Once upon a time when Nigel Farage got up to speak you often wondered whether he was the full ticket, but today when he gives the European parliament the benefit of his opinion he is the only one making any sense and that includes most of our other politicos back home. Instead of planning to get out of the EU madhouse we have confirmed that £10 billion of our money, yours and mine, has been re-pledged to the IMF “pour encourager les autres” as I am sure was the phrase Christine Lagarde used as she sidled up alongside an impressionable young chancellor, who is totally out of his depth in such company – Lagarde’s youthful pastime of synchronised swimming for the French national team is now paying dividends. It is only a promise at this stage, but it already has parliamentary approval – slid through in a dark period rather like TARP in the States – without any proper scrutiny and an absence of opprobrium from the main stream media the supposed guardians of free speech. If only…

Talking of whom…the Old Man of Oz and his unspeakable offspring may be coming to the end of their days, but not before they do for the leadership of the Tory party. Cameron should sack Hunt but will he? Because he is as knee deep in lies and hypocrisy as his junior minister the spotlight would then focus even more tightly on the PM. Who can we trust these days to look after our best interests? I ask that question because I really don’t know the answer.

 And I could ask the same question in the US, France, Greece and Ireland where elections or referenda are taking place sooner or later. May 6^th could be the turning point as France and Greece go to the polls. In both countries the stronger challengers are determined to have some say in the renegotiation of the EU austerity fiscal pact despite the Oxymerkel (the EU version of oxymoron suggested by “The Slog” a site well worth a visit) saying, “the discussion is closed.”

 She does hail from what was East Germany and has learnt much from her friends in the Stasi about “negotiating” tactics. The Greeks should be easy to deal with. Threaten to turn off the spigot and a light may come on in Athens. On the other hand it could turn into a riot! So the more subtle approach would be to find a pro-Troika puppet, but with 32 different parties standing it will be the coalition from hell that wins this one; assuming of course that the dirty tricks brigade doesn’t scupper the whole thing. Apparently a relatively small but essential part of the legal process required to hold an election has “gone missing” but this is Greece so nobody is bothered…unless of course the result is not to the liking of Lagarde, Super Mario, Rompuy Pompuy and the OxyM; all sworn upholders of democracy…my foot.

 In France the mood is “anything but Sarkozy” who would be deemed a rabid socialist in the US so quite what they would make of Hollande I shudder to think and so would they! He is however already back tracking on his fiscal pact renegotiation ploy saying that of course there should be austerity measures – a 75% tax rate for the greedy capitalists for starters – but there should also be some expectation of growth, a theme echoed by none other than Herman, the Chief von Muppet in Brussels who has suggested yet another EU summit on the matter, somewhat dangerously overlooking the fact that the Bundeskanzlerin has said, “Ze diskussion iss closst!”. That isn’t the fat lady singing by the way; it sounds more like tanks starting up to me…www.viewfromthebridge.co.uk

Grant Williams writes a regular piece entitled “Things that make you go…Hmmm” which is always thought provoking and comes with a weekly roundup of things that rarely reach the MSM. I just feel that the time has come to raise the “noise” level to at least Defcon 3 hence the title of this latest “View”.

 The first subject that is driving me to despair is Japan and I don’t mean the fact that its debt levels make Greece’s look trivial (they are to the Greeks, but not to the rest of Europe) or that its deflationary tendencies are an issue, but that Fukushima is still a nuclear disaster waiting for another earthquake.

 Because radio activity is “invisible” the reporting of it in the press has remarkably similar properties…Just in case you missed it, here is TEPCO’s (Tokyo Electric Power Co) plan for “decommissioning”. Phase 1 – in 2 years, begin the process of fuel removal from the spent fuel pools. Phase 2 – in 10 years, begin removing fuel debris (solidified fuel and melted cladding). Phase 3 – in 30-40 years, complete fuel debris removal and the processing and disposal of radioactive waste. There are over 1600 tons of spent nuclear fuel in the pools, which are in the six reactor buildings or what remains of them. TEPCO admit that “as of the end of February 2012, the full extent of the damage to the RPV (reactor pressure vessel) cores and PCVs (primary containment vessel) was still under investigation”. In other words they don’t know how bad things are, but a modest little earthquake in the 5-6 range (very common in these parts) might just help them find out sometime over the next 40 years….if you haven’t read Neville Shute’s book – On the Beach – I suggest you get a copy and an airline ticket to anywhere in the Southern Hemisphere.

My next potential stressor is listening to those gentle folk who don’t think that the stock market is being manipulated. To move them right out of their “comfort zone” I would suggest that ALL capital markets are currently in that state; stock, bond, currency, commodity, derivatives, property; you name it, someone else is controlling it and for their benefit not yours. Globalisation means that the major manipulators facilitators of global finance are so big that their mere presence moves markets but there are those who believe that they wouldn’t use this to their advantage; oh dear… We are not just talking greedy investment banks here; regulators and governments are even bigger sharks fish in this very murky pond.

 And then we have the MSM. How often do you hear people say that they don’t believe anything they read in the newspapers? So why do they read the wretched things then? And don’t watch the news on TV either; same anaesthetic propaganda. In fact switch the thing off and turn it into a bird table you will be amazed at how much extra productive time that will give you! And by not paying your sub to the “man in the sky” another evil empire will slip back into the ooze.

 While I am in overdrive a mention of the euro, that last lingering but fatally flawed bastion of european union (lower case now obligatory), will not go amiss. It is doomed. Greece will be first out before the year end. The last bailout was a complete farce with the new improved whiter than white debt trading at 20% of par value so yet another default is inevitable…and soon. Who will be next? Quite possibly France. Sarkozy is dead in the water so we face the prospect of Francois Hollande vowing to “dominate the financial bogeyman as soon as the election is won”. Good luck with that one. Right on cue a futures market on French government debt is to be opened which will make it even easier to price OATs (obligations assimilables au Tresor – French gilts) “a la grecque”. Should be an interesting ride for the new government!

 That’s quite enough for this week. In the next edition we will be talking to people who think that we still live in a democracy…aaargh! www.viewfromthebridge.co.uk

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