Sods and Odds

[steepholm]

So, the boomers, who are already getting their state pension years before the rest of us, are now going to get their work-related pension earlier too. Nice for them, but I can't see the appeal for younger public sector employees, who are in general already being hit harder by the economic crisis than those in their fifties. I imagine that the Government will rely on the fact that younger people are more concerned with paying the mortgage and bringing up their children than with their pension entitlements, and hope that they'll sign on the line for the sake of a quiet life. I predict that's just what will happen.

Meanwhile Sarkozy described Greece's "unilateral" decision to hold a referendum as a matter of regret. Unilateral? The BBC had already been reporting that Papandreou was "summoned" to talks by Merkel and Sarkozy, which seems an odd way to talk about a fellow head of government. Now it seems that it's no longer appropriate for governments to consult their own electorates about important decisions that will hugely affect their lives, without the say-so of France and Germany. There's nothing very sovereign about this debt crisis.

Finally, via Cheryl Morgan, some music and pictures to set up camp inside your brain and refuse eviction... (wemyss, I advise you to avert your gaze and, if possible, ears, for the first few bars.)

Comments

The fact that the Left are by definition -

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

- economic illiterates, and that most C of E clerics are less the Conservative Party at prayer than the Social Outreach wing of ZaNuLabour, is not all that new to me, really. No need to avert m' gaze.

Re: The fact that the Left are by definition -

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

As a Quaker left socialist eccentric and not an economic illiterate :op I'm amazed at the level of what the Irish call 'begrudgery' displayed in the comments column of our friend's linked article. I did twenty years in the classroom with severely disabled, terminally ill and abused kids and paid something like a third of my salary into the pension pot. It's not 'government money' or 'public money', it's my money..............

It's an interesting time.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Circumstances are conspiring to cause people to feel free at last to say, It's MY money, and, the EU is undemocratic, and other things that give me hope. We may actually return to the days when Labour recognised the dangers of the EU and overly unfree markets (I mean, there's a reason why in my last book Clem, and Ernie Bevin, were as much heroes over 600+ pages as were Winston, Roger Keyes, and Archie Sinclair).

Re: It's an interesting time.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I'm a historian for my sins, with a specialism in the 17th century- The Wars of the three Kingdoms and comparative European and American stuff and it is still a matter of regret to me that the English Republic didn't stick!

The Habsburg Empire (which can be perceived as the first truly world empire) serves to remind us what happens when economic collapse occurs on a global scale- you get the Thirty Years War and at a European level, that's still the most destructive war it terms of life and property in our history, even if one includes the European elements of the two world wars!

Personally, I tend to be Wrong but Wromantic.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Although the family at the time were cannily divided (thus keeping the property whoever won).

I'm not altogether certain mass economic collapse must, by an iron law, lead to general war: the response to collapse and what was done in hopes of averting it (and collapse can be averted) seems to make the difference. But I'd vy much like to know more of yr thesis.

Re: Personally, I tend to be Wrong but Wromantic.

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

I suspect that I'm right but repulsive although I do have a spot for that art patron and gun runner extraordinaire, Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I :o)

The Habsburg response was to flood the market With New World silver thus causing galloping devaluation of currency in a world where religious difference was already tearing society apart and poor climate was causing famine. Add an outbreak of plague and you have a recipe for disaster,which is pretty much what occurred!

Give or take the plague, it sounds awful familiar.

Ah.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, and yes. But is it not fair to say that devaluation and hyperinflation were neither necessary nor sufficient causes, in light of the failure of the Peace of Augsburg and the famines and epidemics? The Spanish Habsburgs had been ruining their economy with Potosi silver since the days of Carlos V and I, surely.