Yes if I was a senior German politician I would also be concerned about the prospect of the UK leaving the EU.
Our net contribution to the EU budget is estimated at £10 billion a year, who would make up the shortfall? France?
There is also our trading deficit of £4 billion a month. The last thing German industry needs is any slowdown in that.
Never mind ,no matter how strong a hand the FCO and our politicians have they also have a knack of grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory.

to be fed a cup of hemlock?

What tragedy if the persons behind this kind of insidious attempt to 'influence the debate' were nonchalantly stabbed in the back by an someone playing them at their own game as he passed them casually on the street and strolled off with not a care in the world. Just like that. Wanna be a shit? Fine, have it your way.

It's just a pity there's a law against it.


OT:
BBC TV news last night: It was a cold day; a dog bit a man; London is the first region in which natives Britons have now become a minority; Christmas retail sales are up, or was it down; it's gonna be frosty tonight. And it's goodnight from me. Goodnight.

Nice article about the EU and NATO at the Asian Times: THE ROVING EYE
NATO aims for a Nobel war prize
By Pepe Escobar: http://www.atimes.com/at...Front_Page/NL13Aa01.html

They were trying to bolt the stable door after the horse had bolted.....and do it quickly.Democratic accountability never figured in any of that in the past,so why break the habit?Besides most folk could not give a stuff.....ask anyone off the street.

But if I was to make a start on doing this it is exactly where Id start too.Sharing banking and having a proper money union is fundamental to the whole project.Without control of the money you have nothing but a very leaky bucket.Merkel wants tougher controls and all this "consultation" business is a way of testing the water.Will the other EZ member states agree to hand over control of their money supply(i.e to the ECB/ESM?) along with tax and spend decisions and relegate themselves to mere provinces?My guess is if not, Germany will not progress with the project.Its either her way or the highway.

The UK does not even figure on the radar at the moment.She needs to consolidate power within the EZ first,then worry about how it all will hang with the non EZ members...if they are still around by then.

The German current discussions on the banking union are key.The Germans only want the larger banks covered yet as far as I can tell, this is to allow the smaller and weaker regional German banks to carry on without having to raise capital buffers.A lot of politicians have interests in these localised banks and they are fundamental to how German business/finance runs,mainly at quite a regional level.The last thing they want is exposure to higher banking standards that may well result in the closure of some of these banks and the end to regional influences.This seems a tad hypocritical as they are willing to hold Spanish/Greek banks open to scrutiny but not their own.A case of do as I say not as I do.Naturally,the likes of Hollande have been sticking their heels in over this and insisting the German banks come under the jurisdiction of any new banking authority.The Germans will likely have to relent,but it will be interesting to see how these discussions conclude today.

Edited by user 12 December 2012 13:49:18(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Id say Greece and Spain are more important than the UK at present.If they leave the euro it is effectively over,they can stand the UK dithering on the edges for the time being.

Ignoring for the moment the economic advantages to the Franco-Germans of keeping the UK in and contributing both directly and as a large market for them, there is also the historical problem of having Britain as an alternative model detached from the continent.
To the idealists, who see a united federal Europe as the goal, it is this alternative model that must be considered the greater risk.
Freed from the EU we are likely to drift back to a much more Anglosphere economic model.
All this talk about Norway and needing to adopt EU regulations is nonsense. We trade with the so-called Single Market like we trade with Japan. Regulations would only affect exports to the EU.Anyway they trade much more with us, where our regulations would be in force, than we trade with them, hense our massive trade deficit.
It is not the continental Europeans we need to fear but our own political class and Mandarinate.

But of course we cannot have a voice, Dr. N!! The entity is clearly run by something called "Wolfgang Schäuble" --- even if we were interested in knowing what it was, we couldn't pronounce it

Given their demonstrated capacity for bending the rules, a grudging yes.

On the other hand, how's it to be done while even remotely sticking to the existing framework? If special pleading is allowed for the UK, and a general view would be that we've already gotten away with a lot of special pleading, it's a torrent of special pleading, especially for the non-EZ states.

I assume that most of the non-EZ countries could usually be bribed or coerced into going along with the inner circle. They mostly have a commitment to join the EZ.

A lot depends on the fortunes of the Euro, and while reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated, it certainly isn't out of the woods yet.

When they have got their 17 sorted out, they'll be back for the stragglers.

And the Establishment will welcome them with open arms.

It's time to frame that fiver and hang it on your wall as a memento.