2177 days ago
Yes I am a rabid Brexiteer. I want the country where, regrettably, I spend most of the year to be free to make its own laws, set its own taxes, control its own waters and chart its own destiny. I have faith that Britain can do that. Yet for sneering metropolitan elitists like the twit who tweeted me last night, as you can see below, that is incompatible with liking your fellow Europeans. Au contraire..
2982 days ago
It is a bit off the radar screens of the mainstream media right now but life in Greece grows ever more miserable. Nothing works. The poor are getting poorer and hope has just gone. But of course PM Alex Tspiras, a man reminiscent of Tony Blair in all the worst ways, will accept none of the blame.
3084 days ago
I see from numerous congratulations messages from folks who I I do not know, sent via LinkedIn, that I am celebrating another anniversary. Having checked it out it appears that www.TomWinnifrith.com is four years old. It was a very strange birth indeed.
3420 days ago
To recap: 61% of Greeks voted Oxi (no) to a nasty bailout package last Sunday. Treacherous PM Alex "Ephialtes" Tsipras then ignored their wishes and proposed an even worse deal which 79% of Greeks oppose, according to a poll out today. And in Brussels just now it appears that Greece has agreed to an even worse package than the second Ephialtes deal which it will start implementing next week in order to get a bailout. But even this most brutal of rogerings and abject humiliations for Greece may not save it.
German leader Angela Merkel wants Greece out of the Euro for five years.
3421 days ago
In the Greek Parliament the MPs are - as at 7.45 - still debating the proposal of Alex Tsipras to betray his people by suggesting a deal with the banksters that is worse than the one 61% voted Oxi to last week. As I noted earlier, the communist KKE party warned that Tsipras would sell out if he got an Oxi vote, I agreed with its analysis and it looks as if we will be vindicated. And so beneath Syntagma Square the commies are starting to gather.
3421 days ago
Last Sunday 61% of Greeks voted Oxi! In a referendum on the bailout proposals being offered to the Greeks by the banksters. They said no to a scorched earth policy of austerity without debt relief that will see more people leave, the population age, basic services crumble further and many facing no escape from abject poverty. Today, just five days later, PM Alex Tsipras, hero of the Oxi campaign, has proposed that Greece accept terms that are – if anything – worse. And there is still no debt relief on the table.
3426 days ago
Greece voted overwhelmingly Oxi yet this morning finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has quit claiming that the banksters had made it clear that they did not wish to negotiate with him personally. Is this the start of the Syriza sell-out?
I see that Eurosceptics in Britain like Farage continue to see the Oxi vote as a vote against the Euro. It is not. Most Greeks and most Oxi voters including Prime Minister Alex Tsipras want to stay in the Euro and think that the referendum merely strengthens their mandate and their hand.
3426 days ago
On Friday before the Greek referendum Syntagma square was awash with blue and white Greek flags and white Oxi flags. This was not about party politics, Alex Tsipras and Syriza wanted you to vote Oxi as it was your patriotic call. I happen to agree with that. Pro tem all Greeks could put party aside and vote Oxi to vote for Greece. Last night something odd happened after the polls closed: Oxi turned from blue to red.
3426 days ago
As I wander up to the most excellent Anthrapology café one last time for a leave Athens on a boat tonight to continue my odyssey, I stroll past three of four banks and they are open. Well sort of.
Pensioners are allowed in but to withdraw only 100 Euro. You can make a deposit if you wish but no-one is that daft. For those not yet in retirement it is the ATMs again and if anything the queues are longer than they were on Saturday and Sunday.
And why not? At the very worst you take out 60 Euro, stuff it under the mattress and in a few weeks convert it into nice new Drachmas and make a quick turn. At best you avoid losing 60 Euro when the bank goes bust or if the State confiscates your wealth via a bank bail-in. And so the ATM lines grow longer and will stay that way all day until the machines, or Greece, just runs out of cash, whichever is sooner
3426 days ago
Just why did Betfair move so sharply to Oxi! a few hours ago? Er there was a Gallup poll taken on Saturday and released to non insider dealers after the actual poll closed here in Greece. I caught the last voters turning up to have their say at my local polling station and then talked to the precinct captain for Nai.
3426 days ago
The early polls are coming in, district by district. Even Messania where I live, which is the heartland of conservative New Democracy, seems to have voted Oxi.
3427 days ago
The betting markets have a better record of calling elections than opinion polls in recent times and so take note - there have been heavy betting on Betfair in the past three hours - and that betting is on Oxi! winning here in the Greek Referendum. Hooray - that calls for an ouzo.
3427 days ago
Polls close here in Athens in just over three hours. I shall shortly head off to my local polling station to have a final butchers and then to Syntagma Square to sit underneath the Greek parliament as the results come in. I shall blog away here on ShareProphets as Greece decides whether it is Oxi or nai. Pro tem this podcast covers Greece, China, Quindell and UK House prices.
