Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th June 2015

[rebeccariots2]

Robin Brant ‏@robindbrant 4m4 minutes ago
the labour MP simon danczuk has confirmed reports in @TheSun that he has separated from his wife karen.

Robin Brant ‏@robindbrant 4m4 minutes ago
.@TheSun reported the split on the front page of its first edition of tomorrow's newspaper.

Robin Brant ‏@robindbrant 3m3 minutes ago
the rochdale MP has become a prominent campaigner against historical child sexual exploitation.

Robin Brant ‏@robindbrant 3m3 minutes ago
police have recently investigated claims that karen danczuk suffered abuse as a child.

That's the tweet thread as it happened ... what next with Danczuk? I know I shouldn't find myself thinking such a thing ... but he has so courted the MSM - pushed himself and his wife into the limelight - I could almost see this as the latest publicity stunt. No - I don't really want to entertain that as a possibility. But it's hard to go from just seeing a banal but somehow self important tweet by him of a photo of the dish he's just eaten in an Italian restaurant ... to this news.

[rebeccariots2]

Robin Brant ‏@robindbrant · 4 mins4 minutes ago
the labour MP simon danczuk has confirmed reports in @TheSun that he has separated from his wife karen.

??? Not seen anything about this other than this tweet (not sure it matters either)

Sorry AAW - we've snapped - sort of. Yours came up first. I'm not sure it really matters either - except that he's made himself such a Labour mouthpiece in the MSM.

[citizenJA]

Greece referendum: did the euro just die at 4pm?
http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We’re staying in Europe! says the headline of the Greek liberal paper Kathimerini today.

While the far left government will pose the referendum as a vote for or against austerity, the right will say it’s an in-out vote for the single currency and the EU itself. The problem is, at around 4pm on Saturday Europe changed. Faced with a proposal from the Greeks to extend the existing bailout until after 7 July, the Eurogroup refused.

At this point chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem announced there would be “a meeting of the 18” – that is the Eurogroup without Greece. Asked how such a meeting could issue a communique he replied, according to a Greek witness “we can do what we like since we are an ad hoc body”. The Brussels press corps dutifully reported that the Greeks had “walked out”. But if the Greek account is right, what happened at that moment was the psychological breakpoint of the Euro.

The Greeks haggled over the fiscal details all week but were minded to sign an €8bn austerity package if it could be sold as (a) redistributional and (b) accompanied by a promise to discuss restructuring the debt. What changed? By Thursday morning it was the lenders’ document that was the basis of discussions with the Greeks allowed to propose amendments. But when the elected ministers of the Eurogroup saw what the EC, IMF and ECB had proposed they rowed back.

“We can’t get this through our own parliaments” they said: it’s too soft.

(my bold)

That's too bad.
Should've told them the truth about debt a long time ago.
No wonder the US felt the need to step in.
The euro plunged some hours ago.
All the trolls below the line screeching, "it didn't fall that much! it didn't fall that much!"
Not doing an acceptable deal with Greece is too dangerous.

[citizenJA]

Less than five minutes ago:

Financial markets heading for heavy falls on Monday.
Oh Goodness Me.
Global stock markets are just getting into gear for the new week, and it’s already clear that shares are going to fall sharply on Monday morning.
The future’s market is predicting that the main US stock markets could fall by close to 2%.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/liv ... bda8d8abca" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Willow904]

Greece referendum: did the euro just die at 4pm?
http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If you were deeply cynical you might suspect the Eurozone countries kept up negotiations with Greece just long enough for them to shore up the Euro against the speculative market attacks on their currency that would inevitably follow a Greek exit.
I could be very wrong, but it's starting to look like the end of the Greek Euro journey to me. Perhaps the best Greece can hope for now is a managed parting of the ways?

[citizenJA]

Oh shit. This was on Friday:

Chinese stock markets plunge over fears share prices are unsustainable
China’s Shanghai composite index falls more than 7% in mass sell-off after six months of frenetic buying driven by a state clampdown on property investment

Chinese stock markets plunged on Friday as investors rushed to sell over fears that frenzied buying in recent months had sent share prices to unsustainable levels. The Shanghai composite index, which reached a post-crash record of 5,166 earlier this month, has since lost nearly 1,000 points, down more than 7% at the last session to 4,193. The CSI300 index of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell 7.9%.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/201 ... ustainable" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[citizenJA]

Good-night, everyone.
love
cJA

[LadyCentauria]

Goodnight @cJA – group and a fair bit of seem to be in order, tonight...

[RogerOThornhill]

They simply don't care what this looks like, coming at the same time as £12bn of cuts in social security do they?

160 Tory MPs 'back cutting top tax rate to 40p'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... o-40p.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Up to 160 Conservative MPs want the top rate of income tax cut to 40p in the next Budget, senior Tory MPs have said as George Osborne faces mounting pressure to make the move.

Liam Fox, the former cabinet minister, and Steve Baker, the influential backbencher, became the latest voices to publicly call for the cut in comments to The Telegraph.

Presumably they're working on the idea that people will have forgotten by the time of the next election.

[RogerOThornhill]

Dear me...the utterly clueless ideas that posters on the DT come out with (BTL the Heffer article).

One wants vouchers so that parents can send their kids where they like.

But...they want all types of schools...including grammar schools. Which select on academic achievement.

Think both ideas work together?

[LadyCentauria]

New Rowson cartoon:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... is-cartoon
Still at sea...

[LadyCentauria]

Off topic but Chris Squire has died at the age of 67. The bassist from Yes had Acute Erythroid Leukemia and was at home in Phoenix Arizona. The performance scheduled for 8th August, kicking off their tour with the band Toto, will be the first that Yes have ever done without him on bass. Honour to his name and his memory.