The EU has found a solution to the financial crisis

In the light of mass and increasing unemployment across the EU 27. In the face of a constant rolling crisis in the Eurozone finally the European Commission has been moved to act.

European Commission proposes to make 2013 the "European Year of Citizens"

As Mrs Reding, the Commissioner puts it,

It will be a good opportunity to remind people what the European Union can do for every one of us.

Ooo, I am sure that you can provide a list of all those things

A healthy Physic for our 'feral youth'

There has been an awful lot of commentary over the last few days about this strange breed of young hoodlums. So here is something from the Chelsea Physic Garden that might possibly point a way forward.

The Physic Garden has to the country's least flashy great garden. It is a working garden and as such is not replete with great blooms, but concentrates on the medicinal often poisonous and largely humdrum. It is a fascinating place and I can only advise a visit.

When you arrive (if you come with a child in tow) they will hand you a pice of A4 paper headed,

Adults with Children

Reading what it says makes me think that there are ways to help solve our problems. If this institution can take such a sensible line, then others can do so to.

It goes on,

"If you do not feel you can abide by these rules please do not visit the garden"

The rules,

• Children must be closely supervised at all times. This means within physical reach not just within sight for children under 8.


• Scooters, bikes, buggies etc, must be left, at the owners own risk, behind the entry kiosk, or carried.


• Strictly no running.


• Strictly no bare feet, shoes must be worn at all times.


• No gravel to be thrown or deliberately unsettled


• No pond 'dipping', collecting tadpoles, removing or disturbing plant or wildlife in the two ponds.


• No climbing on any part of the Pond Rockery


• No climbing trees


• No ball games


• Children must be kept away from the edges of the pond rockery and water tank


• No plant stuff may be picked up from the garden including fruit, flowers, cones,twigs, branches, leaves, seeds etc


• No walking on, or disturbance of, any plant beds whether they appear planted or not. If a child is found by a Garden member of staff or volunteer trampling on a plant bed, their group will be asked to leave the garden immediately.

Don't get the idea they don't like children. They have an excellent outreach program and have essentially been an educational establishment for 350 years.

Where they differ from so much of the modern world is that they regard themselves as serious, and see no need to dumb down or kow-tow to the prevailing winds of kiddy friendly non-judgementalism that so bedevils most of our institutions (been to the Science Museum recently? I rest my case).

As they point out,

"You are welcome to bring children to the Garden if they are with you at all times. They are not allowed to wander off on their own. If you think the children in your charge are in a boisterous mood we recommend you visit on another day".

One rather fine thing about this, since they have produced this little aide memoire to responsible parenting all the vile and ugly safety signage that disfigured the garden has been taken down.

The mind boggles

Philippines acts on MILF infighting

Should children be protected from bad news?

While bringing up children I have always thought that it is important to note that they deserve honesty. That if there are unpleasant facts that they have to face then they should be introduced to them with care and consideration, but that one shouldn't shy away from the dark and pretend that all is lovely all the time.

But, but I am not sure if even I at my most brutal would have done this... 600 children were forced to take part in

‘A summer meeting with the euro’

You can imagine their horror when they arrived,

Two unquestionable highlights included a numismatic exposition of euro circulation coins and a magnetic map of Europe on which children had to assign the national reverse side of coins to individual countries. Participants also greatly enjoyed playing working on puzzles depicting euro banknotes.

Still I suppose a lecture on the bailouts would have been too too much.

How we are seen abroad

Here is the Berliner Zeitung,

"The country has lost faith in every authority: the banks, politicians, the media, the police. The corruption has reached even the smallest unit -- the family. There is a generation growing up without values of any kind."

and

"Even when the fires are quelled and the streets are cleaned, the deeper problems will remain. Britain must have a debate over its values. They actually need someone like [controversial German anti-immigration author] Thilo Sarrazin who speaks the uncomfortable truths. Perhaps David Cameron, the super-rich prime minister with the baroness wife, who now has to lead Britain through hard times, would be a good person to do some plain talking. But everything will probably remain the same. The Brits will fall back into their standard stoic mentality. 'Keep Calm and Carry On.' Until the next riot."

