js1000

I have alleged no conspiracy, all i'm saying is when greek finance ministers cook books with goldman to join the euro and then goldman take millions in consultancy fees while betting on greece to fail, and when the greek defence minister takes bribes from german defence contractors resulting in millions being borrowed from german banks to buy german made military equipment, i find this far more damaging to the greek economy than 10 year degrees, generous pensions, union militancy and working people avoiding tax. now i realise the latter doesn't help, however i'm bemused as to why more energy is given discussing the latter, its as though the bigwigs are given a free pass. Former Greek defence minister jailed for 20 years for corruption http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/32a685c0-2f6d-11e3-8cb2-00144feab7de.html#axzz3cBGfJ03g these are bigger reasons for Greece's problems, it winds me up hearing - specially from fellow greeks - that the people of Greece are stupid lazy idle tax dodgers with generous pensions and its the greek 'mentality' thats caused it all(its like reading the English press). sure it might contribute but it pails into insignificance when you look at the wastage coming from the top. I'd be furious if my pension/wages in Greece was cut knowing what goes on at the top, I wouldn't want the state to get a penny in tax from me when most gets wasted and funnelled into overseas accounts.

why is it that people believe the western media narrative of greek people not paying tax as the problem to Greece's financial problems but don't get nearly as riled about the real cause, when you have corruption to this degree bankrupting the country i also wouldn't want to pay tax to a bent system. REVEALED: HOW EC COMMISSIONER LORD HILL AND HIS CONTROLLER DAVID CAMERON ARE COVERING UP GERMAN CORRUPTION IN GREECE. Sorry guys, i don't think early retirement generous pensions and tax avoidance by working people is nearly as damaging as this, and there are many more.

so why can't the UK government do all of the above without being members of an unaudited club that costs them net

wow, what a first season, played the whole 90 minutes in Benfica's league cup final win over Maritimo(2-1) just added a league cup winners medal to his championship winners medal. :gr: :tup: :nw: :tup: :gr:

don't understand this comment. Japanese companies manufacture cars in Britain so do German companies, they are both foreign companies, where does EU membership come in?, I'm sure if Germany were not EU members they'd continue making as many cars as they do now. In the UK manufacturing is now almost non existent, people were quick to blame the unions for the closure of factories, but the truth is companies found it cheaper to use sweatshop labour in the far east and used the unions and the 'lazy british worker' as a convenient excuse for their outsourcing. yet in Germany unions are strong and wages are high and they still find it economically viable to manufacture in Germany. Turkey has 15 plants despite not being in the EU, even Serbia has 3, and Greece doesn't make the list despite being EU members. where's the benefit of EU membership for Greece?? I get that, that's all i'm hearing, that we're a bunch of uncivilised anarchists, but where's the benefit of being governed by a corrupt unaudited organisation? Its not all bad though, we make a decent gyro and a lovely frappe. wind farms don't work, they've proved disastrous in the UK, the government has subsidised them and got far less in return, what they produce is minimal and the subsidies have caused energy bills to increase. the gas/oil exploration and solar? perhaps we're waiting for the EU to sort it all out for us while we sip our frappe.

croatia was doing ok before they stupidly decided to become the 28th member recently and also slovenia. romania other than losing most of its working people to other EU nations hasn't really benefited from joining, Bulgaria's tourism and construction was booming with tourists flocking there because it was so cheap but prices have now risen sharply there since they joined. Portugal saw property prices rise sharply with brits and germans snapping up property in the algarve but wages there did't really rise and we saw the portuguese protesting because they couldn't afford property in their own country. Cyprus was doing ok before they joined, strong pound, good economy, low unemployment - look at them now, still divided, high unemployment, rising population huge reduction in wages, young educated cypriots leaving for other countries in order to find work with the island being full of foreigners. yes you make good points about greece but you cannot champion the EU as some sort of benevolent organisation that countries can't survive without, its undemocratic, its even more wasteful and corrupt than even Greece and the people now suffering in Greece through the EUs austerity demands are not the ones that caused the crisis in the first place. Just like in Cyprus, those that had their savings stolen by the banks (i believe they call it a 'haircut' in order to conceal what it really is) were not the ones that caused the mess. if you have your own currency you can devalue try and attract foreign investment and would have more tourists coming because it would be so cheap for them, but all i'm hearing here is that greeks are too stupid and need to be governed by the EU.

like Ireland Portugal Spain Cyprus and Italy they're also in the poo. who made these 'rules and processes' and for what ends?? basically they want to dictate policy and demand austerity in 'sovereign' countries. and what about european countries who are not in the EU, how do they manage to function? the whole EU is undemocratic, when french and dutch voters voted no to a new constitution they simply changed the wording to a 'treaty' when Irish voters voted no to the Lisbon treaty they were made to vote again, when private banks went tits up in Cyprus well we know what happened there, the whole EU is a mess and needs to be disbanded but instead its swallowing up more countries. like i said, as bent and incompetent as the greek government is, the EU whose commissioners make all the rules are not elected and have never been audited because of their own corruption have no business dictating to Greece. To me their arrogance is staggering and I don't want their meddling/dictating in Greece. supposing those rules favour some and penalise others, suppose its not a level playing field?? besides its the EU that are laying the framework and rules for greeks, now if you think that there are no other options because greeks are too stupid to ' have a true understanding of the mechanisms of a viable modern economy....or what the role of government is in our lives' then there's no hope for Greece and they need the EU to govern them. one wonders how Greece even survived as a nation before they joined the EU.

