Why bail-outs?

[Coldicote]

So, Greece has a multi billion pound bailout. Presumably this comes from sources such as the European Central Bank and the IMF, but aren't they the sort of institutions Greece was in debt to in the first place? It looks to me like loans to pay off loans - or is a bailout a gift? What would be so dreadful if Greece did go bankrupt? I don't understand the complexity of all this and am getting bored with it. Can anyone help clarify some of these points please?

[New Judge]

All very laudable.

So how does that leave the Greeks who have been, effectively, overrun. Not militarily, of course, but economically by being allowed to use an unsuitable currency and from which they seem unable to escape?

[jno]

they joined up voluntarily, but under false pretences. Their choice. Now their choice what to do next.

They'll have to decide for themselves whether they are literally worse off now than when they were occupied by Axis forces.

[Coldicote]

My question about 'bail-outs' has led to much deeper discussion than I expected. If being in the EU really helps to keep the peace then OK. On the other hand the euro currency seems to mean a lot of debt problems and in the end could do more harm than good. Thank goodness we still have our own currency.

[New Judge]

Yes, they did join themselves and this was certainly done under false pretences. It was achieved by the connivance of their politicians with the complicity of EU leaders. (You cannot tell me that they did not know that Greece’s politicians had “cooked the books”).

So now we come to their decision on what to do next. Last October, the then Prime Minister, George Papandraou, planned a referendum to ask the Greek electorate whether they would like to agree to the latest “rescue” package which would mean years of austerity and public spending cuts but would keep them in the euro. The alternative would have been a disorderly default and their almost certain ejection from the Euro. This, inevitably, rattled the stock markets around the world, but more crucially rattled Messrs Merkel and Sarkosy (and a number of senior Eurocrats) and obviously could not be allowed.

The result? Greece now has an EU-imposed non-elected Prime Minster. Their General Election has been postponed by a month and the EU is hankering for it to be put off for a further year.

So much for them deciding what happens next.

To suggest they must compare their current situation with that of being “occupied by Axis Forces” is specious. The idea that the EU’s primary purpose is that of keeping the peace is utter nonsense. That may have been so sixty years ago, but times (and the EU) have changed. When Greece was occupied in 1941 Europe was at war. Today, in spite of rather than because of the EU, it is not. The EU is a profoundly undemocratic demon. The elected Prime Minister of a member sovereign state wanted to put to his people a matter of the utmost importance which would affect them for years, if not decades to come. He was quickly put in his place (i.e. out of office). If that is how the EU reacts when things don’t go according to plan I think all member states should sit up and take notice.