How the world sees Greece
Greece Says Smoking Ban To Start Greek Reporter The new wave of inspections is expected to meet with opposition from entrepreneurs who argue that the smoking ban will affect business amid the ongoing financial crisis, the same arguments they make every time Greece passes alleged smoking bans. |
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Bouyed by the prospect of success in this week's by-election in Eastleigh, the Lib Dems are on the attack as Nick Clegg savages his coalition partner for lacking fairness. Meanwhile, the Tories, still reeling from Moody's credit rating downgrade while being out-canvassed by Ukip, are showing alarming signs of midterm blues
The mood was buoyant, the rhetoric soaring. Addressing more than 200 party activists who had poured into Eastleigh on Friday, the Lib Dem deputy leader, Simon Hughes, said victory for his party in Thursday's by-election would "suddenly change British politics" and "encourage our troops phenomenally".
It would, he told cheering supporters, prevent the Tories becoming "cocky and assertive" in the second half of the parliament and make them realise they are not "in sole charge" of the coalition. His comments show how far the coalition parties have diverged since David Cameron and Nick Clegg sealed their vows in the Downing Street rose garden in 2010. "The thought of the Tories capturing this seat fills me with as much horror as anything else I can think of," Hughes said.
As relations between the coalition parties sink ever lower, the Lib Dems, with a bullish Clegg in the vanguard, are turning their fire on key parts of Tory economic policy at what is beginning to look like a moment of maximum economic weakness for Cameron and George Osborne.
The downgrading of Britain's AAA economic ratings on Friday night is a disaster for the chancellor, who nailed the coalition's economic strategy to the mast of austerity precisely to avoid such an outcome. A tough approach to deficit reduction, went the argument, would gain the respect of international markets and ratings agencies, ensuring the UK did not go the way of Greece or Spain. But though the cuts have hurt, the economy shows little sign of reviving and the ratings agencies appear to have lost faith. Next month Osborne will deliver one of the most eagerly awaited and hotly debated budgets of recent times. Siren voices from all sides are recommending a new dash for growth, even at the expense of cutting the deficit.
As the founding principles of the coalition's economic strategy are placed in question, a by-election that always promised to be a fascinating clash has assumed a seminal importance. Eastleigh was defended by the Lib Dems in 2010 when Chris Huhne, the former energy secretary, who resigned this month after pleading guilty to perverting the course of justice over a speeding offence, held on with a majority of 3,864. Clegg's party is increasingly confident of holding the seat – and believes victory in its Hampshire stronghold could instantly revive the party's morale, while denting that of the Tories – in the runup to the 2015 general election.
The Lib Dems believe that if they hold Eastleigh they will have demonstrated that they can hold on again against the Conservatives in dozens of other seats where they beat Cameron's party into second place in 2010, depriving the Tories of any realistic chance of securing a Commons majority in 2015.
And as the implications of the Moody's downgrade percolate through the body politic, Clegg and other senior Lib Dems today show they are prepared to attack the Tories on economic policy, highlighting what they see as the fundamental unfairness underpinning Cameron's approach to taxation.
Writing in today's Observer, Clegg says that while his party's approach to tax is "about lowering, not increasing, tax bills for millions of hard-working families" the Conservatives are driven by instincts "that prevent them from asking anything more from the very wealthy, even as people on lower incomes feel the pinch".
In Eastleigh on Friday, Hughes had the happy air of a man liberated to speak his mind. "Bluntly, the Tories are not the party that puts first those who are struggling most," he said, adding that they "always fail to understand" the positive effects of immigration. "Britain is what it is because of immigrants who have come here and made their contribution."
The Eastleigh poll promises to be the single most important event for his party in this parliament. Victory would restore self-belief while sowing discord in Tory ranks. It "will boost the confidence of Nick, his colleagues in parliament and his colleagues in the party," said Hughes, before casting his mind forward to the next prime minister's questions. "I know on that occasion who will have the bigger smile."
When Huhne stepped down, Eastleigh had looked a tough seat for Clegg's party to defend. The cabinet minister's disgrace offered itself as a gift to the Lib Dems' opponents. The party's joint responsibility for the economy was also seen as likely to boost Labour. And last week the scandal that has engulfed Lib Dem peer Chris Rennard, the party's longstanding election strategist, who now stands accused of inappropriate behaviour towards a string of female party members, was a further black cloud.
But the Lib Dems are nothing if not feisty and determined local campaigners. Where they put down local roots they are hard to unearth or dislodge. On Eastleigh borough council they hold 40 of the 44 seats and all 36 of those that fall within the Eastleigh parliamentary constituency. In and around the railway town they seem to have been able to insulate themselves, to a large extent, from the unpopularity of the coalition.
