The Gooner Forum

The new guy in charge is an ex communist.
He thinks he can renegotiate the crippling debt that Greece has brought upon itself.
Bear in mind that Greece hasn't collected proper taxes for decades. And has allowed people to retire at fifty years old, on 90% of the state pension. Needless to say that the pensioners are working in the black economy. And paying fuck all taxes.
Greece has been very happy to ponce money from the rest of the EU for years. The new head honcho reckons he can do a deal to reduce the debt. Purely because the EU is shitting itself that the Euro will collapse.
The new guy is also aiming to fuck up the cheap package holidays which bring billions of Euros into the Greek economy. He reckons that the Brits, Irish and other Europeans are not spending enough money in smaller local businesses. So it's unfair to them. What a crock of shit!!!
I like Greece and it's people. But they really need to wake up to the fact that the rest of Europe is not their sugar daddy. I feel sorry for Greeks who are already being squeezed on wages and benefits. But, quite frankly, their nation has brought it upon them.
There is a lesson to be learnt here. Forget unified currencies. Let each nation's currency rise or fall independently. Like the "old days".
Can you imagine that the tourist industry of Thailand or India would survive if their currency was the Euro?
This not a party political broadcast for UKIP. I just think that the EU and the Euro have both got far too big to be manageable.

Greece cooked the books (much like Italy) and should never have been allowed into the Eurozone. That they were is on the head of Germany and France in their quest for a Federal Europe.

It is in both of their interests to ensure the Eurozone continues as it benefits the powerful, industrialised countries while keeping southern Europe uncompetitive.

The whole thing is a shambles. I wonder if any Irish posters feel the Euro is better that the Punt, or if any Spanish based posters think it is better that the Peseta?

As for Greece, I imagine the whole Government will collapse within months once they cannot agree to get anything done.

This was hardly unpredictable when you are going to incorporate a volatile economy like Greece into a single-currency market with one-size-fits-all economic policy. When you're forcing together the labour markets of countries of vastly differing economic strength and stripping them of fiscal independence some are going to lose out - whether it is the stronger economies subsiding the weaker ones, or the weaker ones getting bled dry and drained by the stronger ones.

They're just living in a fucking fantasy world in Greece. The voters have been sold this dream about austerity being over and not having to pay their debts. It's just madness. They can't just pretend that they live in this economic bubble where if other countries don't like it they can fuck off. Greece has actually been showing signs of economic recovery but in two years' time their economy will be worse than it's ever been. Although the reality is the government won't last two years, not even nearly.

Joe Average generally doesn't have a lot of political-economic perspective (and I'm not saying that suggesting that I'm some sort of expert). Everybody would be attracted to the idea of more money and a better lifestyle. But Greek people don't seem to understand that they can't expect Europe to bail them out of ruin and fund their tax-dodging, early retirement and outrageous public spending.

Nutshell.

Being of greek Cypriot origin I've always viewed mainland Greeks as bunch of misguided, over privileged, pseudo intellects. History shows that they will fuck Cyprus over at a drop of a hat. Cypriot government was warning Greece about their economic downfall some 10 years before it happened. When they blew out, Cyprus economy virtually collapsed. I heard some snippets saying they want their dignity back. Well, they lost it when they sold themselves to Germany to bail them out, making a mockery of the famous Oxi day, when they fought back and booted out Italian and german troops in 1944. This coalition is gonna collapse and there will be turmoil all over again, as they still haven't fixed and established the taxation system. They are hoping that the EU will continue to bail them out as the general fear over what may happen if Greece leave the Euro. That's hardly a sustainable economic plan. But,I may have missed some of their points as I was more distracted by the passing of Demis Roussos on the same day.

Great for us here in Norn iron, we can fill up on diesel for cheap over the border, with the excellent exchange rate on the good old Queens head.
Also it stops those fucking sheep shagging redneck Freestaters coming up here to shop, causing havoc with their awful driving, cos their Euros aren't worth a fuck.

goonersid wrote:Great for us here in Norn iron, we can fill up on diesel for cheap over the border, with the excellent exchange rate on the good old Queens head.
Also it stops those fucking sheep shagging redneck Freestaters coming up here to shop, causing havoc with their awful driving, cos their Euros aren't worth a fuck.

