The killing by police of a 15-year-old boy has led to the worst rioting since the restoration of democratic rule in 1974. The windows of shops and businesses have been smashed. Petrol bombs have been thrown at the police. And yesterday flights were cancelled and banks and schools closed by a general strike. In five days, the country has slid from outward calm to seeming ungovernability.
The death of Alexis Grigoropolos is a justifiable cause for public outrage. But it has become a bandwagon for a much broader coalition of anti-government interests: student anarchists, whose raison d'être is to challenge authority; the socialist opposition Pasok and the trade unions, who want to unseat the ruling New Democracy party; and members of the middle class incensed by low wages, a high cost of living, rising unemployment and official corruption.
Neither of the main political groups has emerged with credit from the crisis. New Democracy, under Costas Karamanlis, has failed to contain the rioters. And the socialists, under George Papandreou, have cynically used the violence to call for the resignation of the government and new elections, neither of which is likely to take place in the immediate future.
Greece is tearing itself apart at a time when it desperately needs to alleviate a huge burden of public debt and a drastic loss of competitiveness. The weakness of Mr Karamanlis's administration revealed over the past five days suggests that it is not equal to the challenge of imposing budgetary discipline, further deregulating the labour market and reforming the pensions system. And the same goes in spades for Pasok. The sight of a Nato and EU member hopelessly adrift is indeed cause for alarm.
Swatantra, don't be so quick to crown King Michael as Canada's PM. We've had one 'intellectual' as Canada's PM in the form of Pierre Trudeau and he bankrupted the country. We don't need another one.
You Liberals think you have a god given right to govern Canada. Time to wake up, if you think the Canadian electorate will stand for a 'coalition' supported by the Bloc Quebecois, dedicated to the breakup of Canada, you are sadly mistaken.
Let's assume the Greek government resigns and fresh elections are held. A socialist government is then sure to be elected in its place. The result? No change! The new government may promise the earth but as long as the Bundesbank/ECB has hold of the Euro purse strings, there's nothing the Greek government can do. It is, in effect, a county council.
Unfortunately, expectations will have been raised and this in turn will produce fresh violence in a year's time when the recession bites deeper and there has been no change.
The Euro is the root cause and this unrest will spread to Italy, Spain and possibly Portugal. The drop in people's standard of living is going to be enormous. The pay rates in southern Europe are already pitiful (due to low productivity and too much bureaucracy) and unemployment is high.
Goodness knows what the EU can do to correct this structural problem. This was always going to happen when monetary union preceded political union. Let's hope there won't be a war to sort it all out.
"This year, Greece has attracted a record 80,000 illegal immigrants, but has been criticised by Europe for failing to help asylum seekers"
John 8.19.
And wasn't this what started it all which isn't being reported by our 'media' i.e. it all started over asylum seeker applications being withdrawn? Just more proof that the only way to get to know what's really going on is from the BNP website.
In the early and mid 1990s, when the Maastricht Treaty was giving life to the single European currency (euro) those opposed to the idea repeatedly pointed out that it would destabilize Europe. How could a system that would inevitably cause economic chaos whilst simultaneously removing voters' ability to affect important elements of economic policy have any other outcome than an ocean of tears, many of them brought on by the inevitable riots and gas that would follow.
The fact that very clever men such as Douglas Hurd supported this seemingly absurd plan suggested to me that there was a cunning British scheme to damage the EU through encouraging the others to embark in a direction that may well lead to its total disintegration. I suppose a less interesting explanation might be that Lord Hurd might be a brilliant scholar and an estimable diplomat but never really understood economics � but that doesn�t explain Geoffrey Howe�s pro EMU stance! Perhaps the answer is that both come from a generation of politicians for whom the EU is a religious faith, an area of intellectual exercise in which clear and robust thought is left at the door.
The same people who pointed out the dangers of EMU also predicted that the Euro governments, when they had driven their economies into the ground, would thrash around looking for ways of lessening the economic pain. Despite knowing the risks these unhappy politicians would feel their fingers reaching for the protectionist button. This would further undermine things but would have the added effect of damaging the economies of non EU countries trading with Europe. Mass unemployment would follow and greater impetus for immigration leading to further destabilization, perhaps even war. All this was clearly laid out and yet these reckless people rushed ahead with the impetuosity of a fundamentalist, drunk on the hocus pocus of his faith.
Apparently these riots are cyclical. 'Its Winter 2008, time we had a riot.' Greeks invented democracy but are having a job trying to sell it to their own people. Whereas the Military are waiting in the wings their moutacios bristling and wondering when's the best timeto step in. Military interventions are also cyclical.More interesting than Greece is the events in Canada where the Libs are on the verge of coming back with an ex BBC man the thinking mans Paxman, none other than M Ignatieff. Once an intellectual is governing Canada again it'll be Springtime for Canada and the winter of discontent for Harpers Tories.
This is a political and economic thing. None of these European countries ever had a Thatcher, a real "shake out of their complacency" type thing. Greece has 20%+ youth unemployment, and politically it is the same as France, Italy etc, with the same old suits being shuffled round from job to job. Noises are made about changing things but nothing ever gets done. So, a riot. I predicted last weekend when this started it'd spread to other countries and hey presto today it has spread to France. Europe is rotten and needs a revolution
This is not just a Greek issue. This is a GLOBAL catastrophe. Worthless paper money and fractional reserve banking have been the instruments the globalists have used to undermined national and civil sovereignty.
Inevitable, the soft underbelly of the Eurozone has been crumbling for some time now. The Greeks are realising their standard of living is about to crash (they never earned it anyway)no has Italy Spain and Portugal to name but a few. Their politician of course are not going to tell their people the truth. What these countries need is de facto devaluation which of course is not now available to them thus the coming crash in their living standards which in reality has been going on for some time already.
'Brussels' was created to stop future wars. It won't, I only hope that the overdue war is confined to burning a few cars in the streets and the return of national currencies. What is occurring now is an utter disaster. The ONLY reason the Pound is so weak against the Euro is Gordon Brown - nothing else. He must go and go NOW.
Isn't the majority of Greece's public debt the result of hosting the Olympics.
Boris should be careful. Or, better still, let's opt out of the 2012 Olympics. There is still time.
Well, how reassuring it is (not) that it could never happen in London's "red zone" - the equivalent of the highly intense mini police state to be found in part of Baghdad - which ensures you can't unfurl a sandcastle flag within a furlong of Westminster.
Which is the Police state, then? Which has a lot more to face from people who start to twig that the regime has made a complete farce of running the country, bankrupted it even...?
Well, how reassuring it is (not) that it could never happen in London's "red zone" - the equivalent of the highly intense mini police state to be found in part of Baghdad - which ensures you can't unfurl a sandcastle flag within a furlong of Westminster.
Which is the Police state, then? Which has a lot more to face from people who start to twig that the regime has made a complete farce of running the country, bankrupted it even...?
Greece is tehe oldest empire in
our world, most of the empire-
collapsed Roman ect.
We the British empire are here to stay, only if our politicin
let us live, as united one community in UK, I hope we will.
Isn't this the real reason and why the press have been told to hide the truth -
"Greek police have clashed with hundreds of migrants waiting to submit asylum applications in Athens.
It is the latest example of tensions in the Greek capital - which community leaders say is at risk of becoming a racial battleground.
This year, Greece has attracted a record 80,000 illegal immigrants, but has been criticised by Europe for failing to help asylum seekers"
Greece was fine before the Euro.