News from the East

The 'Credit Crunch' claimed its third prime minister this week as the PM of Hungary resigned following both Iceland and Latvia in ditching its leadership. Given that he got caught admitting to lying on a grand scale to the Hungarian public perhaps we should be surprised he has lasted this long. Who, we wonder, will be next?

Meanwhile in the Czech Republic the government of Mirek Topolanek has lost a vote of no confidence and will be forced to resign. This may not sound like big news, but given that the Czech Republic is currently holding the presidency of the EU a collapsing government could have a serious impact as the EU struggles to deal with the impact of the global recession and the increasing assertive Russian Bear.

Welcome to the Club

As highlighted by this blog a few weeks ago Iceland is set to join the European Union, I think this is fantastic news. I like Iceland and its people and I think they will be better off inside the club. It may also be good news for whales as I hope the EU will use membership negotiations as an opportunity to restrict Iceland's hunting.

The EU Audit

I've always considered Iain Dale to be a reasonably responsible blogger. but today he seems to have got his wires crossed. The BBC had widely reported that for the first time in 14 years the EU accounts have been passed by the annual Audit . Regardless of your feelings towards the European Union this must be viewed as a step in the right direction, however Mr Dale sees it differently.

Hmmm...

First Proper Post

Anyone who has not been living under a rock can have missed the fact that the economy has gone a bits tits up lately. I think we can draw several lessons from what has been going on in recent months;

1 - If you deregulate the market greedy people will push the new rules to their limits.

2 - Sometimes even the most freemarket of administrations will have to use state power, all politicians are hypocrites when faced with a crisis.

3 - National governments are powerless in the face of global trends (ok so we already knew this but its worth highlighting again in case anyone forgot about the whole Globalisation thing)

4 - My house is now owed by the British taxpayer

5 - Very few of our elected leaders, civil servants or bankers understand the flow of money around the globe.

Finally, isn't it lucky that a big power happened to be in the Presidency of the EU during this period. Would the PM of Slovenia, Finland or Ireland been able to cut a deal like Sarkozy managed at the weekend?