The big news here last week was that we are to have a referendum on the European Fiscal Stability Treaty. Which will be about as exciting as watching paint dry. I bet you're really looking forward to the debate, just like me.
Will the Irish people vote yes? Will they vote no? Will it make any difference? We'll be torturing ourselves with this stuff for the next couple of months. So before it gets too impenetrable and soporific, here's your easy-to-follow guide to what it's all about.
Why does Europe need a new fiscal treaty anyway? Mainly it's to reassure the Germans that the money they are pouring into bailing out bankrupt Eurozone countries like Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain won't vanish down the plughole with nothing to show for it. It's all about saving the Eurozone and the euro as a currency.
What does the treaty do? It ties the states in the Eurozone to financial rectitude in the future. Gone will be the days when politicians held on to power by promising voters all kinds of goodies and then borrowing huge amounts to pay for them. Irish politicians wrote the book on this -- they've been at it for years. Which is why we now have a massive welfare state here that we can't afford and a resulting massive budget deficit that has to be bridged by an EU-IMF bailout because no one else will lend to us.
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