THE DIRTY DOZEN w/e Jun 3rd 2012

LOOK DAD - ANOTHER MONSTER!
FRANKENSTEIN 1
In 1999 the EU created what they hoped would be a new Superhero currency, the euro; instead, they had created a monster, a Frankenstein currency. Within a few years the monster had broken free of its chains and wreaked havoc in the economies of Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. It was totally out of control, its creators in central Europe oblivious to the damage being caused out on the periphery, even pleased with the booty being sent back to their own areas.

In Ireland we know the damage done by that monster. Over €100bn our banks have so far been forced to pay in failed bonds; €62.8bn we - the Irish people - have so far contributed to those banks, and it's not over yet. €40bn the banks say they still have to pay in bonds; we say €55bn but sure who's counting? Certainly not anyone in RTE, TV3, no-one in national radio, barely a murmur from our national newspapers - where have you heard or read about the €2.25bn AIB bond due today, a bond taken out in May 2008 when the bank was privately owned?

Then again that's par for the course with our national media, who are STILL presenting the sellout by Michael Noonan on the recent €3.1bn Promissory Note as a good 'deal'. Want to know what REALLY happened? Let's say you owe €3,100 to a local loan shark, due by Mar 31st; your local Credit Union has already agreed to lend you the money at a very low rate of interest but you instead go your local bank and take out a loan of €3,100 at a higher interest rate but to be repaid not by you but by your son/daughter in 12 years' time - the loan shark gets his money but you're off the hook, your kids now the bait. Multiply that by a million, that's the Noonan Promissory Note deal.

FRANKENSTEIN 2
In July 2011 Michael Noonan signed up to an agreement which, when ratified by the various governments involved, will see the creation of a body (the ESM, European Stability Mechanism) that will have unlimited and unprecedented power, total immunity from any kind of investigation let alone prosecution written into its design documents. We know we have committed to an initial contribution of €1.27bn to this monster, rising first to €11.1bn, thence - and with only seven days' notice - to any sum the ESM itself demands.

The ECB has accepted absolutely no responsibility for its own massive failings in the creation of Frankenstein 1, the euro, has instead forced the entire cost of all the damage done - and still being done - on nations and peoples across Europe. They are the ones behind the creation of Frankenstein 2, the ESM, they are the ones who will be hidden behind those walls to do whatever, whenever and wherever they want. Transparency, accountability? Words redundant in this new world.

This Thurday we can rock that whole rotten edifice and force a rethink right across Europe, force a redesign of those two monsters. Vote No. The bribery/blackmail clause re access to the fund? This government agreed to the addition of that clause to the ESM Treaty, AFTER it had been first fully negotiated and signed off; if we vote No they can have it removed or simply refuse to sign off on that Treaty, and on any clause enabling that Treaty.

Rant over, the bonds: