Scandal at Barclays bank

There has been more embarrassment for the banking sector, yesterday Barclays was found guilty of trying to change lending rates to suit its business. The bank was fined £290 million pounds by British and American regulators.

United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission – “as a result of instructions from Barclays’ senior management, the Bank routinely made artificially low LIBOR submissions to protect Barclays’ reputation from negative market and media perceptions concerning Barclays’ financial condition.”

The reason why Barclays was fined so heavily is that by illegally changing the interest rate, it determined how much money Barclays could make or limit how much it could lose. The London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR (despite the name, it is global), governs what is known as derivatives, which is a major international market worth 100s of trillions of pounds, more than global GDP! There were huge incentives for Barclays to fix the rate but in doing so they changed the rates of interest people paid on their mortgages and other loans. This has caused widespread anger amongst the political scene, Lord Oakeshott of the Liberal Democrats has called for the CEO of Barclays, Bob Diamond, to resign or be sacked, and he was joined in this by many Conservative and Labour MPs.

Unfortunately it looks like Barclays won’t be the only bank facing sanctions, Royal Bank of Scotland, the Swiss bank UBS, Germany bank Deutsch bank and the American Citi Group are all thought to have tried to change the LIBOR. The fear in government is that this scandal will seriously damage the City’s reputation for good banking, it is has been less than five years since bad loans caused the recession and this will kill off any reputation the banking sector had left.

Banking has to change as we know it or more scandals like this one and more recessions, like the one we are currently in, will keep occurring again and again. Change has to come before the public will begin to trust their banks.

Victory for Obamacare!

Today Obama can celebrate as he has won a major victory over his Republican rivals.

Obama’s landmark domestic legislation, the Affordable Care Act, was challenged as unconstitutional by 26 states and Republicans. The Supreme Court decided that the provision in the Bill that requires nearly all Americans to buy health insurance was constitutional as it amounted to a tax. The decision has surprised a lot of people, most believed that the provision would be struck down by the Conservative majority on the bench, but of the nine judges, five voted in favour of the provision. The four liberal judges were joined by the conservative John Roberts, most people believed that if anyone was to vote in favour of the provision it would be the “swing vote” of Anthony Kennedy.

This is the biggest decision the court has taken since Bush vs Gore in 2000, in which the court controversially decided to hand the presidency to George W. Bush.

So what exactly is the Affordable Care Act anyway? Well it is basically an attempt to extend medical coverage to all Americans; right now around 50 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured. The Bill has a number of proposals, firstly that health insurance companies cannot discriminate against people who have pre-existing conditions, and they have to provide them with coverage at the same price as a healthy person. The problem with this is that it pushes premiums up slightly for everyone, so some healthy people decide not to buy health insurance, which in turn pushes up premiums for the remaining people. This causes another batch of relatively healthy people to decide not to purchase health insurance, which again drives up premiums for everyone else. This continues until premiums are ridiculously expensive and most people cannot afford to buy them. This is where the individual mandate comes in to force; by requiring all Americans to purchase health insurance, premiums are kept cheap and affordable. This isn’t even theory, in states that introduced the first condition (no discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions) without introducing the individual mandate their insurance markets were destroyed. On the other hand in states such as Massachusetts, which introduced both conditions, have the cheapest health insurance in the USA and most people are covered.

What I find most amazing about the whole health insurance debacle is the fact that Republicans oppose it. They have been claiming over the past couple of years that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and morally wrong. It just shows that the Republicans have no conviction. The individual mandate is a Republican idea. Not only is it a Republican idea, it’s something they’ve believed it for decades, right since the 1990s. In 2006 Mitt Romney introduced it to Massachusetts! The fact that they have changed their minds just because Obama supports it shows that Republicans cannot be trusted.

Today has been a significant victory for the Democrats and a major boost before the November election! Good luck to them.

A Symbol of Reconciliation

Today was a historic day in Northern Irish politics. Martin McGuinness, ex-commander of the IRA, shook hands with Queen Elizabeth II.

Even a few years ago this event could not have happened, but ever since 1998 relationships have become amicable and tensions seriously reduced. The visit by the Queen to the Republic of Ireland in 2011 (the first since 1911) and her visit to the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin, where she laid a wreath in memory of those who fought against the British for Irish Independence, helped to further cool relations between Republicans and the Monarchy.

