Barroso tells BBC it could be impossible for Scotland to join the EU.

Emperor Barroso has told the BBC that it would be "extremely difficult, if not impossible" for Scotland to become a member of the EU if it declares independence from the UK.

The SNP's stance on the EU is frankly bizarre - they want to swap a British union dominated by Scots and Scottish interests for a European Union in which it would be a tiny, insignificant voice. Despite being told several times that their belief that they will automatically be given EU membership is incorrect, they continue to plan for a future in which Scotland breezes into the EU and nobody makes them join the €uro.

Personally, I would be happy to see Scotland declare independence. The Scottish people never wanted union with England in the first place and they never took to Britishness the way the English did. The relationship between the two countries has always been strained with the 700 year old Battle of Bannockburn being invoked in most "debates" about Anglo-Scottish relations as if it was still a raw wound. The battle for independence should be won honestly though, not by bluff and bluster which is what the SNP is coming out with now.

As the independence referendum gets closer, the wheels are coming off the SNP's wagon. The Tories, Labour and Lib Dems have all pledged to block any currency union with Scotland which was one of Alex Salmond's key pledges for an independent Scotland along with EU membership, a budget surplus, not taking on a share of the British national debt and some other pie in the sky stuff. Most Scots know they can't afford independence even if they want it and the SNP's habit of making promises it can't keep won't help change their minds.

Barroso predicts a UKIP win in 2014

Emperor Barroso predicted a UKIP win in next year's EU elections whilst telling Conservative MEP Martin Callanan that he would never be President of the EU because the Tories are appearing too eurosceptic.

His prediction - and a surreal defence of EU environmentalist policy in the face of pretty conclusive evidence that they're trying to fix something that isn't a problem - was a response to a fantastic speech by Nigel Farage in which he comprehensively wiped the floor with Barroso.

Barroso dismisses Cameron's repatriation of powers

Emperor Barroso has dismissed the prospect of negotiating Cameron's mythical "repatriation" of EU powers, according to Public Service Europe.

Did British Prime Minister David Cameron expect Brussels to lend a sympathetic ear to his call for power to be returned to national capitals? The notion that the power-grabbing European Commission would voluntarily debate giving up its hard-earned rights would probably have been too much to hope for. Either way, it looks as if commission president José Manuel Barroso is not particularly excited about the idea.

[...]

Barroso's newly published reply comes as close to saying "no" as diplomatic language will allow. "The Treaty of Lisbon defines already clearly the areas of competence of the European Union," he wrote. "In accordance with the principle of conferral any area not falling within the EU competence remains in the domain of the member states. EU competences are exercised in accordance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality as set out in the treaties."

In other words, they've got the power and it's written down so tough.

The people conducting this review are going to be coming out with ideas regularly over the next year or two," said a source at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. "You are going to see two or maybe four ideas a year, I think. Cameron has to be seen to be responding to the Eurosceptic mood of the people," the source told this website

As ever with Cameron, it's about what he's seen to be doing rather than what he actually does.  As long as he's seen to be acting like a eurosceptic it doesn't matter that he's an EU-loving traitor who's greatest "eurosceptic" achievement is reducing the membership payments of every EU member state whilst ours increase.

Alone? We're already Alone.

In terms of trade, Germany and Britain are meant to be. In sickness and in health, even if they can't stand the decisions their soul mate make. Well, money mates. Neither one can intentionally isolate from the other because it would lead to the financial collapse; or at least decline, of both superpowers. Therefore, the supreme leaders of Europe, i.e. The Germans, can't even consider the isolation of Britain if we were to depart from the EU. But that is the mere scrape of the UK/EU issue.

The European Commission made it perfectly clear to UKIP Deputy Leader, Paul Nuttall MEP, if we were to carry on bombarding the establishment with our (wonderful) nonsense, they will... Relegate us to the status of Switzerland. Dam that's terrifying! Wait a minute, isn't Switzerland that prosperous global nation? Being a member of the European Free Trade Association, they are part of the European Union Internal Market through the Agreement on a European Economic Area (EEA), which took effect in 1994. To every threat an EU leader makes; every attempt to scare monger our weak, apprehensive and cryptic Prime Minister, there's a cascade of good news for the vision of an Independent Britain.