not only did we lose against the Faroes but karnezis was our man of the match against them.

sorry, couldn't resist self parking volvo

in that case we stay in the EU do what the troika tell us, privatise everything to pay off debts, further impoverish our people with cuts/austerity demanded by the troika and blame the 'left wing' the unions and the 'greek mentality' for everything. Seems the western media narrative of greeks being lazy scrounging idle tax dodging people who are being propped up by a charitable EU is quite correct.

tourists would definitely come in greater numbers, people stopped coming because they can get more for their money in places like egypt and turkey, also lifting visa requirements for russians would see loads of people coming and i believe the cheap cost of property would see people buying up properties, thats the only way to start any sort of recovery, do you seriously think staying as we are is any sort of solution, being dictated to by an organisation even more bent then our own government.

very true gyros, however that will only be short term, people will flock to greece and invest in greece because of they value for money they'd get from their own currency being so much stronger than any greek currency, then a recovery can begin slowly, if they stay as they are then there's no hope, the EU has proved to be a disaster, its made rich countries poorer and poor countries more expensive and has never been audited, you can talk about greek corruption and incompetence until you're blue in the face but the EU has similar issues on a bigger scale.

not so much regulation but they should have been allowed to fail because of their irresponsible lending instead of being bailed out and some of the bail out money was used to give those that caused it all huge bonuses, what message does that have sent to the banks ?? can't defend obama, the guys he got to work for him were the ones who's incompetence and greed caused it all, timothy geithner springs to mind but there were others like MR Summers obamas a fraud, at least with bush he doesn't pretend to be on the people's side you knew where you stood.

good points, you could add that the ratings agencies gave triple 'a' ratings to these toxic loans, either knowing they were toxic or just sheer incompetence, these same agencies faced zero consequences for their actions and when they downgrade countries we are all supposed to listen to them as though they are the experts.

Asteras had 8 Argentinians in their starting 11 :D :D and they still lost heavily.

won the portuguese league in his first season at benfica with a game to spare. :gr: :tup: :nw: :tup: :gr: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-3085953/Benfica-s-celebrations-Primeira-Liga-titles-31-years-turn-ugly-riot-police-deal-fans-streets-Lisbon.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490

strange really, he played virtually every match for fulham and looked really accomplished when he played for Greece against Hungary.

i love this sketch its so so true, it works both ways though because you got the labour faithful that will always vote labour regardless.

don't misunderstand me reaper, i'm not suggesting for one moment that labour are any different/better.

wonderful, another 5 years of uncontrolled immigration and pandering to the EU. glad i never voted, my conscience is clear. don't hold your breath regarding an in out referendum, cameron promised that last time round also. we can look forward to more warmongering, more paedophilia, more secrecy and more tax breaks for their corporate chums. brits baffle me, they constantly moan about immigration and the EU yet continually elect pro immigration pro EU parties.

http://rt.com/op-edge/216783-greece-politics-economy-eu-eu thank you akriti, you expect it from englezi but its soul destroying seeing it from your own people.

on reflection you're quite correct, we need to keep the status quo, and continue with the austerity that the troika has demanded, even if people are losing their jobs and properties as a result. greeks are too stupid to run things on their own like the icelanders, and need the protection and benefits the EU offers. the thought of being a sovereign state is too much to comprehend. why are they powerless?? maybe its because the troika dictate policy in greece, which means that SYRIZA are equally powerless, hence it doesn't matter who's in perceived power in greece. they won't leave the EU and go it alone as that's 'beyond absurd' so therefore who's in government matters not.

SYRIZA has been in 'power' only a few months, they didn't destroy greece, greece was well F***ed by all the bent governments that went before, you had the defence minister taking bungs from german defence companies and all of a sudden greece borrows money from german banks to buy german made military equipment, Mr papademos was the finance minister when greece cooked the books with goldman sachs in order to join the euro, meanwhile goldman walked away with $$$$$$

disgraceful government, they now want to introduce a surcharge when withdrawing large amounts. fleece their own people in order to give money to the troika. voting is pointless, these guys are sell outs like all the others before them. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3068975/Greece-introduces-mandatory-surcharges-cashpoints-desperate-attempt-raise-money-stop-panicked-citizens-withdrawing-life-savings-country-s-beleaguered-banks.html you can't blame the greek people for clearing out their accounts, specially after what happened to savers in Cyprus recently.

aek give it up man, the players didn't want to play for the clown, he lost the dressing room, a disastrous appointment who gets to enjoy yet another pay off. my post prior to ranieri's one and only point. you understand why he was called the 'tinkerman' greece's success was built on continuity he changed too much too soon. you're implying he didn't have any options and couldn't do any better, he lost the dressing room and should have been out after the finland game. absolutely gutted i am because it was so obvious to me and many others early on that he was disastrous for our ethniki.