Jeremy Corbyn will be unelectable ..... and Margret Thatcher was viewed as unelectable by the Tories in 1975

With all the rhetoric coming from all sides claiming Jeremy Corbyn will be an unelectable disaster for Labour, we should remember this simple point. Margret Thatcher was viewed as unelectable by the Tories and the upper echelons of the Tory party did all they could to stop her becoming leader.... Sound familiar?

Charles Moore, author of another biography of Thatcher, concurs: “Many regarded her candidacy as nothing more than a chance to prepare the ground for challenges by someone more serious, or merely for malcontents to let off steam.”  Sound familiar? [More here]

The Guardian’s Anne Perkins simply notes Thatcher was seen as “unelectable” by her own party”  [More here]

The Sunday Mirror’s Woodrow Wyatt argued Thatcher would take the Tory Party in “an extremist, class-conscious, right wing direction” which would keep it out of office for a decade. She was “precisely the sort of candidate who ought to be able to stand, and lose, harmlessly”, argued The Economist. “Leading Heathites… believed that the Tory party must stay on the middle ground to stand a chance of winning elections”, according to Campbell. [More here]

If all this sounds strangely familiar four decades later, Moore provides another uncanny historical parallel: “As the campaign entered its closing phase, the ‘establishment’ which Mrs Thatcher had decided to take on pulled out all the stops.” [More here]

Of course, there are many significant differences between Thatcher’s and Corbyn’s bids to lead their respective parties and, if the Labour backbencher should win, their attempts to lead the country. However, my key - though obvious - point still stands: the unexpected can and sometimes does happen. And it can happen a lot quicker than anyone was expecting. There is, in short, no unchanging historical or political forces, or logical reason, why Corbyn couldn’t be prime minister.
[More here]

a YouGov poll for the Evening Standard found Corbyn “has more support among the London public than his nearest rivals, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper, put together.” The fact that many of Corbyn’s political positions are supported by a majority of the general public can only increase his electability. [More here]

So, before politicians, journalists and, yes, Corbyn supporters, blindly repeat the establishment-framed and establishment-preserving argument that Jeremy is unelectable, they would do well to ponder the words of Nelson Mandela, a man who knew a thing or two about political change: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” [More here]

Across three decades New Labour strategists have overlooked a crucial reality: politicians reinforce the values they espouse. The harder you try to win by adopting your opponents’ values, the more you legitimise and promote them, making your task – and that of your successors – more difficult. [More here]

'Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few'.

On this day 18th August 1940, 75 years ago the hardest day of the Battle of britain was fought.

'On this day the Luftwaffe tried its utmost to destroy our fighter airfields flying 850 sorties involving 2200 aircrew. The RAF resisted with equal vigour flying 927 sorties involving 600 aircrew.'  

More here RAF museum: The Hardest Day

The few consisted of 2,353 British pilots and various other nations as below (In order of number of pilots)  More here: Non-British personnel in the RAF during the Battle of Britain

Nation	Number
Poland	145[1]
New Zealand	127[1] or 135[2]
Canada	112[1]
Czechoslovakia	84[3] or 88[1]
Belgium	28[1] or 30[3]
Australia	26[3] or 32[1]
South Africa	22[3] or 25[1]
France	13[1] or 14[3]
Ireland	10[1]
United States	9[1] or 11[3]
Southern Rhodesia	3[1] or 4[3]
Northern Rhodesia	1[3]
Barbados	1[1]
Jamaica	1[1]
Newfoundland	1[1]

Part of Churchill's speech on 20 August 1940 -  More Here
'The gratitude of every home in our Island, in our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and by their devotion. Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day, but we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill, aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious loss, with deliberate, careful discrimination, and inflict shattering blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous occasions to restrain…'

 — Winston Churchill

Flypast to mark 'hardest day' of Battle of Britain BBC News

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hardest_Day

Prior to 'the few' speech Churchill delivered his battle of Britain speech on 18th June https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain

... What General Weygand has called The Battle of France is over. The battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of a perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, "This was their finest hour".

— Winston Churchill

Virgin Heathcare, Alliance Medical, Medical Records and Tax Avoidance.

