Europe

The Krauts have finally had enough of the Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys with them declaring that France is Europe’s biggest problem.

A scathing German assessment of France’s economic weakness – in which the country is labelled “Europe’s biggest problem child” – has reopened divisions between Europe’s two biggest powers.

Last time they had big divisions the Germans were marching down the Champs Elysee in the shade fo the trees about 40 minutes after invading.

A leaked internal briefing from Angela Merkel’s coalition partners refers to President Francois Hollande as “meandering” and draws attention to France’s “highly regulated labour market and highly developed social security system”.

Details of the briefing note were published alongside an internal assessment from the German economics ministry, which listed the French economy’s failings.  Read more »

This is the kind of jihad I can believe in:

[M]embers of Ukrainian feminist group Femen staged protests across Europe as they called for a “topless jihad.” The demonstrations were in support of a young Tunisian activist named Amina Tyler. Last month, Tyler posted naked images of herself online, with the words “I own my body; it’s not the source of anyone’s honor” written on her bare chest. The head of Tunisia’s “Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,” reportedly called for Tyler to be stoned to death for her putatively obscene actions, lest they lead to an epidemic. Tyler has since gone quiet, leading some to fear for her safety.

Below are some images from Femen’s protests in Sweden, Italy, Ukraine, Belgium, and France. A warning, nearly every photo depicts nudity, and most contain offensive language. I did warn you so don’t go moaning in the comments about it.  Read more »

Gareth Morgan must have a goodly collection of dead cats to send to Labour:

To understand what has happened in Europe in the last week, we must borrow from the rich and fruity vocabulary of Australian political analysis. Let us suppose you are losing an argument. The facts are overwhelmingly against you, and the more people focus on the reality the worse it is for you and your case. Your best bet in these circumstances is to perform a manoeuvre that a great campaigner describes as “throwing a dead cat on the table, mate”.  Read more »

Good piece on the Nordic countries in the Economist – highlights how their economic model is working but interesting reasons why:

• Sweden has reduced public spending from 67% to 49% of GDP from 1993 to today
• Top marginal tax rate has been cut by 27% from 1983 and continuing to fall.
• Scrapped taxes such as property, gift, wealth and inheritance taxes
• Corporate tax rate cut to 22%

Before this Sweden had been demoted from 4^th richest in the world in the 70’s to 14^th in 1993.  Read more »

Saturday started with a Face of the Day photo that was a bit hard to look at before breakfast.  Cam finds a Frenchman worthy of respect, and is pleased to find they aren’t all cheese eating surrender monkeys. Count Jacques le Bel de Penguilly does have a poofy name though.  Five Lesbians Eating a Quiche is a play that Whale suggests David Farrar should review for his Womans Weekly blog.  Australia charges its second Catholic Priest for child sex crimes, and this blog continues to ask:  Why is New Zealand immune?  We’re either better than the rest of the world or we’re still covering it up.  Which is it, and why?   Sadly, another Cry Baby post where we highlight those who aren’t taking personal responsibility.  This time, people who booked on Jetstar had their flights cancelled are in the paper bleating they’ll never fly Jetstar again.  If only they knew this could happen, eh?  Sharing a public space is tough when the others are eating, playing music and talking on their phones.  Cam Slater throws in a joke about an ERO school inspector and Hekia Parata, and follows it up with a post where he reveals that politicians lie.  Yeah.  Why do women wear high heels?  It can get to the point of ridiculousness for sure. An interesting post showing that a Connecticut newspaper is still advertising guns right next to Sandy Hook School news.  That was followed by a post of dash cam footage from 1927 as well as dash cam footage of a plane crash last week.  Next a top drawer post about glow in the dark toilet paper and poop hand soap.  Only on WOBH.   An interesting BBC2 short about Gordon Buchanan turning himself potential into Polar Bear lunch leads a post about Iron Maiden showing Steve Harris wearing a Whale Oil Beef Hooked T-Shirt.  Perhaps we should avoid NZ Herald Stock tips:  Australian shares are hot apparently?  Especially those APN stocks.  Oh, and Fairfax stocks are doing just great as well.  And as we wind down towards the end of the Saturday, we have a post about a CK Stead letter in which he slams the Binnie report as having clear bias.   Read more »

Fighty Germans are a bit of a problem, they are good early but run out of puff late in piece, and cost the rest of us a lot to save the cheese eating surrender monkeys.

When Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted a recent reception for military families, she greeted parents, wives and children whose loved ones were spending their holidays inAfghanistan, Lebanon, Kosovo and off the Horn of Africa. German deployments overseas, Ms. Merkel said, “will soon encompass the entire globe.”

On that same wintry afternoon, members of Parliament debated whether to add to the nearly 6,000 German troops currently serving abroad by sending up to 400 soldiers to Turkey, where they would operate two Patriot missile batteries to help protect their NATO ally from a potential escalation of the civil war across the border in Syria.

