Another blow to the BBC. Greece’s cabinet has given unanimous backing to the plan by PM George Papandreou to hold a referendum on a EU debt rescue package. You will recall that only yesterday the BBC was hoping that perhaps Papandroeu would fail to win this backing, so another bad day for those living in the fetid Euro-swamps of the BBC. They wheeled on Elena Panaritis, an MP from the Greek Pasok party, to the Today programme this morning but she did not follow the script and talked about the need to consult the people about the implications of the Austerity measures forced on her country by “the colleagues.” This was met by BBC stony indifference. It’s hilarious watching the puffed up outrage of the Euro-elite at the concept of the people of a Nation being given the right to speak out about their future, it’s disgusting to note the State Broadcaster parrot this totalitarian creed.
Wonderful news ! Another nail in the Euro coffin and the dimwits at the BBC haven’t a clue what is happening !
Rumours of a military coup in Greece ( one of my cousins is married to a Greek and lives in Athens ). Now that really would be great news. How would the BBC report that ?????
I don’t think anyone believes that the sacking of the leaders of all the armed forces of Greece was a long standing budgetary measure. It was clearly to head off a coup.
It would have been interesting to see how the EU would have coped with a member state becoming a military dictatorship following a coup, as the EU forbids any such government from being a member state. Would a military coup see Greece kicked out of the EU altogether?
Interesting times.
Geyza,
Exactly, I am still praying for a coup !
No doubt Eurogendfor (armed EU riot police) conducted joint exercises in Greece the other month for a reason. If a coup could be falsely portrayed as a pro-european liberation move against a violent xenophobic minority, then I’m sure Brussels would be all for it – and bugger the rules of membership.
Why is anyone surprised. The beeboids are only mirroring their policy on complaints.
So this is the Greek version of Delivering Quality First?
BBC-NUJ is not so concerned with Greece-Euro crisis, instead BBC-NUJ is simply re-treading today (as its top, anonymous story on ‘England’ page) its anti-fracking political propaganda to ensure that there is no development of British gas resources in Lancashire.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-15550458
(See also ‘Natsman’ B-BBC ‘Open Thread’.)
BBC-NUJ doesn’t mention petition to limit IMMIGRATION.
“Thousand people an hour sign up to e-petitions website calling for debate on migration”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2056265/MigrationWatch-UK-Thousand-hour-sign-e-petition-calling-immigration-debate.html
The Greek PM looks as if he has had enough and would like to quit so proposing a referendum is as good a way as any to really annoy the Germans and French.
If I was Greek I would not be at all keen on being dictated to by Mrs Merkel. WW2 was not the happiest of times in Greece a country that was invaded and sacked without the slightest justification.
I suppose the BBC would rather nobody mentioned the war.
dave s,
I was at a seminar this morning at an investment bank ( boo !! hisss ! ). The speaker said the same thing. Papandreou is fed up and he wins whichever way the vote goes !
Papandreou has screwed his country either way, though. I can’t really blame Merkel for dictating terms. I’d do the same thing if my country had fixed its mess and was basically forced to prop up the reckless Greeks in exchange for nothing except scorn. Greece will be even more screwed if they vote against austerity, but Papandreou will have covered his ass. At least Nero had a plan for rebuilding.
Portugal is next, then Spain. Even Hugo Chavez is starting to look like a wiser custodian than some of these Euro monkeys.
David,
Yes, I meant Papandreou has ” covered his ass ” ( as you Yanks so delicately put it ), whichever way the referendum goes and whether there is a coup or not.
Wasn`t Papandreous dad an earlier PM from PASOK?…that name rings a bell from my hitch-hiking days round the Aegean.
If so, let`s hope that the BBC honours the Benn/Miliband/Dimbleby/Magnusson tradition and employs him as their Athens correspondent when it gets really nasty over there… this will only be when John Humphrys can`t roast his own pistachio nuts(oo er missus!)
I like the idea of Humphrys’ nuts roasting !
The fact that the BBC is reluctant to recall is that democracy in many of our European so-called partners only runs skin deep. A little historical perspective tells us that just over the water there are a collection of some very recent dictatorships of a variety of fascist and communist forms.
No one in the UK has ever had a say in whether or not we ought to have jumped into a political bed with these nations. So the fact that after a brief economic hiatus and at the first real challenge several of these flaky states revert to form really ought not to have surprised anyone.
I suppose in a way I feel sorry for the Europeans caught up in this but at least it is failing now – before the Europhiles here managed to tie the UK any closer to this EU nonsense.
Yes, the Europhiles fail to accept that the UK has very little in common with mainland Europe. But, they like the weather and the food and wine, so that is ok.
The Political class would rather prefare Communist China to step in and save their corrupt project than give the people a say in the future of Europe.
Richard,
Exactly , but the difference between the European “leaders” and the Chinese leaders is that the former ar stupid and the latter are clever !
Typical choice of analyst for this story by the BBC News website. The (only) ”viewpoint’ article from outside the BBC, ‘Suicide for Greece‘, is by Michalis Angelopoulos, President of European Movement in Greece (“The European Movement is a pan-European research and lobby group advocating a united, integrated Europe.”) He’s aghast at PM Papandreou’s referendum call.
There’s no balancing article, naturally.
The BBC make it clear that they want a tax on the financial sector…they are to be opposed…and fair enough. Rowan and St Gates say it, so it must be right…Beckham, Bono and Geldof would surely want it too!
yet, when the selfsame nasties in the City get all jumpy about the Greek referendum…the financial sector is to be assuaged and supported…they`re not nasties to be fleeced any longer, but are desperately trying to save the deluded dopes of Greece from their lemming-like tendencies.
Great to see the BBC patching these two contradictory views together as if they are of a piece. Notice that Richard Corbett(Labour MEP) is all over the BBC on behalf of Von Rumpoy and allowed the full stage and lights to inform we the serfs in the UK of the wonders of the EU.
Time to flog off the BBC to Pattens old pals in Hong Kong!
cj,
If any Beeboids have any investments in stocks and shares , they might be vulnerable to accusations of hypocrisy.
There should be a punitive tax on unearned income. The BBC comes to mind.
Gavin Esler has clearly had much of the day to work himself into a self-righteous paddy about those pesky Greeks.
He continued to harry his Eurotoadies on Newsnight and would not shut up.
He wanted the following soundbites.
1. If you Greeks leave the Euro…then you`ll be slung out of the EU too!
2. The Chinese won`t fill the Bankers boots with remnimbi now…they might have done if only the Greeks hadn`t insisted on this bloody referendum.
3. The Greeks are sabotaging the plucky Portuguese/Irish by not swallowing the EUs medicine like they did. This democracy stuff is for the birds, unless it`s for others like the Egyptians.
Sadly no-one gave him these soundbites to run on through the night, and hopefully feed Today and The Guardian for tomorrow mornings filler…why didn`t Gavin just say it himself? Far easier!