The public, including hard-line Republicans and hard-line Loyalists, seem to be largely delighted with the handshake. Both sides recognise that normality may finally have come to Northern Ireland after almost 100 years of violence and trouble.

The Queen and Martin McGuinness shaking hands

Yet there is still work to be done, Northern Ireland is far from perfect, to move forward Northern Ireland needs investment and new infrastructure. In moving forward the past should be left behind, but not forgotten, so we can build a better, brighter future for Northern Ireland.

Another Economy Bites the Dust

Cyprus has become the fifth country to ask the EU for a bailout, its failing bank sector has caused it to seek the financial aid of the Eurozone. It is thought that it will ask for between €5 billion and €10 billion. Although this is very small in comparison to the other bailouts, it is still significant; now five of the 17 Eurozone countries have asked for bailouts, with the possibility of more in the form of Italy and maybe even Belgium.

So what is there left for the Eurozone now? Merkel has ruled out the possibility of euro-bonds once again, but this could change; she also said there would be no bailouts. It would appear as if the whole Eurozone is unravelling, there has been very little decisive leadership coming from Brussels or Berlin or Paris. Unless they sort this crisis out we will have a lost generation on our hands.

The Cypriot Bailout Marks the Sixth in the Crisis
source: americanhellenic.org

Syrian Crisis Intensifies

The conflict in Syria has continued to heat up. Accusations have been flying around on the international stage that Russia is supporting the Syrian government and the West is supporting the Free Syrian Army. The reality of it is this; Russia is selling arms to Syria, the West is not selling arms to the rebels.  I find it ironic that in the UN Security Council Russia has vetoed any resolutions on Syria because it does not want to interfere in the affairs of another nation. Whilst it is saying this at the UN it is providing one side of the conflict with arms and helping to fuel the fires of destruction and murder.

Tensions between Syria and Turkey have also been flaring up over the past few days; Syria shot down a Turkish jet that was in international waters and fired at another. Two lives were lost and Turkey has reacted angrily to its old ally.

The whole conflict has raised many questions over what to do, personally I believe a UN Peacekeeping operation is what is required, which would include troops from Western and Arab nations as well as Russia. One solution proposed is arming the rebels, I would be a bit cautious about this, the weapons could easily fall into the wrong hands. America arming the Taliban didn’t work out very well in the long run.

The West should recognise that the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region is a very unstable one, as the 2011 revolutions show, so acting recklessly could have serious ramifications for the future. 

Suu Kyi Visits Britain

It was Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday yesterday and she was celebrating it in Oxford. After collecting her Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo earlier in the week, Suu Kyi made her way to the UK where she spoke to journalists and old friends. She visited the BBC World Service earlier in the day, she says that the BBC was her lifeline to the outside world and gave her hope.

Although the progress made in Burma is immense, we must not forget that the transition to democracy is far from complete. Suu Kyi also warns that all the progress already made could be undone if the transition is not handled correctly. Currently in parliament her party control only a small minority of seats; in the “Pyithu Hluttaw” (similar to the House of Commons in the UK or the House of Representatives in the US) her party, the National League for Democracy, has only 37 of the 440 available seats. Compare this to the party of the government (the Union, Solidarity and Development Party) which currently controls 212 of the seats and the military which is automatically allocated 110 seats, 25% of the total. In any new constitution Suu Kyi and her western allies will be demanding that the privileged position of the military be slowly eroded away.

Yet problems in Myanmar/.Burma have been escalating in recent weeks, the government has had to resist rebel armies along Burma’s eastern borders. Ethnic and sectarian tensions are also flaring up between Buddhists and Muslims along the border with Bangladesh. It would not take a huge amount of violence to destabilise the government and hamper the transition to democracy.

To see a country move from dictatorship to democracy is a beautiful one, hopefully Syria can find an Aung San Suu Kyi to lead them out of the darkness and into the light.

