Irish debt crisis - your guide

I am now a confident enough to provide you with an in-depth guide to the Irish debt crisis. Why is that? It's because, nobody really knows WTF is going on and I may as well set you straight on that.

If somebody tells you lies, and you base your understanding on those lies, any conclusions you come to about an issue are going to be flawed. All the information you are getting is being fed through a filter of spin, obfuscation and plain untruth. The biggest untruth of all, the big lie, being the idea that the Euro is good for Europe.

The Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, has conducted the Irish Debt Crisis by deceiving the Irish public about the problem. This is what he had to say last week:

Brian Lenihan also said that if the Government had been reticent in public comment about contact with our European partners and the International Monetary Fund, it had been to protect the taxpayer.


He said it was the job of the Government to protect the taxpayer and that is what it is doing.


Minister Lenihan said there was no question of loading an unspecified burden on the taxpayer.

It was not just Lenihan. They were all at it, busily reassuring the Irish public that they had no plans to go for a bailout. Don't worry too much about the commentators who style themselves experts. Their analysis is as flawed as yours and mine because they are being fed the same shit. Some, at best have put together a helpful timeline. Perhaps President Sarkozy can shed some light:

On Saturday French President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed the "unprecedented effort" being made by Ireland to sort out its budget but said he could not imagine that Dublin would not raise tax rates.

The Irish have two choices; raise taxes - by increases in actual tax or stealth, or cut spending. In Britain, taxes have risen both in terms of open taxation but also by stealth - ultimately, that is the job of "quantitive easing" which devalues the pound and increases costs of basic necessities. The trick is to raise the level of stealth taxation up to, but before people take to the streets. It's the classic boiling frog theory.

But back to Ireland. "Contagion" is the word. If Ireland fails, the Euro is in big trouble. At least that is what Mr Rumpy Pumpy says.

Herman Van Rompuy said the financial meltdown engulfing Ireland, Greece and other EU countries could spark the collapse of the entire European project.
Mr Rompuy said: 'We must all work together in order to survive with the eurozone, because if we do not survive with the eurozone, we will not survive with the European Union.' 

Of course, this is predicated upon another lie, which is that countries cannot survive outside the EU. What he really means is that this whole, catastrophic waste of money and ceding of sovereignty wil collapse under the weight of reality, so it is in his best interests to deflect our attention away from that fact.

So, what do we know so far? We know that the Irish Crisis is affecting us all - just look at the astonishing response from George Osborne, our own chancellor. The only comfort in that is his "support" is couched in so many ambiguities that it could mean nothing at all.

Why does it affect us? It affects us not at all except for one thing. We are bound by treaty to shore up the Euro, despite not being in it, and you have Alistair Darling to thank for that.

But the biggest effect is the perception about BIG LIE. Now that the Euro is in virtual meltdown, only still alive by virtue of a life support machine, the politicians are increasingly desperate. Lying, for them is the first option. Can there be a noble reason to do this?

What I find very strange is the attitude of the Irish to sovereignty.

The country is divided, but largely indifferent, on the question of whether the events of last week were a betrayal of the men and women of 1916: 47 per cent said yes, but 53 per cent said no.

So far, I think this reflects the success the rulers have had in deceiving the public, but it cannot continue.Even the Irish are not that thick.

Sorry to invoke Godwin's law here, but you have to fight evil when you first see it. Hitler did not start by gassing six million Jews. By the time the German people understood what was happening, it was too late. And they had fallen victim to THE BIG LIE.

UPDATE: According to the Telegraph:

Britain’s contribution to the bail-out is expected to be between £7billion and £9billion depending on how it is funded, the extent of EU and euro zone guarantees for the Irish and any bilateral British aid.
Under terms of an agreement signed by Labour in May, Britain must pay into to a £51billion EU financial crisis fund which will form a key part of the bail-out, potentially costing Britain billions. 

Scorched Earth. In the dying days of Labour rule, Ministers decided to destroy our economy because what they had already done in this line wasn't enough! But the real tragedy, and the one we must now face, is that the Coalition do not have the balls to tear up this deal. We have a weak government that is taking us headlong into stagnation and poverty.

We have not changed the system or the status quo. We have merely changed a few domestic details. If ever there was a need for a revolution, it is now.