EU – Page 51 – Slugger O'Toole

“Greece today is angry and fearful, divided and conflicted, and will still be after Sunday’s vote.”

Pete Baker on July 4, 2015, 6:19 pm

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With Sunday’s controversial, and confused, Greek referendum clearing its constitutional test in the courts, the Guardian Data Blog rounds-up the polls – as of 12.34pm Friday. The then-live-blog added An Ipsos poll just released shows the referendum on a knife-edge. It has yes on 44% and no one point behind on 43%, with 12% still undecided. The number of undecided respondents underscores the significant potential for volatility, Ipsos said, describing the referendum as “too close to call”. The poll is the fifth …

Greek Referendum: “a chunk of undecided voters to fight over.”

Pete Baker on July 1, 2015, 10:11 pm

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Via the Guardian’s Greece crisis blog. Another wrinkle for the game theory academics in the Syriza-led Greek Government, and those agitating on their behalf, to contemplate ahead of the controversial, and confused, on/off/on 5 July referendum in Greece. GPO poll Yes 47.1% No 43.2% Undecided 6.3% (via @euro2day_gr) #Greferendum #Greece #politics pic.twitter.com/xJRr3K2uAC — MacroPolis (@MacroPolis_gr) July 1, 2015 Pete Baker

“In both camps the eurozone crisis is met with a hint of relish…”

Mick Fealty on July 1, 2015, 4:24 pm

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Rafael Behr in the Guardian is worth reading on so many levels… There is blame enough for everyone. Alexis Tsipras’s promise to the Greek people of euro membership without austerity was dishonest. Other European leaders were constrained by their own democratic obligations. There are citizens from Ireland to Latvia who have already swallowed bitter reforming medicine and paid taxes that fund bailouts. They resent Athens threatening to destabilise their economies with demands for special treatment. This is not to say …

Ireland has missed a glorious chance on Greece

Johnny Fallon on July 1, 2015, 9:52 am

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As the Greek tragedy rumbles on France has said it will keep up efforts to reach a deal. France has also maintained that the biggest critics of Greece are the other smaller countries. This brings Ireland into the spotlight. Has the government really been politically clever in how it has handled the Greek crisis? Ireland has a strong reputation in Europe. At several junctures in the history of the EU it is Ireland that has helped to bring people around …

Is the Greek crisis running an important political counterfactual on Ireland’s ‘nightmare bailout’?

Mick Fealty on June 30, 2015, 2:23 pm

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I have to say that I take a rather different view from Paul on Ireland and the current phase of the Eurocrisis. Like all wicked problems, it is one replete with all sorts of layers and the Grexit issue is only one in a long line of thorny issues that will have to be dealt with. If there is a value in the comparison with Thatcher it might be between Tspiras and Arthur Scargill. You cannot fail to sympathise with the …

Greece: bitter pills & ill-wills

Paul Hagan on June 30, 2015, 12:18 am

| Readers 483

Of the grand, ambitious projects embarked-upon on the European continent over the last three decades two highly visible examples were recalled today in Brussels: football’s Champions League and the Single European Currency. Whatever they have in common there is one crucial difference in joining either of these prestigious clubs, in the Euro one can gain promotion but there is no relegation. Countries simply don’t drop-out of the Euro if they fail to finish with enough points, only to return after …

“For those who can’t read Greekdebtspeak, well, you’re on your own”

Pete Baker on June 29, 2015, 7:57 pm

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With European leaders, including Syriza’s erstwhile ally the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, warning Greek voters that they will be, effectively, deciding whether or not they want to stay in the eurozone, the BBC takes a side-ways look at the wording of the controversial 5 July referendum the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras suddenly announced at the weekend. From the BBC article Voters go to the polls for the Greek referendum. pic.twitter.com/xpp3OWEvgX — Jamie Ross (@JamieRoss7) June 29, 2015 Here’s the …

More Greek gamesmanship…

Pete Baker on June 27, 2015, 4:24 pm

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With the Greek Parliament, and Greece’s creditors in Europe and elsewhere, discussing the latest sudden manoeuvre by the game theory academics in the Syriza-led Greek Government, via the Guardian’s live-blog, here’s a reminder of Alexis Tspiras’ criticism of ex-PM George Papandreou’s, failed, attempt to hold a similar referendum in 2011. @graemewearden A transcript of @atsipras‘s scathing criticism of the 2011 proposed referendum, with compliments. pic.twitter.com/TIqQ10ZAdp — Finisterre67 (@Finisterre67) June 27, 2015 With the new manoeuvre almost certainly designed to short-circuit the …

Brexit, Schmexit, it’s globalisation rather than Brussels that squeezes national sovereignty…

Mick Fealty on June 22, 2015, 4:54 pm

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Caroline de Gruyter is the correspondent for NRC Handelsblad in Vienna, and she makes an important point about the rather faux character of the debate on the EU Referendum, thus far… A former village mayor conceded to me that Swiss locals had become rich by selling vineyards to multinational companies and by renting out houses to the new globalized middle class. Life was good, he said; the well-off immigrants Switzerland had managed to attract made other nationals green with envy. …

Bees contribute more to the UK economy than the Royal Family

David McCann on June 18, 2015, 9:14 am

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Here’s a story to bring a smile to our Nationalist readers faces. According to research conducted by the University of Reading, Bees contribute more to the UK economy than the Royal Family. They found that bees contribute £651 million to the UK economy a year, £150 million more than the Royal Family brings in through tourism. I await with pleasure all your “Queen Bee” puns. …. Full story here David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University …

