· We’re told we have to support a good trading partner. That’s like a business making a loan to an old customer who’s gone bust, so that the customer can keep on buying. Not a good way to run a business. Or it’s like trying to pull yourself up by your own boot-laces.
· You don’t help an over-indebted country by forcing more debt on it. That’s like forcing cocaine onto an addict.
· The £7 billion we propose to lend to Dublin is equivalent to all the cuts we’re making in welfare.
· We don’t have £7 billion. We’re going to have to borrow it, adding to our own debt, to re-lend it to Dublin below market rates
· We may never see it back.
·It’s around £300 for every household in Britain.
·This is not really about bailing out Ireland. It’s about bailing out the euro. And the whole reason why we didn’t want to join the euro in the first place was to avoid exactly this problem.
·We don’t want to be part of a European debt union.
The only real solution for Ireland (and Greece) is to leave the euro. Now if Ireland were asking for help with a transition to a real, long-term solution, perhaps we should extend a helping hand.
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Did you see the Youtube video
video Mr Helmer?
Indeed so — several times! Thanks.
It was my understanding from news reports that Ireland did not want a loan. The UN, the UK, the US and the World Monetary Fund were insistent.
What’s the real story?
Oliver K. Manuel
SPAIN – The reality.
Spain is telling Europe about their strict fiscal policies, the reality, Spain is spending money like there is no tomorrow.
Are they preparing to dump their debts and the Euro.
Comments please.
Difficult to say. But the euro certainly seems to be in a death-spiral.
Pingback: Questions about Ireland « James Wildbore's Blog
International finance is one subject that I cannot pretend to understand, though I instinctively dislike bail-outs as they run counter to ‘natural justice’, by rewarding the reckless. It is comforting to hear that you along with Daniel Hannan and John Redwood (all of whom I know and trust) are all saying it was wrong. Like everyone else, I fear the consequences of a complete meltdown of the Euro, even though I would love to see the EU collapse. Maybe the end of the Euro will not be as bad as many ‘experts’ claim. The bail-outs to prevent it on the other hand seem pretty ruinous in themselves.
Thanks Derek. You’re right to be concerned about the consequences of a euro melt-down — but we have to get through it to get back to some kind of normality. We can’t let the agony go on forever.
What a simplistic and misleading piece of drivel aimed at base nationalistic jingoistic flagwaving Little Englanders. Firtly, it is not a bailout- it is a loan, a loan that the UK governement are making a profit on, borrowing from the international markets at a lower rate than it is later loaned to Ireland at. Does he not beleive in the first Tory principle of PROFIT? Secondly, what evidence does Helmer have for his predicted default, of what benefit will it be to Ireland to default on sovereign debt, ruining, possibly permanaently their international credit rating. Thirdly, almost 10% of UK exports go to Ireland, why would it be in the UK’s interest to see Ireland suffer financially and see this export market eroded? Fourthly, Ireland’s woes are essentially caused by the Irish banks, the same banks that the likes of RBS and Barclays were more than haapy to throw unlimited amounst of money at it to fuel the Irish property bubble, the same banks that have many of their senior executives as Tory sugar-daddies, the same banks that will seriously hit UK banks and British bond-holders if they go under.Fifthly, leaving the euro would leave Ireland in an even worse situation than it is in now, but would make Eurosceptics like Helemer happier on two fronts.
Absolute drivel, Helmer, I dare you to let dissenting comment stand, but doubt you will. I would say shame on you for this crass rubbish, but your shameless.