Tuesday 1 November 2011

A referendum on austerity

The Greeks will be allowed to vote on their austerity package. A curious idea; will they vote for lower social spending, public sector wage cuts and reduced pensions? Or will they go with a fantasy that Greece is richer than it really is?

How would Britain vote if such a referendum were held here?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think, at last, that the turkeys are going to vote against Christmas.
About time too, I won't bet on it though.

Lionel said...

I would vote for austerity. Yeah, make me poor, bring it on.

Michael Fowke said...

Socialists always vote for fantasy.

Electro-Kevin said...

Osbourne argues that we did have such a referendum here and that we voted for a coalition.

The truth is that I think Britain would vote for severe cuts in things which are holding us back and which are causing offence to ordinary people.

Electro-Kevin said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=suaclcVQdeA

This chap reckons that we owe his country around $6bn in royalties.

I have to admit that he does have a point.

droog said...

Why would they vote for more austerity? It hasn't worked.

Take this post:
http://ukhousebubble.blogspot.com/search?q=insanity

and replace "quantitative easing" with "austerity", and "Bank of England" with "ECB/IMF". Same logic applies. Austerity hasn't worked and doing it once more won't work. The haircut can work, and it is important that the haircut is not manipulated by banks and hedge funds.

Here's an aticle which explains why this move will put pressure on the bankers who are trying to hustle a better deal for themselves:
http://prospect.org/article/bravo-papandreou

If Greece had its own currency austerity could have some impact on the whole crisis. But in the case of Greece the austerity is not leading them out of the mess. The Euro will hold strong and they will have an increasingly weaker economy to pay an increasingly more expensive debt.

Budgie said...

At least the Greeks are getting a vote. We were promised one by all 3 main parties, who promptly ratted on their 'cast iron' assurances.

Electro-Kevin said...

Shouldn't the Germans be paying Greek debt ?

It was they, after all, who invaded in WWII, massacred many of their people, took Jews away to death camps and left the rest to starve after forcing the Greek govt to 'lend' money at zero interest rates.

The Germans have never atoned nor paid back the debt said to be in the order of 90bn Euros in today's money.

Electro-Kevin said...

The Germans are said to have 200bn in gold btw.