Alistair Darling hit out at David Cameron and George Osborne today for trying to put all the blame for the UK’s participation in the €60bn European bailout fund (the EFSM) onto the previous Labour government.Darling said:
"When you referred to the discussions that took place in May of last year in relation to the eurozone fund, you gave a somewhat incomplete account of my conversation with the now Chancellor (George Osborne),"It has been known for some time that Darling consulted Osborne before effectively nodding through the deal, but this is the first time the former has gone public with what actually happened during that extraordinarily eventful weekend back in May. Cameron and Osborne may argue that they could have been outvoted and dragged into the bailout fund anyway, but that’s not really the point. By agreeing to abstain - it that's what they did - and essentially condoning the UK’s participation in the bailout mechanism, they can hardly claim that it was all down to the Labour government and that they're therefore innocent victims of a deal struck before their time.
"We did indeed agree that we should do everything we could to keep Britain out of the main part of the rescue fund.
"But in relation to the smaller element [the EFSM] which you refer to, what we discussed was not voting against but abstention, recognising that Britain could have been out-voted - exactly the same thing that the Chancellor referred to when dealing with Ireland.”
This whole situation is indicative of the Coalition’s approach to some of key challenges facing Europe at the moment – steer clear of controversy by shirking responsibility. Well, with a potential Portuguese bailout looming as well as new budget negotiations on the horizon it’s clear that the government will be forced to engage with the EU and make some decisions soon; they would look a whole lot better if they started taking the initiative.
Pushing for an alternative route for Portugal - a restructuring combined with a limited cash injection so that more of the burden fall on investors and less on taxpayers - would be a good place to start.
4 comments:
The fundamental question is:
How long the ants are they forced to work for cicadas ?
It all comes down to one thing - hgave a Referendum and get out of the EU. All the time and money being wasted could be better spent on and in our Country. The corruption and profligecy of the power mad EU will never cease or be satisfied. Carihuela.
Lord Pearson of Rannock says-"We can't blame Alistair Darling for risking £7 Billion to prop up the euro.
The unelected Commision has the monopoly on proposing all EU legislation which it does in secret. It based the FSM on a clause in the treaties (designed to allow EU countries to help each other during natural disasters),which works by majority voting in the Council of Ministers. So there wasn't anything any British government could have done to escape it's 14% share of £50 billion. Thats the way the EU works."
We really are stitched up.
I believe our leaders do not understand what they have got us into and certainly haven't the courage to get us out of the EU
Bainton Beemer
As a taxpayer who can see no reason why the British taxpayers should bail out EU countries which joined the Euro. The finacial problems in Greece, Eire, & Portugal (with Spain on the horizon), are none of our business neither are they our responsibility because we are not members of the Euro currency group. The present Gov`t remains tied to the bail out because of the irresponsibility of the present Coalition in failing to protect Britain`s Sovereignty. We have enough problems of our own without them being added to by Messrs Cameron and Clegg. The Coalition`s aggreement to the British taxpayer helping to foot the bill destroys Cameron & Clegg`s credibility as leaders. If they really believed in Democracy they would hold a referendum on our membership of the E.U. They agree to spending £Millions on a side issue of the A.V. but ignore the "Big Issue" i.e. membership of the corrupt and undemoncratic E.U. C.N.Burkett
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