As the people of Ireland went to the polls on Friday, the EU, through a Brussels spokesman, took the opportunity to remind the Irish public who their boss was. Here a sprinkling of what the EU declared:
The EU-IMF bailout "must be applied" whatever the will of Ireland's people or regardless of any change of government.
"It's an agreement between the EU and the Republic of Ireland, it's not an agreement between an institution and a particular government."
"The more the Irish make a big deal about renegotiation in public, the more attitudes will harden."
"It is not even take it or leave it. It's done. Ireland's only role in this now is to implement the programme agreed with the EU, IMF and European Central Bank. Irish voters are not a party in this process, whatever they have been told."
Them are fighting words. The EU will probably agree to renegotiate the interest rate on the bailout but they will not agree to giving haircuts to bondholders because the bondholders are banks in the UK, Germany, France, and Belgium; and if they have to right down the value of bonds then they may need bailouts as well. The Irish are looking for a referendum on the issue, but the EU doesn't want them to go down that road.
Well the Irish made statements of their own, the best one coming from Declan Ganley, the Irish businessman who led the 2008 No vote to the Lisbon Treaty. Ganley said: "Ireland must have the balls to threaten debt default and withdrawal from the single currency. We have a hostage, it is called the euro. The euro is insolvent. The only question is whether Ireland should be sacrificed to keep the Ponzi scheme going. We have to have a Plan B to the misnamed bailout, which is to go back to the Irish Punt."
Stay tuned this is going to be a great fight, read more here.
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