The Democracy leader in Oxford yesterday
Source: ITV News

Markets React Poorly to Greek Election

Well the markets didn't react particularly well to the news of stability in Greece, apparently the markets don’t like stability. In the end the results of the election are as follows:

New Democracy: 129

SYRIZA: 71

PASOK: 33

Democratic Left: 17

Communist KKE: 12
Independent Greeks: 20
Golden Dawn: 18

Although the result doesn’t look close between ND and SYRIZA, in a Greek election the first party gets awarded 50 extra seats, in terms of percentage ND was barely ahead of SYRIZA. Now the job of forming a coalition falls to Antonis Samaras, leader of ND; to achieve a majority he will need only 22 extra seats (151 seats required for a majority). It is expected that ND will get the support of pro-bailout party PASOK and marginal support from the Democratic Left.

So there should be no problem forming a coalition, but what is important here is that Golden Dawn still polled strongly at almost 7%. This is despite the assault of two politicians on live television by the spokesperson of the party and the fact that the party continue to back the assailant.

Regardless of the political impact in Greece, the economic impact is what the rest of the world is interested it. Most people were disappointed in the markets reluctance to accept that Greece was at least somewhat stable. Leaders at the G20 summit in Los Gabos, Mexico are meeting to discuss global issues; at the centre will be the world’s 35^th largest economy, Greece.  Almost immediately after the election results were in Merkel issued a statement saying the bailout deal was non-negotiable. This will not go down well in Greece, many Greeks voted for the pro-bailout parties in the belief that they would go to Brussels and negotiate a less tough deal for Greece. But don’t forget Merkel also said there would be no bailouts two years ago; there have been five since then. Most economists do believe that the austerity in Greece is too harsh, even some centre-right economists. Greece needs to be given slightly looser terms, otherwise a third bailout may be necessary. This is something that Merkel will want to avoid at all costs.

The crisis is far from over, it will continue to dominate the news for the rest of the year.

Passions Flare over the Falkland Islands

Passions over the Falklands have been increasing over the past week, on Tuesday the Falklands legislature announced that it will be holding a referendum in 2013. The Referendum will be on whether or not the Islanders wish to remain British or have their sovereignty transferred to Argentina. We all know what the outcome of this referendum will be; a strong pro-British result, probably similar to Gibraltar’s referendums in 1967 and 2002 which produced a pro-British majority of 99% and 98% respectively.

Later on in the week the President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, spoke at the UN Commission for Decolonisation she said “How can it be claimed that, 14,000 kilometres away, it can be part of the British territory?” Also present at the commission were some members of the Falkland Islands’ legislator who claimed that Argentina was trying to bully the Falklands into submission.  Mike Summers, one of the legislators present said “As much as Argentina might like to airbrush us out of existence to satisfy its unjustified lust for our lands, such behaviour belongs to another era and should not be tolerated in the modern world.”

David Cameron has promised the islanders that Britain will not open talks with Argentina until the Falklands want to open talks.

Argentina will continue to try and push Britain into handing over sovereignty of the Falklands to her; recently Argentina has managed to get the backing of basically all of Latin America. Yet Brazil and other South American countries do not want to cut themselves off from Britain totally and are increasingly wary of Argentina’s rhetoric. Some Argentinian politicians believe that Fernandez will only succeed in cutting Argentina off from the outside world. Fernandez should also not underestimate the support Britain has for her claim.  Both the Commonwealth and the EU strongly support Britain’s position, as does the USA; this is almost half of the world’s population and a major stumbling block for Argentina.

Despite all the passions surrounding the Falkland islands, the referendum next year will prove once and for all that the Falkland islanders do NOT want to be Argentinian.

Fernandez does not seem able to comprehend the ideal of self-determination.
source: ITV News

The Euro is Safe... For Now

Well it looks like Europe, and the world can breathe a sigh of relief, New Democracy is predicted to win the election. SYRIZA has already conceded defeat to their centre-right opponents. Although it looks like the Euro is safe for now, the real test will be how the markets react later today. Remember last week when everyone thought that the Spanish bailout would calm markets? Well it didn’t calm them at all, and on the first day of trading after the bailout, the markets fell significantly.

Although the markets are unpredictable, most people believe that the markets will go up today. There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding this weekend’s election and the election of a pro-bailout party will mark the end of the uncertainty.

