economic situation is dire

[wiganvillain]

€100 billion of Greek debt written off

How is that fair ?

It's not fair, it's not meant to be fair.

It's meant as a sticking plaster to cover a small part of the gaping wound that is Eurozone sovereign debt to stop those nice chaps in Banks having to have another Christmas without bonuses, those poor unfortunate, downtrodden, put upon, hardworking leeches on society.

Wait til this fails to stop the rot, 100 billion will seem like chickenfeed

[LondonLax]

€100 billion of Greek debt written off

How is that fair ?

It's not fair, it's not meant to be fair.

It's meant as a sticking plaster to cover a small part of the gaping wound that is Eurozone sovereign debt to stop those nice chaps in Banks having to have another Christmas without bonuses, those poor unfortunate, downtrodden, put upon, hardworking leeches on society.

Wait til this fails to stop the rot, 100 billion will seem like chickenfeed

I think you have gotten it the wrong way round there. The €100billion "haircut" is money owed to the banks that they will not get back. It's the banks taking the hit there, and the Greek government are getting away with not having to pay back half the money they borrowed.

The banks involved will have to recover that lost money somewhere and it will be down to German and French taxpayers to cover it.

Basically, a load of money has been transfered from German and French taxpayers to the Greek government via the banking system.

[tonyh29]

I think you have gotten it the wrong way round there. The €100billion "haircut" is money owed to the banks that they will not get back. It's the banks taking the hit there, and the Greek government are getting away with not having to pay back half the money they borrowed.

The banks involved will have to recover that lost money somewhere and it will be down to German and French taxpayers to cover it.

Basically, a load of money has been transfered from German and French taxpayers to the Greek government via the banking system.

I listened to radio 5 live this morning as well :winkold:

(you beat me to the post )

[tonyh29]

Its not the Daily Mail thats for sure...!

you have completely missed the point. Of course there was nothing official it was fairly obvious to any one who has any political sense that an " off the record pact had been made"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-513240/Lib-Con-pact-Clegg-offers-prop-Tory-government-Cameron-agrees-power-share-deal.html

quality

post of the year material :-)

[CI]

Don't be so naive to think that only French and German taxpayers are picking up Greeces tab

I have no doubt that there will be implications for GB taxpayers somewhere down the line

Who's goin to bail out Eire, Italy, Spain ??

[VILLAFC2000]

Its not the Daily Mail thats for sure...!

you have completely missed the point. Of course there was nothing official it was fairly obvious to any one who has any political sense that an " off the record pact had been made"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-513240/Lib-Con-pact-Clegg-offers-prop-Tory-government-Cameron-agrees-power-share-deal.html

I was waiting for this. it was in the Torrygraph where I first read about this...!

I found the Daily mail article after - what Irony superb...!

[tinker]

Its all ok because we export £10 billion pounds worth of goods to Europe every year, thats why we have to stay within the EU.............We pay £12 billion into Europe every year, plus the hand outs to our starving fellow Europeans......oh shit!

The truth is there is no real answer to all this cheating and lying, mis information and other such bollox. Their all criminals IMO.

The Tories and the Libs arranged a cartell for being elected, Labour are just a bunch of idiots and most of the UK general public 'like' the X factor........

**** it, i just give in!

[drat01]

It seems that some people cannot stop claiming public money

Margaret Thatcher claims £535,000 for ex-PM duties

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has claimed £535,000 of taxpayers' money over the last five years, government records have shown.

Baroness Thatcher, 86, who makes rare public appearances and suffers poor health, was paid from the public duties cost allowance available to ex-PMs.

Others to benefit have been her successor John Major, paid £490,000 in the last five years, and Tony Blair.

In 2008-9, Mr Blair claimed £169,076 - more than his Downing Street salary.

Since leaving office, Mr Blair, who ran the country for a decade from 1997, has claimed just under £273,000.

The system was set up by John Major in 1991, after one year in office, to reward former prime ministers for work including answering letters and attending public events.

In the past five years, the three former number 10 incumbents have cost the taxpayer in total more than £1.7m in public duty allowances.

The figures were revealed by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude following a written Parliamentary question from Tory MP Philip Hollobone.

Mr Maude said: "The public duties cost allowance is kept under review."

In 2005, doctors advised Lady Thatcher, who served three consecutive terms in office, that she should not make public speeches in the wake of some minor strokes.

But she still attends some public functions, including an address by the Pope during his state visit to the UK last year.