On Friday their campaign headquarters in a warehouse was packed with supporters writing out letters to be delivered by hand to voters this weekend. It is a campaign technique borrowed from the US and one the Lib Dems have perfected over years by getting to know every voter in the constituency. They stress issues such as the need for more houses and jobs. Their candidate, Mike Thornton, is a local councillor and the campaign behind him has a buzz not seen since the days of Cleggmania before the 2010 election. By contrast, the Tory effort in Eastleigh has struggled to get off the ground ever since candidate Maria Hutchings made a series of early gaffes, including a statement that none of the local state schools was good enough for her 12-year-old son, who wants to become a surgeon. Last Thursday, with Cameron in town, she failed to turn up for a BBC Radio hustings and was accused of running scared. The party HQ opposite the railway station was manned on Friday afternoon by only half a dozen workers as Lib Dems gathered to cheer Hughes in their hundreds just up the road. No one could say where accident-prone Hutchings was.
Calls to their press office to try to identify her whereabouts went unanswered. The first Tory volunteer found by the Observer on the streets was carrying a clutch of Ukip leaflets, which he hid when asked why he was not armed with Tory material. Another young Tory worker, when asked where Hutchings was, said "under lock and key, I expect". Another, Sophie Bolsover, insisted that things were going fine. "There is no abuse on the doorstep, just one aggressive dog," she remarked, showing a cut on her finger.
Ukip, on the other hand, was everywhere. Marching up and down the town centre wearing a big grin and a fedora, leader Nigel Farage said he was confident his party's candidate, Diane James, would beat Labour into third place. "I'll pack it in if we don't," he said, noting that while people were not that interested in "clause 138, subsection 4b, of the EU treaty" they did know that the EU meant "open door immigration and less jobs for local people". Ukip scored only 3.6% of the vote in 2010, but Farage reckons the party is up 20% on that ahead of polling day, with the Lib Dems and Tories both down 10% and Labour up around 5%.
Labour's candidate, the writer John O'Farrell, has done little wrong but has failed to make the headway necessary to stand a realistic chance of winning. Labour came a distant third in 2010. If O'Farrell gets pipped to third by Ukip, questions will again be raised about Labour's ability to make progress in south-east England, even at a time when the country is in the economic doldrums. "I am not going to lie to you and say it is like 1997," O'Farrell said. "But there are a lot of people who are still undecided. We have got a lot of dormant Labour voters here who have voted Lib Dem since 1992 to keep the Tories out. Our job is to wake them up."
From now until Thursday, the Lib Dems' official line will be that the race is "still very close" and that the Tories are not far behind. But Clegg's troops are already in victory mode. The canvassing returns are good, the money is pouring in, and rather than finding that their place in the coalition has hindered them the Lib Dems have used their unhappy marriage as a way to motivate their own troops. The mood on Friday was not so much one of complacency as sheer uncontrollable excitement. As Hughes put it: "For most of our activists, this is the first chance they have had to kick the Tories. It has reinvigorated the whole party."
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Italians go to the polls amid market jitters over the power of the comic who would cut top pay, offer a vote on euro membership and rip open politics 'like a can of tuna'
As an enormous crowd gathered to hear him speak outside Rome's San Giovanni basilica on Friday night, the comedian Beppe Grillo had every reason to be jubilant, but the thought of bringing down Italy's political order appeared to make him pensive, even melancholy.
"It's been like this up-and-down Italy – we are witnessing a change in civilisation, not just politics," he told the Observer. "Italy has turned its back on its political class and a new language of community, identity and honesty is filling the gap," he added slowly.
Minutes later, a different, wilder Grillo took the stage to a rock-star welcome before at least 100,000 cheering fans, yelling at them that his movement would rip open parliament "like a tin of tuna" when it sends an army of activists – analysts predict more than 100 – into the senate and lower house after Italians go the polls today and tomorrow.
Turning his attention to Italy's pampered political caste, he screamed "It's finished! Give up! You are surrounded!" as fans waved a banner stating, "We want to get out of the darkness."
Friday's massive rally was the climax to a marathon tour of packed piazzas which has pushed Grillo's poll ratings towards 20%, panicking pundits who had predicted a market-pleasing outcome to the election in which the centre-left leader, Pier Luigi Bersani, would form a coalition with outgoing technocrat prime minister Mario Monti.
Silvio Berlusconi, hitherto seen as the potential spanner in the works, slipped back in the final days of campaigning, drawing flak for making lewd remarks to a woman during a speech and condoning bribery in a TV interview, while his promise to pay back an unpopular tax left many unconvinced.
It is Grillo, not Berlusconi, who has surfaced as the new bogeyman for the markets, his popularity threatening gridlock in parliament or at best a weak centre-left coalition which will collapse within months. Grillo, many argue, may be a well intentioned experiment in populist "anti-politics" that ends up dragging Europe back into a debt crisis.