What is better than Briton's being legally able to freely trade with our true allies, the Commonwealth? Whist Cameron gets some sort of thrill out of getting attacked left, right and center (and that can be taken politically and literally), Ukip can see developed market economies emerged or emerging from Australia,  New Zealand, Jamaica, Canada, South Africa, India and many more. In the case of India, we should not be wasting billions on aid just to feed their endless plight. We should not bow to an Indian government which spends “tens of billions” on defense including the £13 billion deal we may have lost to the French, which makes it unacceptable to give further aid. Let's stimulate jobs and growth in India's poorest areas through interjecting trade, technical expertise and experience. In addition, Australia is crucial because it hosts a growing economy; a stable political and business environment; a skilled, well educated and multi-lingual workforce; a strategic time-zone and a competitive cost base. I can see a British-Irish union being the power house to such a bountiful friendship as we might never be one but we will, by no doubt, have a far more fruitful relationship than the present with a German lady who flirts with a Frenchmen's anti-British mantas.

I've always had a vision of a Britannia which will not be ordered and regulated by Europe, nevertheless free trade and the peace process in Europe is essential. However, the sort of EU project amplified by the Lisbon Treaty provides me a dire image of what awaits national sovereignty and identity across Europe, with Barroso's vision of a "Federal Europe" making the thought more tangible than ever.  I see it as our responsibility to lead Europe out of this disastrous and monolithic EU, and into the EFTA because - I know - that cherished 1940's spirit still lives inside us somewhere.

Greeks, Portuguese and Spanish say no more austerity

The Greek President has warned the EU/ECB/IMF plutocrats sent in to oversee the implementation of punishing EU austerity that the Greek nation can't take any more.

Unemployment is still rising and 1 in 4 Greeks are now out of work but the EU sill wants more cutbacks and sackings.

Karolos Papoulis said:

Up until now, we've been receiving a merciless lashing.  I think we have paid enough for our mistakes, and Europe must realize that it needs to help Greece.

Meanwhile, over 100,000 people have protested in the Portuguese capital (and ironically the city that gives its name to the hated treaty that gives the EU almost limitless power), Lisbon, today against more tax rises and EU austerity.  Tens of thousands of Spaniards also descended on Madrid today in protest at tax increases and spending cuts.

So what is the EU's answer to the widespread dissent and opposition to the damaging austerity measures it has imposed on most of the continent?  Emperor Barroso called for ...

a democratic federation of nation states that can tackle our common problems, through the sharing of sovereignty

Nigel Farage responded to this by telling Barroso it was an "emerging, creeping euro-dictatorship" but that ...

The only good news from today is that you’ve helped to bring that referendum just a little bit closer

The europhiles just don't get it do they?  People are demonstrating on the streets of European capitals at EU taxes and austerity so the europhiles call for deeper cuts, more taxes and the abolition of the nation state.  It's unbelievable.

Italy in pre-bailout talks with the EU, Cyprus could be next?

The Italian government has had talks with the EU about rising bond prices and the possibility it might not be able to finance itself out of recession.

Emperor Barroso has once again attacked the international credit rating agencies - Standard & Poor, Filch and Moody's - for not covering up the risk of lending money to eurozone countries.

The higher the risk of full or partial default on bonds, the lower the credit rating a country will get.  The lower the credit rating, the higher interest rate investors will expect on bonds.  The higher the interest rate, the more it costs the country issuing them to get some (relatively) short term cash.

Italian and Spanish 10 year bonds are attracting yields of just over 6% which is on the line between affordability and unsustainability.  Much higher and it's going to become too expensive to borrow on the bond markets and they're going to have to go cap in hand to ... well that's the problem, there isn't enough money to bail out either Italy or Spain, let alone both of them.