In September, she attended a party to mark former Defence Secretary Liam Fox's 50th birthday at his London apartment.

Pretty disgraceful really

[tinker]

Lets set a tent up to show how pissed off we all....

[TheDon]

I find it interesting how so many people seem to think we actually live in a capitalist world. We don't, capitalism is meant to be laissez-faire.

If we truly lived under capitalism then the banks would have gone to the wall. Instead we have government interference keeping alive corporations that have gambled and lost.

The entire premise behind capitalism is a risk vs reward relationship. The higher the risk the greater the possible reward, weighed down by the high chance of failure.

Somehow though the banks have got into a position where they have all of the reward, yet are shouldering none of the risk. Instead the risk is being handled by us, the taxpayer, and we're left to pick up their gambling debts whilst they carry on business as usual.

The banks should have been left to fail. Sit back and watch them crash and burn. That's how capitalism works.

[tonyh29]

Pretty disgraceful really

as disgraceful as using tax payer money in a Casino

nope didn't think so

[bickster]

It seems that some people cannot stop claiming public money

Margaret Thatcher claims £535,000 for ex-PM duties

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has claimed £535,000 of taxpayers' money over the last five years, government records have shown.

Baroness Thatcher, 86, who makes rare public appearances and suffers poor health, was paid from the public duties cost allowance available to ex-PMs.

Others to benefit have been her successor John Major, paid £490,000 in the last five years, and Tony Blair.

In 2008-9, Mr Blair claimed £169,076 - more than his Downing Street salary.

Since leaving office, Mr Blair, who ran the country for a decade from 1997, has claimed just under £273,000.

The system was set up by John Major in 1991, after one year in office, to reward former prime ministers for work including answering letters and attending public events.

In the past five years, the three former number 10 incumbents have cost the taxpayer in total more than £1.7m in public duty allowances.

The figures were revealed by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude following a written Parliamentary question from Tory MP Philip Hollobone.

Mr Maude said: "The public duties cost allowance is kept under review."

In 2005, doctors advised Lady Thatcher, who served three consecutive terms in office, that she should not make public speeches in the wake of some minor strokes.

But she still attends some public functions, including an address by the Pope during his state visit to the UK last year.

In September, she attended a party to mark former Defence Secretary Liam Fox's 50th birthday at his London apartment.

Pretty disgraceful really

I agree, I also think the emboldened bit is also pretty disgraceful

[WhatAboutTheFinish]

It seems that some people cannot stop claiming public money

Margaret Thatcher claims £535,000 for ex-PM duties

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has claimed £535,000 of taxpayers' money over the last five years, government records have shown.

Baroness Thatcher, 86, who makes rare public appearances and suffers poor health, was paid from the public duties cost allowance available to ex-PMs.

Others to benefit have been her successor John Major, paid £490,000 in the last five years, and Tony Blair.

In 2008-9, Mr Blair claimed £169,076 - more than his Downing Street salary.

Since leaving office, Mr Blair, who ran the country for a decade from 1997, has claimed just under £273,000.

The system was set up by John Major in 1991, after one year in office, to reward former prime ministers for work including answering letters and attending public events.

In the past five years, the three former number 10 incumbents have cost the taxpayer in total more than £1.7m in public duty allowances.

The figures were revealed by Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude following a written Parliamentary question from Tory MP Philip Hollobone.

Mr Maude said: "The public duties cost allowance is kept under review."

In 2005, doctors advised Lady Thatcher, who served three consecutive terms in office, that she should not make public speeches in the wake of some minor strokes.

But she still attends some public functions, including an address by the Pope during his state visit to the UK last year.

In September, she attended a party to mark former Defence Secretary Liam Fox's 50th birthday at his London apartment.

Pretty disgraceful really

Can't help but feel that this is one is a complete non-story. Of course a much fairer system would be that once you become Prime Minister you should perform public duties for the rest of your life at your own cost with no form of recompense for time or expenses?

Ultimately they have combined the total paid, for attending official duties, to 3 people (who between them had spent nearly 30 years running the country) over a five year period and have scraped together a dramatic sounding 1.7 million. To put it in perspective, less than Gary Lineker's annual BBC salary!

