Thought it was all over, did you? Understandable, I suppose, because our breathless boys and girls in the media have donned their flack jackets and their radiation protection suits and dashed off to Libya and Japan to report non-stop "Hold the front page!" non-stories about, well, bugger all, really! In the meantime, our battered old globe continues to spin and the real problems that were around in January have come around again in March, as Yahoo News tells us:
Portugal's government is on the verge of collapse after opposition parties withdrew their support for another round of austerity policies aimed at averting a financial bailout.
The expected defeat of the minority government's latest spending plans in a parliamentary vote Wednesday will likely force its resignation and could stall national and European efforts to deal with the continent's protracted debt crisis.
The timing, I am happy to tell you, is exquisite:
The vote comes on the eve of a two-day European Union summit where policymakers are hoping to take new steps to restore investor faith in the fiscal soundness of the 17-nation eurozone, including Portugal.
Aren't they great comedians, I mean, " restore investor faith in the fiscal soundness of the 17-nation eurozone", it's the way they tell 'em! The 'Kaiserin' can expect to be asked to get the cheque book out - again - so it's no wonder she refused to allow the Luftwaffe to fly off to Libya at several 'zillion' euros per flight.
Needless to say, if Portugal goes belly up then Spain is sure to follow, and at that point the EU is going to face a real test because Spain is not a minnow in the Irish-Greek-Portugal scale of things and the cheque required will be enormous. Should they hesitate on Spain's behalf, which they should do because most of their problems are with their naive/greedy provincial banks who lent 'gazillions' on property developments which they now cannot give away, then Italy, Belgium and France will be next in line.
But perhaps the most delicious irony lies just over the Irish Sea. The Paddies fought and suffered for centuries to rid themselves of the Brits and finally succeeded in 1921, then, just over 50 years later they surrendered their hard-won independence to the 'New Frankish Empire' which helped and encouraged them in their profligacy and now they find themselves bound hand, foot and wallet to Brussels forever. 'Irish independence' - as a famous Irishmen once said, "<i>It would take a heart of stone not to laugh!</i>"
"The Paddies fought and suffered for centuries to rid themselves of the Brits": the conventional wisdom, to be sure, but substantially inaccurate.
Posted by: dearieme | Wednesday, 23 March 2011 at 00:59
A touch of hyperbole on my part, to be sure, DM, but over the years a vociferous and murderous minority did fight with the passive support of most of their countrymen.
Posted by: David Duff | Wednesday, 23 March 2011 at 09:27
On and off, David. Much of the 18th Century was quiet. Or consider Redmond's response in the Commons when the First World War was about to begin - see your pal Massie. And, of course, in the Second World War the IRA bombed Coventry before their ally Hitler did, even after indepenence.
The idea that it was a continuous history of basically the same idea is, I think, plain wrong. I believe I probably learned this from the writings of Roy Foster. Have you read any of his stuff?
Posted by: dearieme | Wednesday, 23 March 2011 at 12:52
Whether they actually all fought for centuries on end continuously, is hardly the point.
What is the point, is that they did finally get rid of one set of overlords, only to rush into the arms of another set who turn out to be in fact far worse - at least in economic terms.
As the Irish national anthem ought to say, but doesn't - "A Province Once Again..."
Posted by: Peter MacFarlane | Thursday, 24 March 2011 at 12:31
Exactly so, Peter!
Posted by: David Duff | Thursday, 24 March 2011 at 18:01