His manifesto combines pro-environment policies with a crackdown on parliamentary privileges, a living wage for the jobless using cuts from military spending, the slashing of top managers' wages, broadband for all, bike lanes and the right for priests to have children "so they don't touch other people's".
But what has spooked the markets is his commitment to hold a referendum on leaving the euro and a temporary freeze on interest payments on government bonds, which could lead to default. Meanwhile, Grillo's decision not to talk to the Italian press, which has led to accusations that he is ducking tough questions, reached a climax on Friday when Italian journalists were kept from going backstage at the Rome rally while foreign reporters were let in, prompting police to open the barriers after a furious row.
"With him we'll be worse off than Greece – we will say goodbye to democracy," warned Bersani.
As Italy sinks into its longest recession in 20 years, thanks to almost negligible growth and a two trillion euro debt pile, political stalemate is the last thing the country needs. But on Friday, Grillo was in no mood to cut deals, working himself into such a frenzy that even the face of the woman on stage beside him signing for the deaf looked furious.
The 64-year-old comic will not enter parliament – he has a 1980 driving conviction for manslaughter after a crash in which passengers were killed, and thus falls foul of his own rule banning MPs with records.
Slowly, his inexperienced parliamentary candidates have been emerging from his shadow, and on Friday, some were suggesting that some of Grillo's wilder plans, such as freezing the debt, could be taken with a pinch of salt. "Our ideas are a work in progress, Grillo will never give us orders and never has," said Giuliana di Pillo, 50, a teacher of disabled children and senate candidate who said she would fight for more school funding. Di Pillo's last visit to the senate chamber was 10 years ago, when she took a group of schoolchildren: "I never once imagined I would return as a senator."
Milling around backstage at the Rome rally, Di Pillo chatted to other candidates whose measured speech contrasted with Grillo's stage roar.
"Grillo's not the boss – he is there to check the right people join the movement, but the responsibility to administrate will be ours, as citizens," said Alessandro di Nicola, 33, a construction worker standing for regional councillor in Rome.
Laura Pizzotti, 52, an IT specialist who is standing for the senate, said the so-called "Grillini" were open to teaming with other parties in parliament on bills they approved of. "We will be there for the good of Italy and that means we won't try to bring parliament to a halt," she said.
Pizzotti joined Grillo's blog-based movement in its early days, seven years ago, and has fought to keep Italy's water supply out of private hands, a common cause among Grillo's supporters. Now she wants to stifle funding for political parties. "We will be at sea at the start, but we are studying and there will be experts in parliament to help us write laws," she said.
"We have a network of architects, engineers and legal experts ready to give back-up," said Di Nicola.The candidates – a far cry from the left-wing extremist label given them by Berlusconi – described Grillo as their "megaphone", whose internet-fuelled rage appealed to Italians sick of being told by slick politicians that nothing will change. "Grillo is a reaction to bad politics, but whatever happens in parliament will be weighed on the scales with the citizens," said Pizzotti.
Grillo backers claim they are already making a difference after taking over the town hall in the city of Parma and becoming the biggest party in Sicily in regional elections last year.
Once in office in Sicily, Grillini cut bloated council wages from €15,000 (£13,000) to €2,500 and plan to use the excess to find microcredit schemes.
"When we cut the wages back, councillors from other parties did not show up for work for two days for fear of being asked by journalists why they weren't doing the same," said councillor Giancarlo Cancelleri, 37, a former office worker.
On Friday, Grillo got some of his biggest cheers from the crowd when he savaged Italy's pampered, and often corrupt, political class. "They must all go..." he said, before the crowd chanted back "Home!" As it gets ready to vote, Italy is about to find out just how radical Beppe Grillo really wants to get when he and his backers move from online forums and piazzas to the corridors of power.