“For decades, we Germans have benefited from the fact that our partners gave us the feeling of reliable security,” Thomas de Maizière, Germany’s defense minister, said during the debate last month. “Now we are in a position and have the duty, even, to make our impact felt.”

Only a handful of shivering protesters passed out fliers in front of the Brandenburg Gate opposing the deployment. The vote easily passed in the Parliament two days later.

Read more »

The blog started Saturday by having a look at a number of Christchurch people taking pictures up women’s skirts at malls.  And wouldn’t you know it?  A teacher was arrested as well.  Iain Lees-Galloway shows he is a slimy git by opening a Burger King and then refusing to take a bite, preferring to preach sensible food choices.  Cam then called for nominations for Worst Political Journalist, and Barry Soper and John Campbell appeared hot favourites.   Next we had a vote on Best Political Journalist, which Larry Williams took out with a massive 47% of the vote.  Graham McCready withdrew litigation against John Banks because it made no sense to anyone – as in – they couldn’t understand what it said.  Whale then claims a win on his Hekia Parata predictions and wonders why Key has let this train wreck happen.  We raise our eyebrows about Nelson looking for a scooter riding bottom pincher and then watch a video of what happens to a pig at the bottom of the sea over 7 days.  Next a post where Greens are fighting Greens over the Google solar plant.  On the one side: solar energy.  On the other? Turtles.   Charles Krauthammer explains why gun control alone isn’t the solution to mass shootings.   A MENSA spokesperson calls people with low IQs carrots and the BBC feels they have to apologise.  There is a property for sale next to Kim Dotcom‘s place.  Cam suggests the GCSB or the US should have bought it to set up spying operations.   WOBH is calling for The Whale Army to send in their holiday snaps, in a new feature called Snapped!  Cam takes a brief look at who will enter parliament if Tim Groser leaves for the WTO.  To close the day, a WhaleTech post looks at a the cull-de-sac that’s the QII roll-up keyboard. Read more »

It is possible, but there might just actually be some good socialists out there:

Take Estonia, a tiny country at the mercy of its much larger neighbours, which has ample reason to blame “global forces”. But throughout the crash, it defiantly kept its taxes low (at a 21 per cent flat rate) and took the tough decision to cut state spending by a tenth. It is now celebrating the fastest growth in Europe. The much-larger Sweden responded to the crash with a permanent tax cut for the low-paid. This encouraged so many people back to work that the extra revenue covered the cost of the policy. Socialist Sweden has proven the existence of a phenomenon that the Tories had been taught no longer exists: a self-financing tax cut.

It looks like the pommy bastards have finally come good and are talking of leaving the EU.

Half of British voters would chose to leave the European Union if they were offered the choice in a referendum, a poll has found.

The survey will fuel the growing political debate about Britain’s future place in the EU, which has seen even Cabinet ministers suggesting that the UK would prosper outside the union.

It was published a day after Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, publicly urged David Cameron to resist growing Conservative pressure for an exit and keep Britain in the EU.

The YouGov poll showed that 49 per cent of voters would vote to leave the EU in a referendum. Twenty-eight per percent said they would opt to remain a member, while 17 per cent said they did not know how they would vote.

The poll, of 1,637 British adults, was carried out late last month and also showed that most Britons do not believe their country has much sway over European affairs.

Only 29 per cent of voters said they consider Britain to be influential within the EU. Forty five per cent said Britain has little clout in Europe.

Socialism is one of the more stupid political ideologies out there. Take a look at the state of France buckling under from a lifetime of socialists:

French leader François Hollande is uncomfortably close to a collapse in credibility. His poll rating has sunk to 36pc. The speed of decline has been shocking.

The latest broadside comes from ex-German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, supposedly his ally on the Left.

“The election promises of the French president are going to shatter on the walls of economic reality,” he said in Paris.

The backsliding in the retirement age is indefensible and “cannot be financed”. Two or three more blunders of this kind and “reality will catch up with out French friends”.

Mr Schröder knows what it takes to claw back competitiveness. He lost his chancellorship on the Hartz IV labour reforms.

This tale of political sacrifice can be exaggerated of course. The Hartz IV reforms are not the chief reason why Germany is super-competitive today within EMU. The country’s hiring and firing laws are among the least reformed in the OECD to this day.

The Teutonic machine regained a labour edge by screwing down wages for year after year (as companies like VW threatened to relocate plant to Eastern Europe). It was an internal devaluation. Hartz IV was the icing on the cake.

Be that as it may, there is no doubt that Berlin is seriously worried about the strategic direction of France. Le Figaro – which now seems to launch daily attacks of considerable ferocity against the hapless Hollande – had a two-page spread today on German disgust with the new sick man of Europe.

The French are living in Alice and Wonderland. Bild Zeitung asked whether France is becoming the “new Greece”. You get the drift.