[drat01]

Thatcher has claimed the most. Nearly half a million for a woman who is so ill she canot make public appearances . How can that be anything but disgraceful. . I call that pretty disgraceful

[Awol]

Thatcher has claimed the most. Nearly half a million for a woman who is so ill she canot make public appearances . How can that be anything but disgraceful. . I call that pretty disgraceful

More disgraceful than sucking up to a dictator for the banksters JP Morgan? - Tony Blair 'visited Libya to lobby for JP Morgan'

More disgraceful than cashing in with companies wanting oil contracts in the country he invaded and working for a foreign government that benefited directly from his invasion? - Revealed: Tony Blair’s secret oil links to Middle East

How about the money the UK tax payer contributes to his laughably ironic jaunts as a Middle East peace envoy?

I could go on for a while but will just say that claiming £273,000 since leaving office, while simultaneously creating the biggest bank account of any former PM ever (20 million+) seems like the ultimate disgrace - but I doubt you'd agree..

[WhatAboutTheFinish]

Thatcher has claimed the most. Nearly half a million for a woman who is so ill she canot make public appearances . How can that be anything but disgraceful. . I call that pretty disgraceful

I'm not sure if you think it's pretty disgraceful?

Ultimately we have no idea (and the story makes no effort to tell us) how many functions or how many duties have been performed and what the expenses have been claimed for. In fact the original article is more telling in what it doesn't say that what it does. Have you considered Lady Thatcher's health problems may actually increase her expenses? If some of the the expenses were paid, for example, to a nurse accompanying her on a trip, would you be criticising the nurse for charging a fee for providing health care?

"Former Prime Minister paid legitimate expenses to perform duties" is not a newsworthy story in my opinion. "Lady Thatcher claims half a million pounds in order to ride a white unicorn naked whilst receiving a pole dance from a Scottish dwarf" That's a story.

[drat01]

:-) as normal the Tory supporters try their hardest to deflect from what is a very valid point in their support for Thatcher. Not surprising but a perfect example of the gross hypocrisy that they and their party show in condemning waste of public monies.

I notice also how their "bile" is aimed towards Blair with little comment re Major, again showing that the hypocrisy of their arguments.

Still I suppose it fits in with Dave's "we are all in this together" mantra - except when it affects anything to do with the Tory party :-)

And for the record Blair has a different role to Major still. I wonder what value both actually bring for their expenditure but it seems that in simple maths the fact that Blair "cost" only half that of Major .......... :-) . It would be very interesting to see how these costs are broken down, I would imagine that Blair and Major incurred costs re foreign travel, Thatcher?? Maybe attending a party for Liam Fox that well known upstanding politician??

[Genie]

These ex PM's must be invoicing at a rate of something like £50,000 an hour mustn't they? Especially in the case of Thatcher.

[drat01]

Thatcher has claimed the most. Nearly half a million for a woman who is so ill she canot make public appearances . How can that be anything but disgraceful. . I call that pretty disgraceful

I'm not sure if you think it's pretty disgraceful?

Ultimately we have no idea (and the story makes no effort to tell us) how many functions or how many duties have been performed and what the expenses have been claimed for. In fact the original article is more telling in what it doesn't say that what it does. Have you considered Lady Thatcher's health problems may actually increase her expenses? If some of the the expenses were paid, for example, to a nurse accompanying her on a trip, would you be criticising the nurse for charging a fee for providing health care?

"Former Prime Minister paid legitimate expenses to perform duties" is not a newsworthy story in my opinion. "Lady Thatcher claims half a million pounds in order to ride a white unicorn naked whilst receiving a pole dance from a Scottish dwarf" That's a story.

Hop your "mind reading" course was money back, as you are saying you know what I think. Yes I do find the half a million on Thatcher disgraceful, especially considering the rhetoric we get on a daily basis from Tory HQ.

So by your reckoning half a million can be excused for Thatcher for medical, absolute bollox IMO but taking your theory a bit more, how can that be applied to to the half a million Major cost?

When I see public departments being closed with people's lives being massively affected all to save a few pounds, and then I see what is basically a senile old woman - a woman who I still despise - claiming half a million for so called public duties (Liam Fox Party - give me a break) and Major claiming nearly the same, and Blair (a wealthy man) claiming 1/4 million, I am somewhat annoyed yes.

Thatcher I hate, I am happy to state that, with this "news" I hate her and what she and her cronies stand for a tiny bit more

[drat01]

These ex PM's must be invoicing at a rate of something like £50,000 an hour mustn't they? Especially in the case of Thatcher.

Shhhh - maybe they have good tax avoidance :-)