Let’s take a look at a very alarming equation.
1,000,000,000 divided by 691,700.
This equates to 1,445, which is the number of British pounds each person employed in London’s financial district will have to pay in tax should the United Kingdom be saddled with yet another commitment to paying bailout money to fiscally delinquent Greece.
There are approximately 691,700 professionals employed within London’s financial institutions, all of whom are based in the City itself, and in Canary Wharf. The companies which employ these professionals are not only almost the sole driving force behind Britain’s economy, but indeed behind that of the entire European continent, where, on the mainland, European Union member states have very little relative output, very high debt to GDP ratios, short working hours, outmoded industry sectors and a high reliance on serial IMF bailouts.
Where does the IMF and European Central Bank get the money from? Taxpayers in productive European Union member states, one of which is Britain – a nation which does not even use the Euro currency.
Today, after Greece has made its intentions clear never to repay any of its 360 billion debt to the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund by electing the anti-austerity Syriza party led by socialist firebrand Alexis Tsipras, followed by a default on the first 1.6 billion installment and now a desperate attempt to obtain more free money by brokering an 89 billion Euro third bailout from the European Union.
Albert Einstein stated that the definition of insanity is to repeat the same process and expect different results, something which is most certainly applicable here. Greece is a nation of only 11 million people, and it owes almost the entire capitalization of the European Central Bank, has very little output and every intention of extracting more from bailouts.
“The trouble with socialism is that in the end you run out of someone else’s money.” – Margaret Thatcher.
Following discussions yesterday which ended in a deal being reached, Britain alone is now faced with a further £1 billion liability to the taxpayers to support a further bailout of a nation which does not provide any beneficial return to the British economy. This will apparently be provided as a series of ’emergency loans’ however with Greece adamantly not paying its existing commitments, it is more realistic to call this a grant.
The question is now more poignant than ever: Should Britain leave the European Union on economic grounds?
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is now saddled with the arduous task today of attempting to fight off a European bid to force the British public to contribute almost £1 billion towards any bailout of Greece.
Sources close to Jean-Claude Juncker, the arch-federalist European Commission president, say that Mr. Juncker, who is not answerable to anyone at all in Britain wants the UK to release the funds as part of emergency loans to the country.
With regard to whether Britain, a nation whose economy is growing at a far higher rate than any other European nation and is highly technologically and economically advanced, would benefit continuing to be the paymaster of the siesta countries, which have over the last five years proven that bailouts do not kick start ailing economies but instead are nationwide welfare programs which appear to be unlimited as the European Commission makes the ultimate decisions with national governments, including that of Britain, powerless to vote against them.
If Mr. Juncker’s request is carried, it would break an agreement made by David Cameron five years ago that Britain would not be liable for any further bailouts to Greece as Britain is not a member of the Eurozone. The European Commission, however, now considers this original agreement to be no more than a ‘political’ accord which would not hold water legally, thus clearly demonstrating the Eurozone’s perspective that Britain is no more than a cash cow whose global financial center’s profits can be disgorged to fund Europe’s derelict economies.
Mainstream newspapers reported today that the Chancellor will attend a meeting of European finance ministers today, at which he will argue that any demands for the UK to pay as much as £850million are a ‘non-starter’.
Mr Cameron, now free from the shackles of having to share his governmental mandates with the pro-Eurozone, left-leaning Liberal Democrats, has been able to implement many conservative policies over recent weeks, including many initiatives to reduce the country’s expenditure and generate greater prosperity in Britain from its own domestic resources.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch chief of the Eurogroup, confirmed yesterday a bailout ‘involving all member states’ will be considered. Britain has no veto, with approval instead requiring the consent of 85 per cent of states, weighted for population – presenting the risk that the UK could be out-voted.
In telephone calls with European finance ministers last night, Mr Osborne said the 2010 deal must stand.
A Treasury source said: “Our Eurozone colleagues have received the message loud and clear that it would not be acceptable for this issue of British support for Eurozone bailouts to be revisited.”
With debt to GDP ratios in mainland Europe at very high levels, for example France has a ratio of 250% debt to GDP, compared to non-European nations with highly developed industrial bases such as China (5%) and Mexico (20%), the will by European leaders to reach for the wallet of the British taxpayer is most certainly a good reason for Britain to take stock of not only its position in the European Union, but also of how it is viewed by the federalist European Commission.
As former British Prime Minister Baroness Margaret Thatcher once said, “The trouble with socialism is that in the end you run out of someone else’s money.”