I live near Weybridge in Surrey, so when I damaged my shoulder I went to the Weybridge walk in center to get the incident logged on my records. I discovered while I was there that Weybrige NHS walk in center is run by Virgin Prime, basically the service is contracted out.

The problem is that there is no linking of records. So if you visit a contracted out NHS walk in center like the one in Weybridge.  You Doctor will not see any evidence on your records of you having been there.

I was advised to book an appointment with my Doctor so that my records could be updated. So about 1.5 hrs waiting at walk in center and over an hour trying to get a telephone consultation from a Doctor and of course thats efficient.

My main point so far is that due to fragmentation of services, rather than them being NHS, we now have fragmentation of our medical records.

 

It all sounds nice and, comfy and fluffy in Mr Bransons video above.

Interesting to note that Mr Bransons Virgin Healthcare hasnt paid tax in this country, yet. It probably never will as it borrows money, to fund itself, from another in his group set up in a tax haven. The money will then be paid back with hefty interest therby ensuring Virgin Healthcare will make little or no profit and also pay no corporation tax.

Ive also been for two MRI scans, both were in trucks outside Ashford hospital. Apparantly the hostpital no longer has scanners as they are too expensive to run. Er!... Well forgive me for being stupid but if an enterprise as large as the NHS cant get a decent deal to run and service MRI scanners how is a much smaller company like Alliance doing it. Those MRI scanners are not outside the hospital making a loss they are there making a profit for the private company. Once again our money is being syphoned off out of the NHS and into shareholders pockets under the guise of efficency and cost. Shocking!

Now would you be shocked to find that disgraced Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind sits on the board of Alliance Medical? Strangely Alliance Medical was awarded the contract when the local NHS bid is understood to have been better value for money.  Read more here

Companies with links to Tories ‘have won £1.5bn worth of NHS contracts’  Well theres a supprise.


How the EU is making NHS privatisation permanent
Virgin Care Ltd
NHS Standard Contract 2014/15
Delivering the Prime Contractor approach to NHS services
Weybridge Walk-In Centre
http://www.alliancemedical.co.uk/
NHS England chooses Collaborative Network bid to provide PET-CT scanning services across England
Alliance Medical in debt restructuring deal
Alliance Medical company check

Jesus Never Existed

I did some quite extensive searching. Asked questions of religious people both christian and Muslim.  Nowhere could I find any evidence that a biblical Jesus existed.  There is no mention of him in any of the old texts of that time.  Except maybe Flavius Josephus, and that was altered.

"The general scholarly view is that while the Testimonium Flavianum is most likely not authentic in its entirety, it is broadly agreed upon that it originally consisted of an authentic nucleus, which was then subject to Christian expansion/alteration."   [More here]

One mention of a person so great he was running around curing the sick, walking on water, feeding the 5,000 and whatever other miracles hes purported to have done and theres no mention.

Does that not seem strange to you?

If I ask Christian or Muslim they wont even look in case they cant find anything.  I challenged a Muslim at work to find me evidence that Jesus existed outside religious books. After initially agreeing, he came back and said he couldn't as if he couldn't find anything it would question his faith.

So you wont look because you might not find anything and that would prove its all a total sham?

Anyway Michael Paulkovich has written a book on the subject and obviously investigated far more extensively than I did, finding one-hundred-and-twenty-six writers from the "time of Jesus" who should have, but did not record anything about him.

Here is an introduction to the book

From No Meek Messiah:
It is 391 CE now as Roman Emperor Theodosius elevates Jesus (posthumously) to divinity, declaring Christianity the only "legitimate" religion of the world, under penalty of death. The ancient myth is rendered law. This decision by Theodosius is possibly the worst ever made in human history: what followed were century after century of torture and murder in the name of this false, faked, folkloric "prophesied savior" of fictional virgin mother. Within a year after the decree by Theodosius, crazed Christian monks of Nitria destroy the majestic Alexandrian Library largely because philosophy and science are taught there—not the Bible. In Alexandria these are times of the highest of intellectual pursuits, all quashed by superstitious and ignorant Christians of the most godly and murderous variety: they had the "Holy Bible" on their side. 