But don’t be fooled, the Eurozone crisis is far from over, Greek debts are very high and the other PIIGS countries aren’t looking great either. Spain appears to be edging closer and closer to a bailout from the Eurozone and IMF. If the Eurozone leaders really want to give the markets confidence, then they need to show strength and resolve the Euro crisis. If the keep dragging their feet, who knows how long this crisis will last! 

UN Mission Ends

The UN has suspended its mission in Syria today. Robert Mood, the head of the UN mission cites the increasing violence as the reason for suspending the mission.  He says that Syria has become too dangerous for the UN monitors to carry out their duty safely.

I believe this marks a significant turning point in the whole saga, Russia and China will come under increasing pressure from Western and Arab nations to take action and to stop blocking any form of UN resolution. The Annan peace plan is in tatters, there is no ceasefire anymore (if there ever was) and it looks like Syria is going to slip further and further into violence and bloodshed.

The UN needs to take action as soon as it possibly can, I believe that a UN peacekeeping force should enter Syria, made up of soldiers from all across the globe. Assad must be forced to resign to allow a peaceful transfer to democracy.  Syria cannot be allowed to become another Bosnia, Rwanda or Lebanon, the international community must do something to help the rebels and prevent warfare. This is not sustainable.  

The Election of the Century

It’s not often that a country of 11 million people decides the fate of the entire world. But on Sunday the Greeks get that opportunity, and although my statement does seem outlandish, it’s not far from the mark. Many economists and political pundits are treating this as a referendum on Euro membership; Greeks are faced with a choice: Vote SYRIZA and leave the Euro but cut the austerity or vote for New Democracy or PASOK and stay in the Euro but continue to suffer humiliating austerity. Not an easy choice considering the Euro is supported by 80-90% of Greeks.

Although you would be forgiven for thinking so, the Greek economy is relatively unimportant. It isn’t a large economy and most banks don’t have huge exposure to it. But it’s the contagion effect, if Greece defaults then will fear spread in the markets. Many banks will begin to default; other weak economies such as Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain could collapse and require new bailouts. This would through most of the world into a recession; Obama would lose all hope of a re-election.

The weight of the world is on the shoulders of the Greeks, and nobody knows what to do.

Minister for Murdoch Survives Commons Vote

Jeremy Hunt managed to survive a parliamentary vote yesterday despite losing the support of the Liberal Democrats and having the opposition of the Labour party. One of the most notable moments was when the Shadow immigration minister, Chris Bryant directly accused Jeremy Hunt of lying. Despite the fact that you are not allowed to accuse ministers of lying in parliament, the speaker of the House allowed it this time.

The public are wondering why Cameron is continuing to back Hunt, despite his unpopularity and the widespread belief amongst the public that he was biased has lied to parliament and has broken the ministerial code. I am angry that more Conservatives did not vote against Hunt as they know damn well that he is guilty – they just don’t want to embarrass their party. To the two Conservatives who voted against Hunt, I congratulate, they put honour and decency before the party which is the way it should be.

Jeremy Hunt in Parliament Yesterday

Russia is Willingly Allowing the Escalation of Violence

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke 1770. This is one of the most common quotes to be attributed to WWII, when good men stood by in Italy and Germany and allowed the fascist regimes of Mussolini and Hitler to rise. I firmly believe that this can be attributed to Syria right now. The international community is still sitting on its hands, largely neutered due to Russia and China.

Hillary Clinton has issued a statement where she accuses Russia of lying; Russia claims that the only weapons they are sending to the Syrian Army will not be used against civilians. This claim is not believed by the international community, considering that all weapons available have been used against civilians. Clinton is using increasingly angry rhetoric, most people believe that she is trying to apply diplomatic pressure to Russia in an attempt to change Russia’s viewpoint.

The only problem is I think it will take a lot more pressure to change Russia’s mind. When Russia abstained over the Libya vote, and Libya turned out to be such a success Russia felt ignored. Now Russia is trying to show the world that it is still important and still powerful, by allowing the deaths of thousands. Russia may not be participating in the actual killing, but it is guilty by consent.

Months ago I would not have advocated military intervention, but now I believe it is the only thing we can do to prevent all out civil war between the different groups in Syria. What would be best would be an UN peacekeeping mission that would not take sides, but protect civilians.

The Assad regime cannot stay. It must stand down, or get blown up. 