European Nature Directives may be the best tool we have to protect NI’s natural environment

Soapbox on June 16, 2015, 4:03 pm

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Colum Delaney, Conservation Officer, Policy Advocacy RSPB NI. Just before Christmas I wrote an article for Slugger on the unprecedented cuts to the Department of the Environment’s budget, and in turn, the devastating affect that this would have across the environmental sector with the removal of the Natural Heritage Grants Programme. Whilst the exact ramifications aren’t yet clear, it’s certain that nature will once again be the loser. Fresh from this sustained attack, a new danger has emerged from Europe. …

What Ireland needs is “a return to economics as skillful means…”

Mick Fealty on June 15, 2015, 2:29 pm

| Readers 457

Two related pieces from the Irish Times worth sharing. Both under Mark Hennessey’s byline. First this from his interview with Joe Stiglitz… Politicians today offer meagre fare to voters, he says, despondently: “Most government ministers (throughout the world) are middlemen in ideas. They are looking for packaging for simplistic ideas.” For the last few years, the simplistic package, in Stiglitz’s view, has been austerity: “It said austerity works. I very strongly believe it doesn’t. And the IMF – which is …

IMF to Tsipras: “You’ve got to ask yourself one question. Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”

Pete Baker on June 11, 2015, 9:12 pm

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After more of the familiar lies and misdirection yesterday, there were some optimistic noises from Brussels last night as the leaders of Germany, France and Greece met on the side-lines of the EU-Latin America summit. They were short-lived. Having tried to play the International Monetary Fund, and its managing director, Christine Lagarde, last week, the game theory academics in the Syriza-led Greek Government are being treated to a practical lesson in hard-ball negotiations by the IMF. As the Guardian’s Larry Elliott …

Sinn Fein abstain on ‘funding from Russia’ motion in the European Parliament…

Mick Fealty on June 11, 2015, 5:14 pm

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Interesting piece in passing. 70.8% of MEPs voted in favour of a resolution calling for a ban on funding of political parties in the EU by non-EU “political or economic stakeholders”. Sinn Fein’s group (many of them former communists) was against the motion. All four of Sinn Fein’s MEP’s abstained, and are marked as GUE-NGL rebels by Vote Watch. The BBC reports… Much of the text lambasted the Russian government for its crackdown on political opponents, gay activists and civil society …

The Importance of Not Being Idle – Northern Ireland’s productivity problem

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on June 9, 2015, 9:59 pm

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Since the financial crash of 2008, and the Great Recession which followed, the UK has been struggling with a productivity crisis. Productivity, defined here as the increase in GDP per hour worked, increased very steadily in the UK for fifty years until 2008. Since then, productivity growth has halted entirely. As is becoming traditional when looking at any sort of economic analysis, the situation in Northern Ireland is particularly bad. Northern Ireland has always had lower levels of productivity than …

Northern Ireland & TTIP: Is it Deal or No Deal?

Paul Hagan on June 9, 2015, 8:55 pm

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While nowhere does acronyms like Brussels, one four-letter word has had everyone talking: TTIP, and now in public conscience like few others before it. For clarification TTIP stands for Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which is basically Brussels-speak for Free Trade treaty between the USA and all 28 EU countries. Free trade is nothing new to the EU or the European project, it was one of its founding aims after all, and to date it has been one of the …

FAI Still Not Convincing over €5M FIFA Pay-Out

Daniel Collins on June 9, 2015, 1:46 pm

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The Republic of Ireland football team extended their unbeaten run versus England to over 30 years with a friendly match draw in Dublin last Sunday. Thankfully, the affair was uneventful off the field and there was no repeat of the riotous scenes witnessed in the stands when the two teams last met on Irish soil back in 1995. Things were just as uneventful on the field, unfortunately; the game ended 0-0 with very little creativity or imagination demonstrated by either side. …

Thoughts on the Danish TV series ‘1864’

Robert Campbell on June 8, 2015, 6:05 pm

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BBC4 has been showing the Danish TV series ‘1864’ recently; the final two episodes were broadcast on Saturday night. The series began by recalling the First Schleswig War against the Prussians and which Denmark ‘won’, though the main action was centred around the Second Schleswig war in 1864—in which the Danes were comprehensively, humiliatingly defeated by the Prussians—and its aftermath up to the present. The series has several layers of themes; the awfulness of war, the effect on families; the rigid …

“Greece is joining a fairly exclusive club…”

Pete Baker on June 4, 2015, 9:11 pm

| Readers 1027

Which ‘club’, exactly, remains to be seen… If you’ve been having trouble following the twists and turns and lies and misdirection of the on-going Greek financial crisis [Join the club! – Ed] *ahem* Perhaps some notes on Greece’s Syriza-led Government’s latest reverse-ferret decision to delay Friday’s €300m (£216m) debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund, and bundle all four of its June payments together in one easy €1.5billion payment by 30 June might help. 30 June, according to the BBC report, is the …

Bloc Rockin’ Beats – how Scandinavia became the dominant force at the Eurovision Song Contest

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on May 16, 2015, 7:44 pm

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With parties bitterly divided over Europe, a voting system widely considered unfair, and tactical voting skewing the outcome, it’s clearly that time of year again. The 60th annual Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Vienna following Conchita Wurst’s victory last year in Copenhagen with Rise Like A Phoenix. This year Sweden is the favourite at the bookmakers, with Måns Zelmerlöw’s Heroes leading the betting at 2/1, making him the shortest odds favourite since 2012 when Loreen, also of Sweden, …