Labour's leader debate "Ask me anything" on LBC

Vote on who you think came across better at the bottom

Liz Kendall answers questions from the other three candidates to be Labour leader during LBC's Labour Leadership Debate.

Yvette Cooper answers questions from the other three candidates to be Labour leader during LBC's Labour Leadership Debate.

Jeremy Corbyn answers questions from the other three candidates to be Labour leader during LBC's Labour Leadership Debate.

Andy Burnham answers questions from the other three candidates to be Labour leader during LBC's Labour Leadership Debate.

Who do you think came across best?

Labour members are "suicidally inclined" .... Really? thats an intelligent comment.

 

I was hoping for something with more substance from John McTernan.  Instead he decided that saying some Labour members are "suicidally inclined", "they need there heads felt", "they should be ashamed" for backing Jeremy Corbyn.  Sorry mate, you might be quite high up in politics but that is not the way to win people over.

Maybe saying why people should vote for another candidate or why other candidates policies are better than what Jeremy Corbyn is offering, would have been more productive. Even promoting some intellegent reasoning as to why Jeremy Corbyn would be bad for the Labour Party, would have been interesting and comments that people could take away and think about.

Instead you decided that insulting people, that you obviously feel are less intelligent than you are, is the best way forward.

With the comments that Blair made today its almost like the doors on some secret club have been rattled and these people are poking their heads out like bleary eyed hamsters and opening their mouths before engaging brains.

Tony Blair said “Let me make my position clear: I wouldn’t want to win on an old-fashioned leftist platform. Even if I thought it was the route to victory, I wouldn’t take it.”

I say to Tony Blair your not telling the truth sir! the job was everything, you would have taken it an run with it. Mr Blair was as good at spin as the Tories are now.

Mr blair "Im a Labour leader" ooops theres a fopaux.

Why are you not promoting the policies that the others have that will make the Labour party a serious opposition to the Tories?

Why are you just bashing Jeremy Corbyn and any form of move to the left?

Why do we need a right wing labour party?

Surely once it agrees with Tory policy then it ceases to exit as a serious political party and becomes jobs for the boys.

Or have I just hit the nail on the head?

Jeremy Corbyn Next Labour Leader ... Well why Not? and maybe he can save the NHS

I agree with most, not all, of what Jeremy Corbyn says and 100% agree on Corporate tax evasion. He comes across refreshingly honest and principled. Could he make a difference, Im prepared to back him and find out.  What have we really got to lose.  Unless someone shakes things up the tories will have sold off the NHS without people realising it. (check here for more info on that)

Who's benefiting from privatisation? (Check here for more info on that)

Care UK, Circle, McKinsey, Serco and Virgin Care are all benefiting. You can read about them in the list of fishiest outsourcing firms at False Economy.

Please check out the links above its shocking that all this is going on and people are not aware of it, we are being decieved by the tories who say one thing and do another.

Jeremy Corbyn on his record and that of his rivals on the Iraq war, NHS privatisation, banks deregulation, and the future for Labour and possibly the country under his leadership. 

  

Sky News July 14 2015 Jeremy Corbyn On Welfare, IS, Greece & Labour

Jeremy Corbyn makes his pitch for Labour leadership - Newsnight

 

Jeremy Corbyn gives his argument that Socialism does work. 

 

Jeremy Corbyn MP on Britain in the World

Mhairi Black Impressive Maiden Speech

Mhairi Black impressive maiden speech from the 20 year old

Transcript of speech in full

Firstly in my maiden speech I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Douglas Alexander. He served the constituency for many years. After all, I was only three when he was elected. But it is because of that fact that I want to thank him for all he did for the constituency and I especially want to take a moment to commend him for the dignified way that he handled himself on what must have been a very difficult election night. He did himself proud, he did his party proud, and I wish him the best for the future.

Now, when I discovered it is tradition to speak bout the history of your constituency in a maiden speech, I decided to do some research despite the fact I’ve lived there all my life. And as one of the tale end doing the maiden speech of my colleagues in the SNP I’ve noticed that my colleagues quite often mention Rabbie Burns a lot and they all try to form this intrinsic connection between him and their own constituency and own him for themselves. I however feel no need to do this for during my research I discovered a fact which trumps them all. William Wallace was born in my constituency.