This podcast is recorded in the most excellent Anthropology cafe in Athens which I heartily recommend - although it really needs to start stocking ouzo
And fear not Champagne Charlie Gibson fans, I had not forgotten about you. Just a reminder of why the Edison analyst is a convicted felon HERE and as a bonus a reminder of how it is not only the poor he screws HERE - and a reminder of why I feel the urge to remind you all HERE
3427 days ago
Oh what drama – the polls here in Greece are close but the governing Syriza party is reporting a high turnout in Athens which is very good news for the Oxi side. I noted earlier that I was expecting 70% turnout here in the Capital (higher than the 67% General Election) but Syriza reckons it could be higher still.
3427 days ago
I had a long chat last night with my Eurosceptic Uncle and godfather Christopher Booker and who like me is hoping that Greece votes Oxi. But he knows that we have some strange bedfellows in the Oxi camp.
British Eurosceptics are usually on the right. We want the Euro to fail. As I noted on Friday the Oxi camp here want to have their cake and eat it: they want no austerity, debt write-offs and to stay in the Euro. They are lefties. Hearing the message of support to the Oxi rally from the old murderer Gerry Adams makes both Chris and I wonder about our bedfellows. Oh…as an added bonus the Nazis of Golden Dawn are also strong supporters of Oxi! Truly we travel in strange company.
But there is a third way: Kappa Kappa, the hard-line commies. They are today urging folks to vote Oxi but then to spoil their ballot paper. Kappa Kappa got 5% in the General Election and if half its supporters toe the party line that could well be enough to deliver victory to the Nai camp.
My NBF the KKE precinct captain
3427 days ago
I am horrified to see today’s Mail on Sunday spout complete lies about Greece. It saddens me that this paper pays folks like Liz Jones to write sensationalist crap.
We were both (apparently) at the same mass rally in Syntagma Square on Friday. I encountered nothing but calm and peace and a duck among the 50,000 crowd. I did not feel threatened for a second. Liz Jones reports Police firing stun grenades and seems to have got into a bit of a state. There might be the odd hothead everywhere but the Oxi rally was call, determined and dignified.
Liz reports that the Oxi camp want to turn their backs on the Euro and EU. I wish. The Oxi camp want to say in the Euro but believe they can do that without austerity and with debt relief. I do not think Liz has been listening to anyone here.
Liz and her colleagues report that shops are running out of food. Sorry but, overwhelmingly, that is not true. That PM Alex Tspiras
3427 days ago
The July edition of UK Investor Magazine went live last night. It is free to access and the cover story is “David Lenigas, saint or serial sinner” – a joint effort by myself and the Sith Lord Zak Mir. There are a couple of company profiles, three stocks to buy and three to sell. One of those is Quindell which really could be worth 0p again! And there is more…
Richard Poulden explains why gold really will sparkle this year, Zak Mir interviews Neil Ritson of Solo Oil, there is a share tip from Beaufort and the house view on Greece and why it should vote Oxi.
3428 days ago
Think Stoke Newington in London. Edgy, lefty but with a stack of affluent middle class Guardian readers among the poor. That’s the sort of neighbourhood of Athens in which I am staying. Everywhere there are Oxi posters – this area is voting No heavily in the referendum on Sunday. Even the businesses display posters – they are not afraid of losing customers because this area is heavily Oxi. One poster (see below) says nothing but says it all.
3428 days ago
I guess there were two capitalists in Syntagma Square last night as well as more than 50,000 lefties at the Oxi! Rally. The two entrepreneurs would have been myself and the chap selling Greek and Oxi flags as well as mini klaxons – he was doing a roaring trade.
As I noted in my report yesterday, both sides in the Greek referendum campaign are desperate to say that they are the patriots and the other side traitors. Thus the blue and white of Greece was everywhere.
3428 days ago
Refreshed by a couple of ouzos and with my report loaded I wandered back to the rally in Syntagma square. The party continued well past midnight with a succession of pop stars performing. Each sang and also offered a few thoughts on the political situation. Pop stars are not generally the brightest sparks in the universe but as long as the said Oxi to which the crowd replied Oxi (please each repeat three times) nothing mattered.
There must have been well over 50,000 people at the rally. There were parents
3429 days ago
Who said capitalism is dead in Greece? The stalls selling Greek and Oxi flags were doing a roaring trade. In fact everyone who could was draping themselves in the blue and white of Greece. Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. And in a referendum both sides have to claim the patriotic high ground.
One can make a case for both Oxi and Nai being the patriotic side. One stands up to the banksters and evil ECB and Germans. The other saves Greece from bankruptcy. Well sort of. But both camps claim to be the patriots.
3431 days ago
Well that is it. The referendum in Greece is now certain to go ahead on Sunday says PM Alex Tsipras. If Greece of all nations can organise a campaign and vote in a week why can't we do the same in Briatin and spare us all the misery of a 4 week liefest that is the General Election?
But with the vote a certainty and Tsipras campaigning hard for Greeks to show pride and vote Oxi (no) I have booked all my tickets and will land at Athens airport by 9.30 AM in Friday and should be set up to start blogging by noon. I plan to spend Saturday shooting some poverty porn and polling day in and around Syntagma Square looking for riot porn and - I hope - a massive Oxi victory party.
So over the weekend there should be non stop blogging - as I promised earlier here - on ShareProphets.com
Enjoy!
