected Eurocrats are still being examined in private. They hinge on forms of words and recondite voting mechanisms and their propensity for gerrymandering. Their hope is that they can continue to somehow bypass that inconvenient need to allow the people to vote on any Treaty change. Failing this they will simply wait until the vote is the "right" answer.

Desperation is the name of the game and so far I have not seen any evidence that any of these gentlemen will do the decent thing and retire to a discreet hotel with a Smith and Wesson and a bottle of Brandy.

toco

The Eurozone is a naive fantasy-how can one expect to throw a toxic mix of cultures and behaviours together and discover Nirvana.The quicker Germany accepts the inevitable and dismantles this dangerous EU project the better.

Frank P

For a moment I though your headline referred to the CH Wall, which seems to be crumbling under a tsunami of criticism about the erratic software response to posts. Perhaps if Fraser could manage to get that forum right, we would be able take him more seriously when reading his recent posts about putting to rights the Tory Party, the Eurostates and the World at large. Charity begins at home Mr Editor.

Patricia Shaw

Eurozone extremely useful for George Osborne who starts his statement by blaming it for our woes. Haha.

wrinkled weasel

Frank P I second that. I could not post at all on the Wall yesterday. It should also be moderated for twaddle or it will end up like Guido.

Ghengis

FrankP: The description the eu presented by toco, might well be applied to CH wall

Patricia Shaw

A boycot of products made in China would make for a sobering Christmas but might send a message to Beijing.

starfish

"Eurozone extremely useful for George Osborne who starts his statement by blaming it for our woes. Haha"

Presumably you would prefer to ignore it then?

Given that Osborne's plans was based on a whole load of assumptions that are now being revised the wrong way (from his perspective) it is hardly surprising that his plans need to change

Strangely when facts change in the EU or there is clear evidence to the contrary they ignore them and press on regardless

John Moss

Did Italy just pay 7.8% on ten year bonds?

TomTom

"The quicker Germany accepts the inevitable and dismantles this dangerous EU project the better."

It is a French project. Every EU Bureaucrat MUST speak French not German.

Verity

Patrickster Shah & Co --- Why should we "send a message to Beijing" when they are powering forward as successful capitalists?

Perhaps if Britain stopped rewarding failure ... as in draining the coffers of taxpayers to give money and housing to the failures, , grants for the chimera of "climate change" and aid to Africa, the richest continent on the globe, and worked damned hard, we might be able to compete with China.

fergus pickering

And who is going to boycott cheap tellies and the like? Not me, guv. Tell you what, I'll boycott chinese whispers.

Simon Stephenson.

telemachus : 11.58am

"Perhap if we had Gordon at the helm a solution would have been found"

Gordon's only "solution" is for there to be a withdrawal of personal and individual freedoms, so that the course of everyone's daily activity - how they live their lives, what they do and what they don't do - is determined by the bureaucratic and political state. Gordon's poodles, the two Eds, have only this same "solution" on offer.

This type of political arrangement was given a widespread test-run across the world during the 20th century, and with zero exceptions, was shown to be a miserable and depressing failure.

Hexhamgeezer

With the toxic crap associated with US sub-prime never fully laid bare added to the shedloads of euros lent to the likes of Greece, one wonders if there is a single bank in Europe which could qualify as genuinely solvent.

NickW

Europe cut its own throat.

The EFSF charter makes it inviolate from any action by individuals or Governments should there be defaults, losses or fraud. Would you invest on that basis?

In addition to that stupidity, the EU has also deliberately removed any investor protection provided by credit default swaps, with its insistence that haircuts on Greek debt were to be "voluntary".

Add in the contempt for democracy shown by Van Rompuy and the flagrant disregard of European treaties and you can understand why investors are running away from the EFSF and all European Bonds.

Trust, credibility, and respect for the law have all gone, and that is why there is a buyer's strike for European debt.