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Spring Greek Fest Coming to North Side Patch.com Lincoln Square is known for is German heritage, but one neighborhood church is adding a new flavor to the area. St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church is throwing a Greek food festival for its 85th anniversary this spring. Featuring food, wine and ... |
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 www.worldbulletin.net | Greek Cypriots to elect president on Sunday www.worldbulletin.net Greek Cypriot administration will elect its leader on February 24 as each candidates failed to exceed 50 percent in the first round of voting on February 17. Nicos Anastasiades of Democratic Rally (DISI) and Stavros Malas of Progressive Party of ... Cyprus Runoff May Determine Its Economic Fate New Cyprus president to be faced with nightmarish task Cyprus: lessons from AKEL's shame |
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 Telegraph.co.uk | Will Berlusconi make a comeback? EU quakes at thought USA TODAY Berlusconi, the consummate Italian politician, has a history of persuading the masses to give him another try. Silvio Berlusconi. Media mogul and former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi gestures during a political rally in Rome on Wednesday. (Photo: Mauro ... Italy Elections 2013: A Tycoon, A Professor, A Politician, And A Comedian Austerity-hit Italy prepares for landmark election Huge Grillo rally rounds off Italy election campaign |
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Greece Woos Investors With Eased Rules Greek Reporter eforia Hoping to reverse the country's image as unfriendly to business because of corruption and a labyrinthine bureaucracy, the Greek government is proposing to relax regulations and eliminate obstacles that have kept foreign investors from wanting to ... |
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Greece Will OK Gold Mine Project Greek Reporter Gold-Mine-300x199 Greece will soon give approval for the go-ahead of a gold mine project that has split residents in the region of northern Greece where it will be dug, pitting environmentalists against those who want the jobs the 230 million euros ... |
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Telegraph.co.uk | Austerity-hit Italy prepares for landmark election AFP ROME — Italians hit by austerity and recession on Saturday prepared to take to the polls for an election that could reverberate throughout the eurozone, a day after a mass rally in Rome showed rising discontent. Tens of thousands of people turned out for ... Italian Notes Slide Before Election; Bunds Gain on Haven Demand Huge Grillo rally rounds off Italy election campaign Italy election: Why voters back Berlusconi, no matter what |
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It's not therapy or self-help. But people, many with mental health issues, pack out the Stuart Low Trust philosophy forums
The Stuart Low Trust provides support and companionship to isolated people in north London – many have experience of mental illness. They put on a startling range of activities: live music and comedy, classes on drama and cookery, talks on history, astrophysics, chemistry and classical music. On Sunday afternoons the trust's remarkable philosophy forum convenes. For the individuals taking part, philosophy is certainly not mere navel-gazing. The ancient questions – how should I live? what matters most? who should I be? – are live ones for them.
When Rachel Paine, a philosophy tutor who helped set up the forum, is the speaker, 30 people crowd themselves on to purple sofas to hear her. She's talking about personal identity and the narrative conception of the self. "What makes you the person you are?" she asks.
The usual answers have something to do with continuity – your body or your memories make you the same you over time – but she's asking about the control we have over who we are. The thought is that the self might be deliberately shaped when you choose actions in line with the narratives you have about the kind of life you want to live, the sort of person you want to be.
The main group splits into four seminars, each guided by a volunteer with a background in philosophy. There's discussion of what happens when your narrative fails, when your story is thwarted by factors outside your control, and you can't be who you want to be. Others consider the connection between a life's narrative and social identity, how the thoughts of other people can sometimes shape us.
The seminars merge back together, and Paine sets out a different conception of the self. The new idea is that a person consists in many changing selves, strung along over time like pearls on a string. The seminars split off again, and there's discussion of Hume's bundle theory here and there. One asks what the string connecting the pearls is supposed to be. There's a moment of baffled silence, smiles, and more conversation.
Today's topic was metaphysics, but in the past year the forum has considered how fiction can move us, Kierkegaard's three stages of life, theories of perceptual experience, distributive justice, liberty, ancient Greek philosophy, trolley problems, God, truth and much more.
What's striking is the group's openness to new ideas. "It's not like a debate among academics," a group leader, Aaron Finlay, tells me, "where people just take up established positions and butt heads." There's a real sense of people trying to get at the truth, trying to do philosophy with honesty.
Harry Adamson, a Cambridge PhD who helped set up the forum, says that philosophical questions can play a powerful role in the lives of people who have experienced mental health problems. "Their lives can throw up abstract and fundamental questions that many people drift through life leaving unexamined. Their experiences generate answers that are often novel, plausible and powerful, and as they've lived the questions, the answers they reach take on a different significance. Apart from all that, their thoughts are listened to here with an equality of respect, which I'm sad to say doesn't always happen."
While it's definitely not therapy or self-help, the participants say they get a great deal from the discussions. For some the debates are simply good fun, others come along to hear new ideas and discover different perspectives, and still others enjoy the camaraderie. One said the forum has helped in other ways too. He's "much more in the world now", less shy, more likely to speak up. "It's a privilege to hear these ideas," he says.
The philosophy forum is one of those rare things that defy the laws of social physics. Everyone gets more out than they put in, particularly the volunteers. "It's the best thing I do," one tells me. "It's the highlight of my week." As I follow Paine down the hallway from one group to another, I tell her I planned to ask why she and the other volunteers give up so much of their time to do this. Having come along and listened in, I say that's probably a stupid question. "I know," she whispers. "It's quite wonderful, isn't it?"
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 RT | Floods sweep through Greece and Italy, 1 dead RT Unusually heavy rains have caused floods in Greece and southern Italy with torrents of water strong enough to carry away vehicles. One woman died of shock after being trapped in her car surrounded by raging waters. In Athens a woman in her 20s died of ... Greece: Fierce storm causes blackouts, road havoc; stranded driver dies Greece hit by floods, 1 death reported Italy and Greece Flooded by Torrential Rain [VIDEO] |
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