Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

Wednesday’s Strikes Show Greeks Refuse Change

by Philip Chrysopoulos - Jul 14, 2015

It is really sad to see the people of a country that was on the brink of bankruptcy three days ago to go on strike and take it to the streets to demonstrate against the deal that saved them from bankruptcy. It is as if this is a strike in favor of bankruptcy.

The new bailout agreement Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has managed to secure after 17 hours of hard negotiations that verged on humiliation is not a bed of roses for Greece. It’s more of a bed of nails. The proposed deal contains some harsh austerity measures and reforms that would make even diehard capitalists cringe. Yet, austerity reforms might be the shock therapy the Greek economy and Greek society need.

A society that has learned to survive on tax evasion, lawlessness and corrupt practices, from the Prime Minister to the last newspaper kiosk owner, and from the hospital manager to the small tavern owner. A society with 35-year-old pensioners, blind taxi drivers, paid sinecures in the public sector, people who receive pensions 10 years after they died, doctors who declare 10,000 euros yearly income and countless other categories of happy Greeks who live splendidly while destroying the economy.

Now all these people, and they are not just a few, see the new reforms as a danger to their well-being. They see the “greedy” Europeans as the ones who want to impose evil things such as tax audits, public employee evaluations, debt repayments and retirement after 60. In other words, they hate to see practices and rules that apply to normal countries apply to Greece because… “we are unique, special people.”

So on Wednesday, public sector employees, municipal workers, pharmacists and doctors will go on strike to protest against the harsh reforms the Greek government is about to bring in order for the country to stay afloat and (hopefully) get on the path of economic recovery.

It is natural, though. Public employees don’t want to be evaluated because many of them do very little actual work. The same applies to municipal employees. Pharmacists want to be the only ones selling vitamins and other parapharmaceuticals and the new bailout deal says that these products can be sold in super markets as well. Public doctors are a different story: They have every right to strike because their salaries have dwindled to humiliating levels. And there’s very few of them left in Greece. The strike is also for unionists and their friends who want to protect their sinecures.

So, in essence, it is special interest groups that don’t want the changes the required reforms will bring. And they go on strike. The right to strike is undeniably an essential right in a democracy. However, in Greece, it is so abused that not only it has lost its sheen, it has also lost its meaning. During the economic crisis there has been a major strike almost every two weeks. Going through the motions, people rally and shout slogans that have lost their meaning. Strikes and demonstrations have become part of the Greek lifestyle. This must be the only country that has a website that tells you what strikes are on each day.

And all strikes and demonstrations are essentially for the same demand: Don’t change anything, we are fine in our corrupt, clientelist, statist existence; we want to keep living on loans we refuse to pay back; we want all the privileges of a European Union membership and none of the obligations; the world owes us because we are the cradle of western civilization; we want free money because we voted so.

Wednesday’s strike, which is the same repeated strike that goes on for five years now, is supposedly against austerity. But if strikers are honest with themselves, they will admit it is a strike against change. Against the changes needed so that Greece will not have to rely on borrowed money and handouts forever.

hays - i'm afraid it is the average greek jannis who is being forced to bear the full brunt of the previous gov'ts profligacy and (very probable) corruption ....... imo, it's a pretty facile argument to state that it was jannis and his chums who did the voting and thus they reap the whirlwind, but of course, they never had any control over what the gov't actually did in their name

Presumably, Cyners, that would be the same greek jannis who still expect to watch free plasma screen entertainment while they travel cheaply on the air-conditioned Athens tube network to collect their pensions, having retired at 50 and not made any contributions to their pension pots?

Never mind yer big fat Greek weddings, this is the big fat Greek gravy train!

The left must put Britain's EU withdrawal on the agenda

Owen Jones

Wednesday 15 July 2015 08.04 BST



Progressives should be appalled by European Union’s ruination of Greece. It’s time to reclaim the Eurosceptic cause


David Cameron with Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel. ‘An anti-EU campaign could help the left reconnect with working-class communities it lost touch with long ago.’ Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters



At first, only a few dipped their toes in the water; then others, hesitantly, followed their lead, all the time looking at each other for reassurance. As austerity-ravaged Greece was placed under what Yanis Varoufakis terms a “postmodern occupation”, its sovereignty overturned and compelled to implement more of the policies that have achieved nothing but economic ruin, Britain’s left is turning against the European Union, and fast.

“Everything good about the EU is in retreat; everything bad is on the rampage,” writes George Monbiot, explaining his about-turn. “All my life I’ve been pro-Europe,” says Caitlin Moran, “but seeing how Germany is treating Greece, I am finding it increasingly distasteful.” Nick Cohen believes the EU is being portrayed “with some truth, as a cruel, fanatical and stupid institution”. “How can the left support what is being done?” asks Suzanne Moore. “The European ‘Union’. Not in my name.” There are senior Labour figures in Westminster and Holyrood privately moving to an “out” position too.



More with links here:http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/14/left-reject-eu-greece-eurosceptic?CMP=share_btn_tw

The EU and the Euro was a flawed project from the very outset.

There is more chance of us voting out than many think ,don't go by the polls look how wrong they were with the general election .

There is some nice shiny new anti strike legislation on the way.

It is being introduced to parliament today. It will require 50% turnout and a 4 month time limit per ballot. Some strikes were relying on a ballot made two years earlier to have a strike. Picketing will be illegal as well.

The unions and Labour are whining about it as per usual. It is strange that Labour has never repealed any strike legislation that was introduced by previous sensible Conservative governments.

yes they must get 80% yet the gov got 33% no one should be elected as a mp unless they get over 51% of votes and voters should vote for 3 in the order of preference
and the vote should be on a computer in the town hall its instant and does not need hundreds of people seating down all day .then the public can see the votes on line instant

hays you have not posted , that they must give two weeks notice so the companies can employ strike breaks with migrants to beat them
it stinks and is corrupt and I am a right wing conservative
Cameron the liar

the conservatives got in to power down to one person. sturgeon rest assured of that
sturgeon was the best campaigner of the conservative party .
and it will turn Scotsman against is own in the end .
she is the daughter of devil vile the devil must love her the most evil woman on the planet

part of me agrees with you hilary, but it strikes me that there are some "fat cats" in greece who make our bankers and similar look positively biafran, and they seem to be totally and utterly unaffected

though greece could indeed be "cut loose" as many would advocate, i can see all sorts of reasons why this would not be a sensible option, and thus "europe+imf+ecb" have very much got a tiger by the tail

And a Minger too...

The fish is prettier ...

I make it 20% of the workforce need to vote to strike..hardly onerous.

Same hairdresser as Rab C Nesbitr's wife. It is funny how when you search for Rab C Nesbitt's wife on Google images you get Sturgeon as well

Ha Ha that's hilarious .