Now, my constituency has a fascinating history far beyond the Hollywood film and historical name. from the mills of Paisley, to the industries of Johnstone, right to the weavers in Kilbarchan, it’s got a wonderful population with a cracking sense of humour and much to offer both the tourists and to those who reside there. 
But the truth is that within my constituency it’s not all fantastic. We’ve watched our town centres deteriorate. We’re watched our communities decline. Our unemployment level is higher than that of the UK average. One in five children in my constituency go to bed hungry every night. Paisley Job Centre has the third highest number of sanctions in the whole of Scotland.

Before I was elected I volunteered for a charitable organisation and there was a gentleman who I grew very fond of. He was one of these guys who has been battered by life in every way imaginable. You name it, he’s been through it. And he used to come in to get food from this charity, and it was the only food that he had access to and it was the only meal he would get. And I sat with him and he told me about his fear of going to the Job Centre. He said “I’ve heard the stories Mhairi, they try and trick you out, they’ll tell you you’re a liar. I’m not a liar Mhairi, I’m not.” And I told him “It’s OK, calm down. Go, be honest, it’ll be fine.”
I then didn’t see him for about two or three weeks. I did get very worried, and when he finally did come back in I said to him “how did you get on?”
And without saying a word he burst into tears. That grown man standing in front of a 20-year-old crying his eyes out, because what had happened to him was the money that he would normally use to pay for his travel to come to the charity to get his food he decided that in order to afford to get to the Job Centre he would save that money. Because of this, he didn’t eat for five days, he didn’t drink. When he was on the bus on the way to the Job Centre he fainted due to exhaustion and dehydration. He was 15 minutes later for the Job Centre and he was sanctioned for 13 weeks.
Now, when the Chancellor spoke in his budget about fixing the roof while the sun is shining, I would have to ask on who is the sun shining? When he spoke about benefits not supporting certain kinds of lifestyles, is that the kind of lifestyle that he was talking about?

Mhairi Black, the twenty year old SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South

If we go back even further when the Minister for Employment was asked to consider if there was a correlation between the number of sanctions and the rise in food bank use she stated, and I quote, “food banks play an important role in local welfare provision.” Renfrewshire has the third highest use of food banks use and food bank use is going up and up. Food banks are not part of the welfare state, they are symbol that the welfare state is failing.

Now, the Government quite rightly pays for me through tax payers money to be able to live in London whilst I serve my constituents. My housing is subsidised by the tax payer. Now, the Chancellor in his budget said it is not fair that families earning over £40,000 in London should have their rents paid for by other working people. But it is OK so long as you’re an MP? 
In this budget the Chancellor also abolished any housing benefit for anyone below the age of 21. So we are now in the ridiculous situation whereby because I am an MP not only am I the youngest, but I am also the only 20-year-old in the whole of the UK that the Chancellor is prepared to help with housing. We now have one of the most uncaring, uncompromising and out of touch governments that the UK has seen since Thatcher.

It is here now that I must turn to those who I share a bench with. Now I have in this chamber for ten weeks, and I have very deliberately stayed quiet and have listened intently to everything that has been said. I have heard multiple speeches from Labour benches standing to talk about the worrying rise of nationalism in Scotland, when in actual fact all these speeches have served to do is to demonstrate how deep the lack of understanding about Scotland is within the Labour party.

 I like many SNP members come from a traditional socialist Labour family and I have never been quiet in my assertion that I feel that it is the Labour party that left me, not the other way about. The SNP did not triumph on a wave of nationalism; in fact nationalism has nothing to do with what’s happened in Scotland. We triumphed on a wave of hope, hope that there was something different, something better to the Thatcherite neo-liberal policies that are produced from this chamber. Hope that representatives genuinely could give a voice to those who don’t have one.