Murdoch's A Liar!

The Inquiry had a big day yesterday, former PM and Chancellor Gordon Brown attended to give evidence to Lord Leveson. Also present was the current chancellor, George Osborne. Possibly one of the biggest moments of the Leveson Inquiry was when Gordon Brown flatly contradicted Rupert Murdoch over evidence given to the Leveson Inquiry. Both men spoke under oath, so if either is found out to be lying they could be in a lot of trouble.

When Murdoch gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry he claims that he received an angry call from Brown who said “your company has declared war on my party, so I have no choice but to declare war on your company.” Brown denies that any such conversation happened, so one of the men has to be lying. I would imagine most of the public would think that Brown is telling the truth and Murdoch is lying, Murdoch is a slimy man who cares only about making money and controlling politics. Despite the accusation of lying, Murdoch has issued a statement saying he stands by what he said.

It wasn’t the only thing that Brown revealed at Leveson, when giving her evidence Rebekah Brooks claimed that she had been given permission by Gordon Brown’s wife, Sarah Brown to publish a story. Brown denied than any sort of permission was given, which is understandable considering what the story was. When the Browns’ son was only four and a half month’s old the Sun (which Ms Brooks edited at the time) published a story on its front page that told the world that their son had cystic fibrosis. The vast majority of people will believe the Browns’ on this one, especially considering that they had yet to tell close family members. Even Louise Mensch, the Conservative MP most in love with the Murdoch media does not believe Ms Brooks!

Osborne’s appearance produced less headline material, yet he still denied emphatically that he or his party had got too close to the press, the Murdoch’s in particular. Osborne was questioned over his decision to hire Andy Coulson, just weeks after he resigned from the NOTW due to the phone hacking scandal.  

Today is another important day for the Leveson Inquiry with the former Prime Minister, John Major making an appearance.

Gordon Brown at the Leveson Inquiry

Neo-Nazi MP on the Run

Previously I have reported on the worrying rise of far-politics across Europe, including France, Germany, Norway and Greece. Unfortunately Greece has entered back into the fray with news that Ilias Kasidiaris is still at large, the Golden Dawn politician assaulted two left-wing, female politicians on live television last week.

After getting into a heated argument the facist MP threw water at Rena Dourou, a leading member of SYRIZA.  Liana Kanelli of the KKE Communist party then stood up to protest at Kasidiaris’ actions, his response was to hit her three times in the face. The assault caused protests against Golden Dawn to erupt across the country. Golden Dawn frequently tries to deny that it is a violent party and to many people this incident proves that Golden Dawn is a violent party.

Not long after the assault took place, a state prosecutor called for Kasidiaris’ arrest on suspicion of grievous bodily harm (we still have to say suspicion as he has not been convicted – despite the video). Unfortunately he has remained at large and Golden Dawn has refused to speak against Kasidiaris’ actions, despite the growing anger.

Despite the clear violation of the law and human decency it may not be such a bad thing.  Seeing the violent attack on TV has infuriated the Greeks and may cost it severely at the next election. Golden Dawn is currently polling at half of what it got at the General Election, a significant decrease. 

Red circle, the Neo-Nazi MP attacking the KKE member
Green circle, Ms Dourou of SYRIZA

*sigh* More Crisis in the Eurozone

The Eurozone crisis continues to dominate the airwaves today with reports that Spain will ask for a bailout by this afternoon. Despite these rumours the Spanish government is denying that it will ask for a bailout and it will be able to sort itself out. Yesterday Obama urged Europe to try and sort things out; he is fed up with the dithering and the lack of leadership at the heart of Europe. Obama knows that if Europe doesn’t sort itself out then the American recovery will be blown off course months before a re-election. Yesterday news came that Spain’s credit rating was downgraded to BBB by the ratings agency Fitch, which estimates that Spain will need between €60 and €100 billion to save its banks, pushing Spanish debt to 95% of GDP. This is unsustainable; the austerity already underway in Spain is only going to cause debt to rise and the economy to contract. Not what we want.

