Greece

[GD4ELI]

Listening to a number of Greeks today, it would seem that they're going to pull out and declare themselves bankrupt.

 

Good luck buying medicine then.

[spook]

I remember Greece as a peasant country with most people living hapily in a nice climate and a hand to mouth lifestyle though with a small number of families who had become very wealthy by bending various rules especially where shipping was concerned And lazy. The general population were lazy doing only the least that they had to do.

 

Then the government saw the benefits of joining the Northern Europe trade zone and bending the rules were that was concerned And they certainly did.

 

When the Euro emerged the Greek government lied and cheated and made no end of commitments to align their economy with the economies of the Northern EU states. And did not.

 

Instead the government and banks used the credibility that membership of the Euro brought to take on massive debt.

 

And still Greece remained the same basically peasant society, lazy, and dishonest.

 

Greece was bailed out by the Eurobank on the promise that the Greek government would put it's house in order.

 

It did not, now it's trying to blackmail the Eurobank in the belief that the Eurobank can not risk Greek default.

 

Greece should be expelled from both the Eurobank and theEU.

 

Let them sink back into the peasant society in which they were happy and deserve to be.

[woolley]

Above assessment by Spook is entirely factual. Unfortunately, political correctness cannot change the truth and nor does it pay the bills.

[pongo]

Above assessment by Spook is entirely factual. Unfortunately, political correctness cannot change the truth and nor does it pay the bills.

The UK is performing little better than Greece in terms of lazyness. Especially outside of London and the SE, the UK is a country of clock-watchers. UK productivity is appalling. The UK is in the bottom half of the list vs the other EU countries - in the group which includes Greece and Portugal. The UK is way below Luxembourg, Sweden, France etc. The UK is even further down the list than Spain.

[woolley]

I can't argue with you on that basis, Pongo. The British have indeed bred several generations with a heightened sense of entitlement and a lack of work ethic. It comes from overweaning government, overreaching welfare state and over-doting parents. This is why immigrants are driving buses in unemployment blackspot areas. They can't get the indigenous off their arses. Or they could but there isn't the political will.

[spook]

But Britain services it's debts and now has a government intent on rolling back the poisonous Socialist (aka communist) legislation that has been at the root of so much of the debt.

 

Get us out of the EU, get rid of the illegal ethnics, demotivate the rest of the ethnics remaining by cutting benefits to what people need to survive and not what they want, and we'll see real positive change take place.

[woolley]

I think you over estimate the political will to do a lot of that in the new government, Spook. Cameron wants to stay in the EU and the establishment will pull out all the stops to ensure that happens. I think they really need you in Social Security to have any chance of doing some of the things you listed there.

[spook]

I think you over estimate the political will to do a lot of that in the new government, Spook. Cameron wants to stay in the EU and the establishment will pull out all the stops to ensure that happens. I think they really need you in Social Security to have any chance of doing some of the things you listed there.

How I wish we had a Margaret Thatcher clone today.

[Gladys]

I think you are a great candidate for the job, Spuke.

[spook]

I think you are a great candidate for the job, Spuke.

Actually I take that as a compliment.

 

I like what Thatcher did, I like her politics, and I like her focusing on Britain and saving it from the disaster that previous governments, especially Socialist aka communist governments had set in train.

[pongo]

is why immigrants are driving buses in unemployment blackspot areas. They can't get the indigenous off their arses.

Productivity is a measure of how well those in work are performing.

[woolley]

I appreciate that. But it is all part of the same societal malaise. I have employed people in the past and know others who have employed many, particularly the young, who want the job, or at least feel they are entitled to a salary, but when it gets right down to it, they are the clock watchers, who feel that work is beneath them and they would rather be anywhere else.

[spook]

Still dealing with the diversion to the UK, there are a class of society that must be motivated back to work by need. Benefit payments really must be reduced to meet the essential needs people have, not their wants.

 

Changes will cause a great deal of dissent, I would be hit by one change and hit hard, the matter of housing benefit, but all that means is that all of society must live with what must be done.

 

Child benefit should be abandoned, FIS should be abandoned, and a great deal more. They are unaffordable.

 

Personally I would like to see the introduction of communal living for the homeless with people living in them who could work but did not working within the commune. Call it a return of Workhouses if you want. It's needed.

 

Greece and the other PIGS lot should be kicked out of the EU and not allowed to run up astronomical debt using the collateral of membership of the EU and especially not the Eurozone.

 

A great correction to Europe is needed starting with the cheating Greeks being expelled on the basis of their national misconduct.

[Al-T]

So, Greece. A good time to visit because they're desperate for money so everything is cheap to attract tourists or a bad time to visit because they're so desperate for money that everything is more expensive just because?

[spook]

So, Greece. A good time to visit because they're desperate for money so everything is cheap to attract tourists or a bad time to visit because they're so desperate for money that everything is more expensive just because?

Probably a bad time to visit because the likelihood of being robbed will be even greater than it usually was - and that was far from being trivial at the best of times.

 

On top of that eatables will be kept in shops and cafe's to the point of decomposition especially if going to be served up to foreigners and should (when) illness kicks in goodness only knows the medical attention one might get.