I don’t mention this in order to pour salt into wounds which I am sure are very open and very sore for many members on these benches, both politically and personally. Colleagues, possibly friends, have lost their seats. I mention it in order to hold a mirror to the face of a party that seems to have forgotten the very people they’re supposed to represent, the very things they’re supposed to fight for.
After hearing the Labour leader’s intentions to support the changes of tax credits that the Chancellor has put forward, I must make this plea to the words of one of your own and a personal hero of mine. Tony Benn once said that in politics there are weathercocks and sign posts. Weathercocks will spin in whatever direction the wind of public opinion may blow them, no matter what principal they may have to compromise. And then there are signposts, signposts which stand true, and tall, and principled. And they point in the direction and they say this is the way to a better society and it is my job to convince you why. Tony Benn was right when he said the only people worth remembering in politics were signposts.

Now, yes we will have political differences, yes in other parliaments we may be opposing parties, but within this chamber we are not. No matter how much I may wish it, the SNP is not the sole opposition to this Government, but nor is the Labour party. It is together with all the parties on these benches that we must form an opposition, and in order to be affective we must oppose not abstain. So I reach out a genuine hand of friendship which I can only hope will be taken. Let us come together, let us be that opposition, let us be that signpost of a better society. Ultimately people are needing a voice, people are needing help, let’s give them it.

New Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn? .... who would you vote for?

The labour party was always the voice of the working class, I remember my mum and dad wouldn't even contemplate voting Conservative and I used to argue that they shouldn't base who they vote for just on a principle it should be a decision made on who you think will do the best for the majority in the country.

I spent 5 years as a union rep at British Aerospace, so supporting Labour was kind of ingrained due to the job. Now I would just like to see Labour back as a decent party supporting the majority of people in the UK.

Labour in my opinion has failed by trying to move too far towards the Tories in policies in the hope of winning votes.  That really is winning at all costs and throwing your principles out of the window.  As a Union Rep I quickly learnt that you have to listen to what your members want and steer and advise, unfortunately some people will want the stars and you have to talk them down to reality. Lets take the case of the country. Everyone who hasn't had a pay increase for 4 years should get a 10% pay increase. That would put them back at status quo. However even though they should get it doesn't mean its right for the country.  Those people will never get that money back and when you look at the bonuses handed out by bankers who are continually failing, its a bitter pill to swallow.

So back to the Labour leader, personally I'm fed up with smarmy good talkers who say one thing and mean another.  I'm sick of the constant spin that the Tories pump out and people for some reason just believe.  Labour needs a leader that has principles and will stick by them right or wrong, it doesn't matter, we need some truth in politics.

There is only one person that I can see in the list below that stands for truth and honesty and that's Jeremy Corbyn. Now I know hes not really got the best experience to be PM and he is considered more left wing than most, but maybe that's whats needed at present.  What he is is pretty transparent, you get what you see and hear, I find that particularly refreshing even if I don't agree with everything he stands for.  

With regard to expenses he has always been one of the lowest claiming MPs. He has defied the party whip 238 times, which means he wont just roll over and agree if he doesn't think its right.  That is a man of principles.

So regardless of whether I agree with all his policies and lets face it not many of us agree with every policy that a political party has. I hope that Jeremy Corbyn gets in, just because it might force a few others to stick with their principles, rather than trying to get into bed with the Tories in a sad attempt at winning votes.

Check out the 60 second videos and see what you think, sorry but Andy Burnham is so smarmy I figure he's gone to the George Osbourne smarm school.

1. Andy Burnham: Vote for me because...

2. Yvette Cooper: Vote for me because...

3. Jeremy Corbyn: Vote for me because...

4. Liz Kendall: Vote for me because...

   Corbyn for shadow cabinet - any takers?

    

  Labour’s tragedy is that Jeremy Corbyn is much the best leadership candidate

"Like Harman’s take on the duty of an opposition, Jeremy Corbyn’s candidacy presents a glaring paradox. He is by light years the best candidate, in that he actually believes in things and can articulate those beliefs in a way humanoid life forms can understand. He believes that limiting child benefit is wrong, for instance, since it would restrict the life chances of those who most need help to escape entrenched poverty."

"Corbyn’s beliefs, on the other hand, have survived the passage of four decades intact, which is why he is by light years the worst candidate. Those beliefs are noble and sincere, but only about 17 people in this country share his faith in the command economy."

