The decision by European states to plead poverty at this years Climate Change summit in Brussels and try to back away from agreed limits is a cause of great concern
The meeting was held to confirm the previously set goals on climate change as agreed by European Union member countries. These goals were aimed at cutting the carbon gas emissions, to help safeguard our environment, by 20% by the year 2020. Pollution caused by car exhaust gasses was high on the agenda. Being the E.U., to ratify any agreement it needed a unanimous decision, in the end all it revealed was greater splits among its members.
This time was also momentous for another reason; it was the week Britain made the decision to save the big banks of this country from financial disaster with a blueprint that may be followed by countries around the world to help halt the turmoil in financial markets.
The two subjects above, climate change and financial market turmoil, have produced one single confirmation, that is that there is NO unity in the European Union among its member states regarding climate change and even with the worlds' financial system in near meltdown there is indecisiveness among major players which certainly should not be the case at this point in time.
Nationally we have Poland and six other eastern European countries, who were in the very last batch to join the E.U., putting forward a motion against their full participation in the climate change programme and demanding that Britain, France and Germany shoulder more of the burden. Some unity here eh?
Talking of unity, prior to the banking crisis we had the very serious problem with sky high oil prices. In recent days we have seen the price of oil tumble to a price of below one pound sterling per litre for unleaded petrol (= $1.57 per litre).
With this lower priced fuel one would think that us motorists could look forward to using our cars for what they were bought for, driving, not a chance; we now have the real oil barons, OPEC, threatening to turn the screw on us. They have banked extra billions out of the oil crisis, now that we have arrived at a turning point affecting their unimaginable fortunes they are threatening to cut back on oil production thereby limiting supplies to world markets in order to get the price of oil up again. Some world unity here eh?
World banks have had hundreds of billions promised to them to try to overcome the lack of liquidity and confidence in world money markets, figures so huge it makes you wander where governments can so suddenly get their hands on so much of the filthy lucre. There is only one way for them to obtain this money, through taxation; and where does this taxation money come from, you and I of course.
For years and years ahead we will have to surrender more of our hard earned cash to help out the very people who caused all this havoc, what appreciation do they show us in return? Nothing.
The banks and investment institutions will actually continue to pay those obscene bonus's each year. The government having given them all this money, and with a rate cut to help stimulate and revitalize the markets, how do they repay us the public?
What else do you expect the banks to do except ignore us poor taxpayers. Not only ignore us, but most of these financial institutions did NOT pass on the rate cut to help us pay less for our mortgages, how sick of them is that, to bite the hand that not only feeds them but saves them from extinction too. Some unity there eh?