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Post by JohnV on Aug 29, 2018 7:07:20 GMT
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Post by quaysider on Aug 29, 2018 7:23:56 GMT
interesting read... - perhaps I won't ask the EU for a "new business" top up loan just yet! ;-)
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Post by kris on Aug 29, 2018 7:24:13 GMT
More lies from politicians.
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Post by Telemachus on Aug 29, 2018 7:36:35 GMT
We have to bear in mind the author was the former Greek finance minister and thus in no way impartial. The Greeks became accustomed to not bothering to pay taxes to fund their public services, and effectively became insolvent as a result of their own blinkered incompetence. I’ve no doubt that the deal with the EU has its problems, but the ultimate question has to be “would Greece now be better off if it hadn’t been in the EU” and I suspect the answer is No.
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Post by kris on Aug 29, 2018 7:40:13 GMT
I suspect Greece would be betteroff without the eu. I used to spend a lot of time in Greece, even before the last big bank swindle. Joining the eu had adversly effected the cost of living in Greece.
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Post by naughtyfox on Aug 29, 2018 7:41:40 GMT
Romania was debt-free until it joined the European Union (ie. Germany and its minions) which then tempted them with new trains and infrastructure and loans until they were up to their eyeballs in debt and then the EU said "Gotcha!"
The Romanians are laughing, on the other hand, as soon as they joined the EU and got permission to move freely they opened all their prisons and sent all their scummy criminals and thieving gypsies off to invade other countries. "Big Issue, buy Big Issue!" (as seen in every town's High Street in the UK) (and only so they have a 'job' so they can claim benefits).
"Our politicians are working towards overturning the democratic result of the British electorate that is to leave the European Union that is Brexit.
They award a 1% pay rise to the essential services and people who perform vital life saving jobs, whilst being awarded something close to 10% for themselves.
They have longer holidays than the rest of the working population.
Many of them have two homes, the second of which they expect us to pay for. And they get generous expenses.
They tell us that we need to all live within our means and that austerity is the dish of the day whilst at the same time are talking of spending billions of pounds of our money on refurbishing the Houses of Parliament (plus another £60m or what the final figure ends up at on Big Ben).
They reduce the budget for the police force whilst at the same time strengthening heavily the fortifications around the Houses of Parliament."
Every second shop in British towns these days is a charity shop or a crappy Poundland / B&M / Home 'Bargains' - yet money a-galore to build the new HS2 railway so you can get from London to Manchester 6 minutes quicker. 6 minutes less time to wait for your next dose of 'Spice' brought up by the London drug dealers.
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Post by naughtyfox on Aug 29, 2018 7:48:29 GMT
We have to bear in mind the author was the former Greek finance minister and thus in no way impartial. The Greeks became accustomed to not bothering to pay taxes to fund their public services, and effectively became insolvent as a result of their own blinkered incompetence. I’ve no doubt that the deal with the EU has its problems, but the ultimate question has to be “would Greece now be better off if it hadn’t been in the EU” and I suspect the answer is No. Greece and the lazy Greeks have attached themselves to the rich countries and are sucking their wealth in just as any parasite does. It's understandable that Greece is a poor country with little but mountainous, difficult terrain and arid weather. What have they to offer other than olives, octopus and tourism? If Greece is bankrupt, why not just stick it on Ebay and see who offers the highest bid?  |
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Post by JohnV on Aug 29, 2018 7:53:48 GMT
We have to bear in mind the author was the former Greek finance minister and thus in no way impartial. The Greeks became accustomed to not bothering to pay taxes to fund their public services, and effectively became insolvent as a result of their own blinkered incompetence. I’ve no doubt that the deal with the EU has its problems, but the ultimate question has to be “would Greece now be better off if it hadn’t been in the EU” and I suspect the answer is No. I think this might be an interesting read for you as well ....... it goes a bit deeper and again makes you think www.ekathimerini.com/137574/article/ekathimerini/comment/umbrella-union-10-myths-about-greece-and-the-crisisedit to add ..... it is quite a long read but it rebuts a lot of the arguments used to blame the Greeks entirely for the problems |
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Post by Telemachus on Aug 29, 2018 8:38:02 GMT