To be frank I’m fed up with the crisis in Europe, it’s CONSTANTLY in the headlines. Barely an evening passes by when I’m not hearing about the crisis in the Eurozone. The only break we got from it was when the news was all about the Jubilee last weekend! Europe has shown extremely weak leadership in this crisis and we are the only ones able to decide our fate. Europe must stand up and tackled the debt crisis, if we do not find a strong leader within the next few months the Euro, Europe and the social order of earth is doomed (OK – so a slight exaggeration, but my point is still valid). 

A European Superstate?

Is this the accidental creation of a European Superstate? It certainly seems like it.

Basically the Eurozone appears to have two choices; fall apart or be bound closer together. Merkel has increasingly mentioned the need for “more Europe, not less” she says that more and more responsibility must be handed over to centralised European control. Although many Europeans believed that the creation of the Euro in 2000 was the beginning of a federal Europe, most people didn’t think it would start being seriously talked about in 2012. The Euro crisis has changed everything.

Although I highly doubt that a United States of Europe is on the horizon, with each state losing ‘country’ status, I do believe that the Euro crisis will mean more political, fiscal and economic union in Europe. Even if the crisis does get resolved by creating an early USE, I would imagine countries would still have control over international relations the armed forces and other similar functions.

If the Eurozone were to form a USE, a new map of Europe would look like below (the USE in blue with the EU in green). It would certainly transform the world as a number of individual Eurozone members are already very powerful in their own right (most notably France and Germany).

The Eurozone as a superstate in blue
The rest of the EU in green

The below map is what the future of the Europe could look like, this map includes countries in the EU that have signed up to join the Euro, although this vision of Europe (if it ever does come to be) is a long way away. (Note: Croatia is in light blue as it will join the EU in 2013 and has agreed to enter the Euro at some stage)

Blue - all current and future Euro members as a superstate
Green - The remaining members that are unlikely to join the Euro

There are, of course, many issues and obstacles surrounding the creation of the USE. The biggest would be the electorate in member states, governments would have to go to the people in a referendum. Most people would be furious if they didn’t get a say over whether or not to end their country’s existence, I would be furious even though I would vote yes! Ireland would be a major stumbling block as well as many other nations with strong Euro-scepticism. There is also the problem of much of Eastern Europe, most of these countries have only been independent for about 20 years and aren't going to give over their hard won independence easily.

Despite the major stumbling blocks we are living in a momentous period, a federal Europe is being seriously discussed by some of the top politicians in Europe. This is a make or break time for European federalists and Euro-sceptics alike.

Horrifying Massacre in Syria

The Assad Regime has lost all legitimacy according to the UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon, this comes in the context of more regime-backed killing in Syria. Late last night reports began to come in that another massacre on the scale of Houla had taken place in the Hama province. They way in which the massacre was carried out was also very similar to that of Houla, firstly there was shelling of the area, it was only then that the militia moved in and killed whole families.  When UN monitors went to investigate the area they were shot at by the Syrian army.  Up to 100 people are believed to have been killed by regime thugs, most of which belonged to just a handful of families.

Kofi Annan has urged the international community to act as one on the issue of Syria and is asking for a peaceful solution to the conflict. There have been many comparisons made of Syria to Bosnia and Rwanda when thousands were killed while the international community refused to take action. There is also a lot of fear that Syria may got the way of Lebanon and Iraq and end up in a perpetual state of sectarian strife and warfare.

Whatever the solution is, it will take guts to do it and someone will need to step up before we see a massacre on the scale of Srebrenica.

Funeral for those killed in the massacre
(source: Catholiconline)

Disclaimer

OK so I probably should have posted this at the start of the blog, but better late than never I suppose. As you can have guessed all the pictures I post to the blog are taken by other people, I am just a guy from the UK who enjoys blogging. I do not fly around the world taking pictures of massacres in Syria, presidents on trial in Egypt or people in America.

You all will have worked this out, but I probably have some legal requirement to do this. From now on I will be crediting the pictures I use (I posted this instead of editing every post already with a picture to give you the source - it would take too long!)

Diamond Jubilee Fervour

The jubilee is finally over after four days of practically continuous celebration, and what a weekend it was!

