Detournement

Writing down the debt and giving them fiscal support. Instead they enforced austerity crippling the economy and driving 8% of the population (mainly the young and graduates) to leave the country. They then sold off just about every state asset they could and raised taxes and cut spending. The result is an economy that is 1/3rd smaller than in 2010 and debt which has went up and now sits at 170% of GDP. The debt is now owed to the ECB and the IMF ie the French and German banks got away scot free. Anyone with a brain can see that the debt is never going to be paid. It will eventually have to be written off, which is what should have been done from the start with the avoidance of huge numbers of deaths and untold misery.

Are you incapable of reading this The mortality rate jumped by 10% in 5 years due to austerity.

They shouldn't have bailed Greece out. They should have allowed them to default on the debts they had run up but theydidn't because that would have hurt the banks. The Greeks deserved it narrative is disgusting. Our democracies aren't based on citizens being active participants in technical monetary policy or even being able to understand it. Saying the Greek people deserved it is the equivalent to telling someone dying of MSRA in a dirty hospital that they deserve it due to political choices made in the UK. Other options were available to the EU. Syriza are as bad for going along with it post Oxi.

There is a well documented left critique of the Troika program in Greece so there's no need for nonsense about Golden Dawn. You are correct that mistakes were made prior to the crash but i'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the punitive measures used since 2011 to collectively punish the Greek people and enrich French and German banks. These policies caused tens of thousands of excess deaths and were completely unnecessary. The EU chose to kill it's citizens for the sake of financial institutions.

We were talking about the EU. They chose to f**k over the Greek people to bail out the banks. That ideology is why Corbyn is cool on the EU (and also why people like Blair, Clegg and Osborne love it).

http://piketty.blog.lemonde.fr/2018/07/10/europe-migrants-and-trade/ The ECB and those who direct it are deliberately pauperizing Eurozone citizens with the poorest and weakest worst affected.

Greece for a start. Rather than support Greek citizens they choose to support French and German banks and pay them in the blood of ordinary Greeks. Criminal. There are plenty of other easily searchable reports about the effects on mental health and addiction as well. https://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f6639/rr-0

Aye but the argument seems to be that it's either hard to get to from the city centre or just hard to get to compared to other places. Despite it being well served by buses, trains and motorways.

And the EU has a track record of fucking over it's citizens in favour of bankers and corporations.

And the profits from selling Hampden used to do up the football stadium Haughey owns for Scotland to play in perhaps?

The recent Glasgow Edinburgh Pro14 game on a Saturday night was apparently a disaster getting back from Murrayfield to Glasgow. Beyond the important issues of pints and Fifers who struggle in metropolitan areas has there been any confirmation of what Hunter and Haughey get for their money? This part of the story is bizarre.

The Lisbon treaty and the fiscal rules it contains are a noose around the neck of the EU.

Presumably no one will be waging economic warfare on us so Venezuela is no comparison. And Venezuela is developmentally stunted due to centuries of imperialism.

The strength of a currency depends on the strength of the underlying economy. As long as there are things which people want to buy with Scottish pounds the Scottish pound will have value. Given that we have natural resources, exports, an educated population, tourism and a tax base combined with no debt in foreign currency there is no reason for anyone to lose confidence in a new currency.

How can we have a significant financial sector if we can't underwrite it? Who is going to hang about in Edinburgh when being in London means never having to worry about going bust? Financial institutions will make their bed with the government which can create infinite numbers of pounds out of thin air, not the government with pounds in a biscuit tin and pay day lenders to fall back on. I also don't agree with the bridge idea. Any barriers between the EU and the City that are created with Brexit will quickly be whittled away as Westminster and Brussels are both Neoliberal to the core and run for the benefit of bankers.

That's true but it's an issue for the referendum rather than for post victory planning. Going with the simplest sounding solution to gain voters for Yes and to reduce corporate grumbling is a completely irresponsible way to act.

I've read on Richard Murphy's tax blog that international law allows newly independent countries to convert all debts and deposits held in the new country into a new currency. What obstacles do you see to setting up a new currency?

The SNP aren't suggesting pegging in the mannner of Denmark and the Euro though. They are suggesting just using the pound. We can obviously do this but it's fucking stupid. We could end up in a situation where the currency we are using is devalued by the BoE repeating QE or another rUK bail out without any benefits from it and a massive danger of being asset stripped. You mention "unsuitable rates"but it's likely that the Scottish and rUk economy would be very different as financial services will dominate rUK and we won't have any.

I disagree it's the only way. There would be plenty of time between winning a referendum and independence day to set up a currency. Using Sterling means being completely beholden to bond markets and requires austerity to control the deficit. It means that a time when we need fiscal expansion to boost confidence we are guaranteed contraction. It means we can't devalue if we need to which will hurt exporters and Scottish citizens who have debt in pounds. The financial sector will flee anyway as it will be impossible for the Scottish government to bail them out or support with any kind of QE. And the longer we use Sterling for the more difficult it will be to change to a Scottish currency. Real independence means not taking on any debt in currency of other nations.

I'm starting to feel like some kind of super human as I have never had a problem getting to Hampden or getting a drink.

With the SNP plan to use Sterling and have the BoE set our monetary policy what we would have wouldn't amount to independence.

EEA means continued Freedom Of Movement (which is what the result was about). There's no chance Tory MPs would go for that. It's No Deal or undermine the four freedoms. The decision is Merkel's to make.

Wembley transport links are pish. I doubt you can get out of Wembley and get a train back to anywhere north of Birmingham midweek.

Allowing money to go from football tickets to the SRU would have been crazy. It was never going to happen. If people genuinely struggle to get to Hampden from the city centre it might be time to get a carer. Football special trains going back to Aberdeen/Inverness would be great but that's an issue for the Scottish Government.

LOL at terrorists. Is it legal to secretly record White House meetings? If it is then it seems like an oversight.