Amused by the Blitz reference.

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"British Prime Minister David Cameron called the excesses 'criminality pure and simple.' … But his statements are too simple. And they distract from what lies behind the overwhelming violence: the frustration over the British elite."

"The British elite has systematically compromised itself in recent years. They claimed to be a role model, or at least trustworthy. In the economic crisis the financial establishment declared bankruptcy, and British politicians became mired in the expenses scandal of 2009. Then this year the media and politicians have been damaged by the Murdoch scandal. When the country's elites don't take the law seriously, why should we? No question is more dangerous for a society."

While the Süddeutsche Zeitung has a different take,

"Behind the glittering facade that Britain presents, so much pent-up irritation, resentment and anger has built up that all it took was a spark to trigger an explosion."

"It is no coincidence that intelligent observers are drawing parallels between the popular uprisings taking place in the Arab spring and the street battles of this London summer. The British teens, with their hooded tops may be the citizens of a functioning democracy which is proud of being the world's oldest. But elections mean nothing to them and will not do anything to change their personal situation. The prospects of these youth in London are as dismal as those of young people in Cairo or Sana'a: They need unemployment benefits, odd jobs, state handouts and perhaps a bit of petty crime to stay afloat. The message to the British underclass couldn't be any clearer: Born poor, you will remain poor and that naturally also applies to your children and grandchildren. Your chances of winning the lottery are greater than breaking out of your class."

"In no other country in Europe is inequality as cemented in society as in the United Kingdom. Today, as in the past, a person's name, family and place of birth is decisive when it comes to establishing a career. Regardless whether a person is a politician, executive or journalist, they all went to the same schools, studied the same subjects and speak the same refined English they were taught by their parents."

Whilst there is some truth in these caricatures, they are extremely reminicent of the views of the German media in the late 30s.

Greek welcomes its new masters, led by a German!!

Within the month the new Government of Greece will arrive and take up their positions,

The European Commission has set up a task force to oversee the implementation of austerity measures and structural reforms, according to documents seen by Kathimerini.

The task force, an initiative of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, is to have two headquarters - in Athens and Brussels - and direct contact with Barroso’s office and that of Prime Minister George Papandreou. The Athens office will be the point of reference for all visiting inspectors currently offering technical advice to different ministries.

An additional 25 officials, members of the new task force, are to start arriving in Athens in the second half of August.

Make no bones about it, this team of 25 is the new Government of Greece,

According to sources, the decision to create the task force was prompted by the government’s failure to implement measures pledged in exchange for the first 110-billion-euro bailout in May last year. Greece’s creditors - the EC, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - clearly deemed that a foreign task force would help push through a new slew of measures approved.

After all if the Greeks vote against the measures being demanded of them this new body seems to have the power to overule them.

Astonishingly the Commission has decided that the person to run this new Government will be a German, Horst Reichenbach. The decison to take a long time Commission official who hails from Kiel, will no doubt be greeted by the Greeks with all the equaminty that such a decision requires.

After all there is no bad blood between the two nations.

I can only guess that this was done to placate Mrs Merkle. I cannot be persuaded that Barroso would be so cloth-eared himself.

European Parliament agog with gossip

Wow,

Quite the most outrageous email resignation I have ever seen popped into all 6,000 internal mail boxes. Purporting to come from an official working in the Queastors office it makes a series of allegations against senior staff and reasons for employment, (Names removed to spare etc....)

Update
After speaking to a number of people about this I think it is only fair to point out that the official in question has not been well, and as such should be protected. To that end I am removing the email.

However I do think that though this email was extreme, and fairly fruity I think that it touches on a problem that has for long been felt to bedevill certain aspects of prefferment in the Parliament. Whilst the casting couch is infamous in certain business sectors, and is reprehensible, it is doubly so in the public sector. I don't think that those who are named in this mail are in any way guilty as charged, but the Parliament would do well to look into the question properly.