We have to bear in mind the author was the former Greek finance minister and thus in no way impartial. The Greeks became accustomed to not bothering to pay taxes to fund their public services, and effectively became insolvent as a result of their own blinkered incompetence. I’ve no doubt that the deal with the EU has its problems, but the ultimate question has to be “would Greece now be better off if it hadn’t been in the EU” and I suspect the answer is No. I think this might be an interesting read for you as well ....... it goes a bit deeper and again makes you think www.ekathimerini.com/137574/article/ekathimerini/comment/umbrella-union-10-myths-about-greece-and-the-crisisedit to add ..... it is quite a long read but it rebuts a lot of the arguments used to blame the Greeks entirely for the problems Skimmed it. I never said the Greeks were entirely to blame and the article reiterates that, whilst not enitrely to blame, they nevertheless significantly contributed to their predicament. |
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Post by kris on Aug 29, 2018 8:40:59 GMT
Skimmed it. I never said the Greeks were entirely to blame and the article reiterates that, whilst not enitrely to blame, they nevertheless significantly contributed to their predicament. What you mean by democratically voting in a government that was anti austerity, which was then overturned by the eu? |
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Post by naughtyfox on Aug 29, 2018 10:39:48 GMT
A Greek who was in the same workplace as me when I was in Helsinki said you could see Greek 'businessmen' with their suitcases stuffed full of banknotes at the airports, transporting the bailout money the EU was giving Greece to their own private bank accounts in Crete.
A Finnair captain landing a plane at Athens announced over the speakers "Welcome to Greece - your money is already here!"
We'll never know where the bailout dosh went, will we?
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Post by peterboat on Aug 29, 2018 11:20:11 GMT
Italy will revert back to the Lira in October that will spell the beginning of the end of the EU experiment! Us leaving will be small beer in comparison luckily we are already planning for a hard exit so it just means that we will have to speed up plans
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Post by Telemachus on Aug 29, 2018 11:21:43 GMT
Skimmed it. I never said the Greeks were entirely to blame and the article reiterates that, whilst not enitrely to blame, they nevertheless significantly contributed to their predicament. What you mean by democratically voting in a government that was anti austerity, which was then overturned by the eu? In part, yes. What does “anti-austerity” actually mean? Does it mean continuing to spend money that you dont actually have, thus building up massive debt with no way to pay it off and eventually interest payments approaching the GDP? If so, that is irresponsible. The only reasonable “anti austerity” policy is to take steps to boost a country’s economy. That usually means culture change, increasing productivity, investing in business, removing fatuous and clumsy bureaucracy, ensuring taxation system is robust and yes perhaps borrowing short term to do all that, but with a plan to turn a profit fairly soon. I suspect the Greek anti-austerity party was mostly in the former camp. |
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Post by naughtyfox on Aug 29, 2018 16:13:55 GMT
The Greeks can't even run a decent 'restaurant' in England. Here are comments about The Olive Branch in Sowerby Bridge:
"I have eaten at the Olive Branch in Sowerby Bridge a number of times for evening meals so thought it would be ok for a lunchtime birthday meal for a friend. While the food was lovely at the time, all 3 of us were very poorly the next day after having the chicken skewers. Very disappointed."
"£80 of disappointment
Went out with partner, son girlfriend and grand daughter. Starters were dreadful and over priced baba ganoush was worst I've ever had was unrecognisable served with so little bread a duck would have complained!
Mains at £12 for a skewer and a bit of rice and pathetic bit of salad was over priced. Meat was good but so is my tasty late night kebab house in Brighton supposedly the pricey south.
Please If you wanted to make this place better don't use it let it improve or close !!!"
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Post by naughtyfox on Aug 29, 2018 16:15:58 GMT
Are Greeks corrupted (as a mentality/society)?
Yes and this is one of the reasons that I fled Greece.
I simply could not put up with the idea that the way we have built our society, rewards outrageously corrupt bureaucrats in the public service, nobody finds it strange as long as the impunity revives through the promise that the favouritism towards public sector non-jobs won’t touched at the expense of taxpayers and the competitiveness of the country. It is not strange because all families have a member that receives something from the public purse that gradually dwindles, because the GDP falls due to the bureaucracy, high taxes and unfriendliness to businesses. Nevertheless, the voters on average are shortsighted and the situation keeps on repeating itself. It is a vicious circle basically.
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