Sorry, didn't understand a word of that apart from "narny narny narny situation".

DB10GOONER wrote:

goonersid wrote:Great for us here in Norn iron, we can fill up on diesel for cheap over the border, with the excellent exchange rate on the good old Queens head.
Also it stops those fucking sheep shagging redneck Freestaters coming up here to shop, causing havoc with their awful driving, cos their Euros aren't worth a fuck.

Sorry, didn't understand a word of that apart from "narny narny narny situation".

Aye tis a terrible situation altogether

goonersid wrote:

DB10GOONER wrote:

goonersid wrote:Great for us here in Norn iron, we can fill up on diesel for cheap over the border, with the excellent exchange rate on the good old Queens head.
Also it stops those fucking sheep shagging redneck Freestaters coming up here to shop, causing havoc with their awful driving, cos their Euros aren't worth a fuck.

Sorry, didn't understand a word of that apart from "narny narny narny situation".

Aye tis a terrible situation altogether

Re Greece not collecting taxes from their citizens, I was talking to a customer of ours who was in Rhodes last year on holidays - she told me that every night a few people from their tax office would go into the various shops and inspect the money in the tills and compare it to the tills receipts to ensure that the figures tally. She also told me that they would randomly stop customers coming out of the shops to inspect if the shop was issuing receipts because all shop must supply receipts in Greece for tax reasons. Anyway the context of the conversation suggests that if anything the greeks are even more stricter on taxes than the rest of the world

Have to say that I have always been pro the single currency - Europe is aligned in so many other ways that it makes sense to have a single European currency. Going to Europe on hols used to be a real pain in the arse because firstly you had to exchange currencies (which was costing you money straight away), and secondly you would forever be trying to calculate prices to see how they compared with home (whether the local shops were financially screwing the innocent tourists )

augie wrote:Re Greece not collecting taxes from their citizens, I was talking to a customer of ours who was in Rhodes last year on holidays - she told me that every night a few people from their tax office would go into the various shops and inspect the money in the tills and compare it to the tills receipts to ensure that the figures tally. She also told me that they would randomly stop customers coming out of the shops to inspect if the shop was issuing receipts because all shop must supply receipts in Greece for tax reasons. Anyway the context of the conversation suggests that if anything the greeks are even more stricter on taxes than the rest of the world

Have to say that I have always been pro the single currency - Europe is aligned in so many other ways that it makes sense to have a single European currency. Going to Europe on hols used to be a real pain in the arse because firstly you had to exchange currencies (which was costing you money straight away), and secondly you would forever be trying to calculate prices to see how they compared with home (whether the local shops were financially screwing the innocent tourists )

Except in an economic sense, which is surely the whole point of the thing?

it could be worse. you could have the dollar as your currency.

They will never pay back what they owe, not in a million years, they like so many are just freeloading on the rest of us, Europe fooking joke sooner out of there the better.

Several years ago (about 2004) a few African Nations met at a conference centre in The Gambia to discuss the implementation of a single currency across West Africa. The outcome of talks that took place over more than a year was that a single currency cannot work across such diverse cultures and economies. They scrapped the plan altogether.

And we consider them to be the 'Third World'!!!!!!!!!!!

They could see what Europe couldn't and the Euro is in the shit state that it is because the basic concept behind it is fatally flawed. I think you'll see a gradual return to sovereign currencies over the next few years. Even in Germany where I work on a regular basis, the general population want a return to the Mark.

SPUDMASHER wrote:Several years ago (about 2004) a few African Nations met at a conference centre in The Gambia to discuss the implementation of a single currency across West Africa. The outcome of talks that took place over more than a year was that a single currency cannot work across such diverse cultures and economies. They scrapped the plan altogether.

And we consider them to be the 'Third World'!!!!!!!!!!!

They could see what Europe couldn't and the Euro is in the shit state that it is because the basic concept behind it is fatally flawed. I think you'll see a gradual return to sovereign currencies over the next few years. Even in Germany where I work on a regular basis, the general population want a return to the Mark.

The whole ethos of European states is a joke, its good for those who give fook all and get everything but for the rest of us its just keep parting with your hard earned