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Greece rejects EU austerity proposals
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Greece to hold snap referendum on July 5
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How would a Greek default affect Britain?
It is widely reported that the Greek Government has rejected EU austerity proposals necessary to satisfy the criteria for the release of EU funding to enable it to repay the 1.6bn due for repayment to the IMF by 30th June.
The Greek government have just announced they will hold a referendum on the EU austerity proposals on July 5th asking its citizens whether or not to accept austerity conditions. Some believe the referendum will not go ahead and is an attempt by the Greek Government to blackmail the EU into relaxing the austerity measures being demanded.
If the referendum goes ahead it is widely expected that the Greek people will reject the austerity measures leaving the EU with the problem of rejecting further funding to prop up the Greek economy, in which case without EU funding, the Greek banking system would almost certainly collapse and Greece would default on its IMF loan.
Since the IMF loan to Greece is considered by the IMF to be a ‘Eurozone’ (European Central Bank) debt and then in order to protect the value of the ‘Euro’ the EU may reluctantly have to provide further funding to Greece to prop up the Greek banking system and rescind some of the austerity measures presently being demanded.
The Greek financial problem is not going to go away, should they manage to find sufficient funds by 30th June to pay the 1.6bn owed to the IMF, their other debt burden would still be there with the government due to pay another €6.6bn to the European Central Bank in July and August.
Britain is presently looking at how the enfolding situation could affect British financial and business institutions.
Britain’s exports to Greece are small at around £100m per annum the wider impact on Britain, should Greece default, leave the Eurozone or exit the EU, would be on the Uk’s relationship with the rest of the region.
Europe accounts for about half of Britain’s exports and the weakness of the euro has already made it harder for UK manufacturers to compete as the stronger pound has made the value of their goods and services more expensive. The Confederation of British Industry (CBI), is therefore keen to see Athens pull back from the brink and reach a deal with its international creditors on restructuring its sovereign debts.
There is no doubt the Greek problem within the EU will be around for years to come and the effect on Britain will largely depend on the result of the British referendum on EU membership to be held between May 2016 and December 2017 . . Exactly how the Greece situation will impact the British referendum is not immediately obvious, but I suspect that a Greek exit would sour British politicians and voters on the EU, making them more likely to vote for a British exit.
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( Party Official ) Thank God Britain stayed out of the Eurozone and kept the Pound . However , as sure as night follows day , the European Union will ask Britain for MORE MONEY to pay for THEIR FAILURES ! If we get our Referendum , Britain needs to follow British Democratic Party POLICY and Vote to leave the European Union !
Absolutely right John, the sooner we are out of the EU the better for this country. Unfortunately all of the main political parties, with the exception of UKIP, are in favour of a YES vote and this will likely sway the vote in that direction. Let us hope the Greek situation will show everyone just how little solidarity there is between the EU member states when it comes to money and that it will act as a wakeup call to our politicians and the electorate.
As I understand it, the IMF loan was made to the Eurozone Central Bank (ECB) and not directly to Greece, it will therefore be interesting to see if the ECB will have to pay the 1.6bn euros to the IMF if/when Greece defaults.
I believe there is a good chance the vote to leave will be lost and that isn't just to do with the fact that staying-in the EU is the status quo situation (the status quo option nearly always has a big advantage in referendums as we saw with the vote on Scottish secession). People will look at the types of people who want to leave and to be frank Tory eurosceptics and UKIP are not a good advertisement for this policy especially as both of them are known to be most annoyed about the fact the EU imposes a certain minimum standard of workers' rights upon this country rather than articulating a nationalist stance of getting our sovereignty back.
I’m sure the anti EU stance, for whatever reason, taken by the Tory sceptics and UKIP will have little influence on how the Greek people will vote in their referendum.
It should be remembered that the Tory sceptics and UKIP are our standard bearers in campaigning to take Britain out of the EU and are worthy of our support, particularly as the Labour, Liberal, Green and Scottish National parties will be campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU even if no concessions are made by Brussels in respect of our EU membership.
Yes, the Tory Eurosceptics and UKIP will be the main proponents of the No campaign and this will probably be to the great pleasure of the Yes side. According to some polls, UKIP are one of the most loathed parties in Britain and so if they strongly participate on the No side they could well damage the argument for leaving (just as the Yes campaign in 1975 made much out of the alleged 'extremism' of Enoch Powell and Tony Benn)
In 1975, there were quite a few Labour figures like Tony Benn who advocted our leaving the Common Market.
Their rationale for leaving was mainly to do with economics and that the Common Market was a 'bosses' club' which would mean that ordinary workers would suffer from worse rights at work, less pay and worse unemployment ect. In other words, 'left-wing' arguments. This time around, it appears there will be few Labour or 'left-wing' people to put these sort of arguments. I believe this will damage the No campaign. The No campaign HAS TO connect with ordinary people if it is to stand a chance of success and if the campaign is perceived to be overly dominated by 'Right-wing' Tories and UKIP figures then it could well not receive as many votes as we would want it to and could therefore fail to win.
For the referendum to succeed in taking us out then as many arguments as possible from every possible angle are going to be needed and the No campaign will have to recruit people from EVERY 'wing' of politics. In short, the campaign will need to be very broadly-based.
( Party Official ) For the record , our Party Policy is to take our Country out of the European Union , straight away as it infringes on our right to self Government and we wish to build our economy by trading with the whole World apart from nasty regimes.
There is certainly very little in the way of European solidarity in this matter. Angela Merkel needs to tell the German people that for the single currency to work properly (if this is indeed possible and I find such a prospect doubtfull) then there will have to be greater co-ordination of tax policies across the Eurozone and this will mean German taxpayers will have to be prepared to pay out lots of money for the transfer of their tax monies to poorer countries like Greece so they don't become too depressed. This is what successful currency unions do (ie with our Sterling in the United Kingdom). Angela Merkel hasn't been honest with the German electorate though she isn't the only person to blame in this regard.
All this financial jiggery pokery is so so complicated. But shouldn’t be . the Dickens phase, earned a pound, spent 19 shillihgs and sixpence. ‘ happiness’. That’s 97 and one half pence to those born later than the conversion date.
Finance is that simple . But the usury brigade cannot turn a profit. Perhaps that’s why Dickens was accused of anti-Semitism.
All misery is caused by debt and drugs .usually connected. And a system The EU, that has no accountability cannot sign off its books. Telling Greece its being a bad boyo . Really takes the cake
Of course many of the ” big business “household names will throw millions at the campaign, the endless flow of cheap unskilled immigrant labour ensures bigger profits and happy shareholders ( and more cash to donate to the Tories ) They do not give a monkeys about the indigenous population.
The media seems very much in favour of us remaining in the EU, even some of what is regarded as the ”right wing” media. Some of them appear to be neutral. The Left are fanatical about staying in, as they know it will further erode our culture. Either way it will be interesting to see how a Greek exit will effect those who are still undecided here.
Only some of the 'Left' are fanatical about staying-in. It should be remembered that us joining the Common Market was always a 'Right-wing' policy. Tory governments had been campaigning for us to join since the 1960's and it was a Tory governemnt who put us in it WITHOUT A REFERENDUM. Quite a few 'true' lefties would say the Common Market/EU is actually a very 'Right-wing' (in the sense of neo-liberal globalist economics) project and that is sufficient reason for us to leave.