Polly Toynbee, Jeremy Corbyn and the limits of acceptable politics 

Corbyn's positions and the public

But how valid is Toynbee’s central criticism – that Corbyn is out of touch with public opinion? Let’s look at the polling data on some of Corbyn’s key political stances:

He supports a publicly run NHS, a position supported by 84 per cent of the public, according to a November 2013 YouGov poll.

He supports the nationalisation of the railways, a position backed by 66 percent of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, according to the same poll.

He supports the nationalisation of the energy companies, a position supported by 68 percent of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, according to the same poll.

He believes the Royal Mail should be publicly owned, a position supported by 67 percent of the public, according to the same poll.

He supports rent controls, a position supported by 60% of the public, including 42% of Conservatives, according to an April 2015 YouGov poll.

He opposes the retention of Trident nuclear weapons, a position John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, notes is supported by a "smallish plurality" in "the majority of polls".

He strongly opposed the 2003 Iraq War, which was also opposed by the more than one million people who marched through London on 15 February 2003.

He has long pushed for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, a position favoured by 82 per cent of the public, according to a May 2014 YouGov poll.

Who's out of touch?

So, contrary to Toynbee’s assertions, Corbyn’s key political positions are in actual fact supported by a majority of the British public.

Nine Reasons To Vote Jeremy Corbyn For Labour Leader

 

The EU should we stay or should we go now? GO ... NOW!

So my question is why are we paying over £24 million a day (net) to support a union that only benefits one country? ... Germany. Baring in mind also that Germany has never repayed its external debts.

Ive always been of two minds re the EU but having searched for some time I can not find any real benefit to being in it. Less than 5% of UK companies directly exporting to the EU is not an amazing figure and farming subsidies? come out of the EU pay our own farmers more than they get from the EU and the Government would still have change.

My mind is made up at present we should come out of it as soon as possible and save £24million a day.


Heres some bullet points taken from the links below.

The true costs and benefits of staying in the EU - or leaving

• Less than 5 per cent of UK companies directly export to the EU yet all are forced to bear the burden of its regulations. 
• The EU is not a free trade area but a customs union, and one which has spectacularly failed to deliver trade deals with rising economic giants like China.
• This is a damning failure: over the last few years, countries far smaller than the UK but, crucially, outside the EU (including Iceland and Switzerland) have been able to secure free trade agreements with Beijing. 
• Britain’s economy has been held back by the demands of a regional bloc whose economy has become increasingly inward-looking and uncompetitive, and whose policies, not least the flawed single currency, have created the conditions for ongoing, persistent economic crisis.  
• Were the EU to be intransigent then, given the fundamental problems that define our membership, we believe that Britain should vote to leave. As our study will show, the UK – as the world’s fifth largest economy – has nothing to fear from such a vote and, indeed, much to gain.

Greece’s brutal creditors have demolished the eurozone project

• They demoted the eurozone into a toxic fixed exchange-rate system, with a shared single currency, run in the interests of Germany, held together by the threat of absolute destitution for those who challenge the prevailing order. 
• What was left was a coalition of countries willing to adjust their economies to Germany’s. Britain had to leave because it was not.
• From a pure economic point of view, we know that the euro has worked well for Germany.
• Do you really think that an economic reform programme, for which a government has no political mandate, which has been explicitly rejected in a referendum, that has been forced through by sheer political blackmail, can conceivably work? 

Euro Benefits Germany More Than Others in Zone

• THE euro has been very, very good for Germany. Other members of the zone have not fared as well.
• Germany’s balance of payments has gone from a small deficit to a strong surplus, but in the euro zone as a whole the balance of payments position has deteriorated slightly.

  Is our EU membership fee £55 million?

• In 2013, UK government gross contributions were £14 billion. After rebates and other receipts, our net contribution was £8.6 billion, or about £24 million a day.

Thomas Piketty: ‘Germany Has Never Repaid its Debts. It Has No Right to Lecture Greece

• What struck me while I was writing is that Germany is really the single best example of a country that, throughout its history, has never repaid its external debt. Neither after the First nor the Second World War. However, it has frequently made other nations pay up .

As always your comments are welcomed.