Italy's national debt (not including the hidden extras like pension liabilities and PFI) is 120% of GDP and corruption is rife at all levels of society - if Silvio Berlusconi didn't have immunity from prosecution as president, he would be in prison now for fraud and corruption.  Large parts of Italy are under the control of the Mafia who steal billions of euro of public money.  S&P, Moody's and Filch are damn right to consider Italy a risk to investors - they don't have enough money to pay their bills and what money they do raise through taxation is pillaged mercilessly by the Mafia.

And I wouldn't normally link to the communist rag, the Guardian, but they are leading with the story that Cyprus is now top of the list of contenders for the next bailout.  A few billion for Cyprus will take even more money out of the theoretical bailout fund making a bailout of Italy or Spain even more improbable.

EU planning to censor international credit rating agencies

The EU Commission is planning a crackdown on the international credit rating agencies after they downgraded Portugal's credit rating the other day.

By dropping a country's credit rating, it makes it more expensive for that country to raise money through selling bonds.  Government bonds are basically promises to pay a certain amount of money on a certain date - it's effectively a government asking for a loan without any monthly repayments.

The lower a country's credit rating, the higher the amount of interest investors will want because there's a higher risk they won't get paid.  It's just like when you take out a credit card - they have a headline interest rate that you will get if your credit rating is good but if it's bad you'll end up paying a higher rate.  And if your credit rating is awful then you have to go to the kind of high risk lender that advertises on low budget satellite TV channels.

A country's credit rating doesn't matter so much unless it's trying to raise money from selling bonds, like eurozone countries are right now.  The downgrading of Portugal's credit rating a few days before it was due to issue billions of pounds worth of new bonds will cost the Portuguese government a lot of money.  Instead of paying €1.04 for every €1 of bonds they sold two years ago, they're now going to have to pay at least €1.11.  It's only 7 cents but if Portugal issues €5bn in 10 year bonds, they will have to find €5.55bn when they mature in 2021.  They haven't got €5bn now, it's a big risk to assume that they're going to have €5.55bn in 10 years time.

Obviously the amount of money eurozone countries have to pay to borrow money, the less chance there is the euro can be saved so in desperation the EU Commission is preparing new laws to stop international credit rating agencies from giving bad news about EU countries.  As with many new laws that come from the EU, this one is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what's happening in the real world.

It seems strange there is not a single rating agency coming from Europe. It shows there may be some bias in the markets when it comes to the evaluation of the specific issues of Europe.
- Emperor Barroso, President of the Imperial Commission

Fitch Ratings and Fitch Solutions, as well as Algorithmics, a leader in enterprise risk management solutions, are part of the Fitch Group. The Fitch Group is a majority-owned subsidiary of Fimalac, S.A., headquartered in Paris, France.
(Source)

Far from helping eurozone countries, this will increase the risk of investing in government bonds from EU countries.  If they can't get accurate information about the risk of an investment then investors will steer clear of eurozone bonds or demand even higher interest rates to protect themselves from unknown risks.

Barroso throws his teddy out of his pram

Emperor Barroso has thrown his teddy out of his pram after his plans for a 6% EU budget increase were scuppered by the Poles.

I regret that a small number of member states were not prepared to negotiate in a European spirit.

[...]

I'm extremely disappointed... a solution should have been possible last night. Those that think they have won a victory over 'Brussels' have shot themselves in the foot. They should know that they have dealt a blow to people all over Europe and in the developing world

Don't worry oh great one, I'm sure the matter will be "negotiated" in the "European spirit" by asking the question over and over again until you get the "right" answer.  Or just change a couple of words and don't bother asking again.  That's how it's done in the "European spirit" isn't it?

Barroso will fine MEPs that don't sit through his speech

Pretend eurosceptic, Dan Hannan MEP, reports that Emperor Barroso has decreed that MEPs will be fined if they don't sit through his rambling "State of the union" propaganda speech.

The electronic voting system - usually only used when an MEP calls a point of order when Barroso lies about the result of a show of hands - is to be used 3 times during the speech and MEPs that don't press their voting buttons 2 out of 3 times will be fined.

I'm sure UKIP's MEPs will do something amusing - turn their backs or put on a pair of ear defenders or something.  Dan Hannan will probably sit quietly listening to Emperor Barroso like a good little eurofederalist Tory.