On Saturday it began with the Queen attending the Epsom Derby, it was relatively low-key compared to some of the more extravagant events to come. On Sunday the largest flotilla on the River Thames since the 1600s took place, it was phenomenal to watch all the boats row past and how happy the Queen looked. On Monday, unfortunately, the Duke of Edinburgh had to be admitted to hospital due to a bladder infection. The highlight of Monday was most certainly the Jubilee Concert at which big names such as Elton John, Paul McCartney and Gary Barlow were playing. A song specially written for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was also played. On the Tuesday the Queen was at St. Paul's Cathedral for a service commemorating her 60 years on the throne.

So what does the Jubilee tell the world about the UK? Well, firstly that the Monarchy is here to stay, recently getting an 80% approval rating! Phenomenal! It also tells the world that the stiff upper lip is back, despite the harsh austerity and falling living standards, we can still put on a great show and enjoy ourselves!

Here are some pictures of the jubilee:

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh at Epsom

The Jubilee Concert

One of the thousand boats involved in the river pageant

A street party in England

Spanish Bailout Crisis

The Spanish economy is in tatters, and Spain has finally admitted it. Spain has asked the EU for a bailout, but they want one that is very different from the type received by Greece, Portugal and Ireland. In these three countries, in exchange for the money they had to accept crippling austerity and other restrictive measures. Spain does not want to humiliation of having to accept the extraordinarily harsh terms that would be imposed on Spain.

So what deal is Spain trying to get from Brussels and Germany? Well firstly the Spanish government is claiming that they’ll only need €40 billion worth of bailout money, most economists believe that they’ll need closer to €100 billion, with some economists predicting a bailout as big as €400 billion. Regardless, there is enough money set aside in the European system to cope with a big bailout, so that is less of the problem. It is how Spain wants to receive the money, as I’ve explained the Spanish government would be humiliated if told what to do by Brussels and Angela Merkel. Instead rather than the EU/IMF giving money to the Spanish government, which would in turn use the money to recapitalise the banks, the Spanish government wants the bailout to be given directly to the banks so that they don’t have to endure even more austerity.

Currently Spain is playing a game of brinkmanship with (mainly) Germany, neither of them want the destruction of the Spanish economy especially considering the contagion would spread extremely fast around the globe. Although I believe that the crisis will end in a compromise (a direct bank bailout with some austerity and restrictions) I do believe that Germany will be the first to blink as it has much farther to fall the Spain.

The Diamond Jubilee has Begun!

Jubilee celebrations have begun!

Today marks the beginning of the celebration of Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee, the four days of partying across the country mark 60 years on the throne for her majesty. Today across the country, from London in England to Hillsborough in Northern Ireland and Perth in Scotland celebrations began as a nation still in love with the monarchy took to the streets to display its gratitude to the Queen.

The celebrations were marked with 41 gun salutes across the country marking the beginning of the fabulous weekend. Probably the biggest celebration will occur tomorrow when over1000 boats sail down the Thames on a scale not seen since the 1600s. The flotilla will be a glorious spectacle to watch and would be fantastic to participate in.

At this time of celebration polls on the popularity of the monarchy have risen to 80%, this has not been seen in a very long length of time. The continued popularity of the monarchy is astounding, there has never been anyone or anything that has managed to maintain popularity for so long. Despite republicans attempting to gain more ground, they have not succeeded, for the British people recognise that there is no real reason to change the monarchy as it is part of a culture and change would only be for idealistic reasons. Long live the Queen!

Mubarak Sentenced to Life

Many in Egypt never thought this day would come, the day when Hosni Mubarak was finally sentenced for his crimes. Today he was sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of ordering the killing of protestors during the revolution that threw him from power. When the verdict was announced it was met with jubilation from the friends and family of those killed in the revolution. Despite the good start to the day things began to turn sour after six senior ministry of interior officials were acquitted of all crimes. Of these people, two were Mubarak’s sons. The fury spilled onto Tahrir Square as people protested the acquittals, for many of these people the only sentence strong enough is the death penalty for all involved – including those acquitted.

Yet despite the disappointment at Mubarak’s sons and friends’ acquittal today is still a landmark day in Egyptian politics. Today proves that people can triumph over power and against all the odds to make change for the better. Although the future for Egypt is not yet clear, at least now there is a faint glimmer of hope. Hopefully Egypt will be a success, just like the success of Eastern Europe after getting rid of its dictators in the early 1990s.

Hosni Mubarak meets his fate with an emotionless face