UKIP's good idea and lack of talent. Eurozone cracks widen

I wrote yesterday about what a good and long overdue idea UKIP's 'Positive Vision' which looks to me like a cost benefit analysis of our EU membership showing we would be better off out of the EU and not face complete meltdown as the 'philes claim. The problem I opined would be UKIP's lack of talent to take on such a heavyweight political debate.

Nothing better illustrates this than the postings of Denny, a UKIP NEC member, and chief Farage apologist on the Democracy Forum, click on link to see it. Denny's stock in trade is factual errors and personal abuse. He frequently calls those who disagree with him idiots etc. He is I am afraid all too typical of those at the top of UKIP so I fear although we have a very strong case to put forward it will go by default for lack of serious advocacy.

I nevertheless look forward to UKIP's policy paper on this crucial topic.

Today Eurostat announced the German economy grew by 2.2% the last quarter. The weak Euro is cited as the cause. The Eurozone as a whole grew 1% but Greece GDP fell by 1.5% following a 0.8% decline the previous quarter.

Slovakia flirts with EU censure by opposing Greek aid

is Reuters headline today, "In an overwhelming parliamentary vote on Wednesday, the euro zone's poorest member ruled out providing 816 million euros towards a 110 billion euro (91 billion pounds) Greek bailout fund, saying it was unfair to make taxpayers in a country that has kept its debt under control stump up to bail out a profligate one."

Quite, I wish we had the same attitude in the UK. Charity begins at home as my Granny used to say.

Some bond fund managers are dipping their toe into poorer EU sovereign credits, "We have added to positions in Italian bonds in the past few weeks, but remain cautious regarding the more risky names, such as Ireland and Portugal", is one quote.

The basic position remains as Merv King said on Wednesday bank crises take a long time to fix, at least 10 years. Ask the Japanese, they have been in the toils for the last 20 years following their bank crises! For those considering investing in China I predict they will be next for a bank crisis. Their banking regulation is a shambles.