Wednesday 20 November 2013

REPLY to a stock Gov't TD REPLY to a letter seeking support for TECH GROUP Nov 27th MOTION


Here is what you can expect as a reply from your local government Party TD, if you sent a letter/mail asking them to support the Technical Group Private Member's Motion of Nov 27th, the reply I got from Fine Gael TD Michael Creed's office:

Diarmuid,

Thank you for contacting me in relation to next week’s Private Members’ Motion.

As you know, in February of this year the Promissory Note deal saw the successful conclusion of lengthy discussions with the European Central Bank and the replacement of the IBRC (Anglo) Promissory Notes with more sustainable, longer term debt.

The State no longer has to pay €3.1bn every 31st March, the NTMA will have to borrow €20 billion less over the next 10 years and an improvement in our general government deficit is helping us get the deficit to below 3% by 2015. It is clear that the deal went a long way towards addressing the systemic liquidity issue in the Irish banking system, substantially improving the debt position of the State, while materially improving our ability to regain access to the bond markets and exit the Troika programme successfully.

I think it would simply be impossible for the Government to take the course of action proposed in this Private Members’ Motion—to “destroy” €25 billion of sovereign bonds and cancel interest payments and debt in their entirety. Blanket debt relief in relation to the Promissory Notes was never on the table and it is simply unrealistic to claim otherwise. Not repaying the promissory notes (or their replacement) would equate to monetary financing, which the ECB is constitutionally obligated to prohibit. The Government achieved the best it could have achieved at the time and the vast majority of commentators and most importantly, the markets, agree.

In any case, if Ireland took the PMB’s proposed course of action and decided not to repay these bonds, what message would that send out to the markets on whom we are depending to finance ourselves post-bailout? I imagine it would jeopardise the entire exit bailout strategy and force us into a second bailout.

It is important to note that the Promissory Notes arrangement is not in lieu of the EU leaders’ commitment given on 29th June 2012 to break the vicious cycle between banks and sovereign states. The Government is continuing to seek a comprehensive solution to the remaining structural and funding issues in our banking sector. In a letter to his EU counterparts last month, the Taoiseach stated that “It remains imperative, as we all agreed in June 2012, to break the “vicious circle” between bank and sovereign debts that forced Ireland into a Programme in 2010, at a time when there was a different consensus in Europe on the merits of “bailing in” creditors of failed banks.”

Yours sincerely

Michael Creed T.D.

HERE IS MY REPLY TO THAT REPLY:

Dear Jonathan,
Thank you for your reply to the mail I addressed to Michael.

‘As you know, in February of this year…’: As you well know (or should, if you were in the least familiar with the Ballyhea campaign), I know nothing of the sort, in fact I consider that deal to be as foul a deed as has been done by any Irish politician since the foundation of this State, the transposition of disputed debt to sovereign debt, then the transference of that debt to future generations;

‘The State no longer has to pay €3.1bn every 31st March, the NTMA will have to borrow €20 billion less over the next 10 years…’: You and your party have gotten away with peddling this half-truth to everyone else – not here. What of the full truth Jonathan? The State (which is us) eases things for itself over those ten years but the burden then falls on the next generation, and on the generation after, interest and principal which the economist Karl Whelan estimates will eventually add up to €72bn. Inter-generational debt is normal, I accept, but debt for loans taken out to benefit the people, not loans taken out to bail out zombie banks and their failed investors.

‘I think it would simply be impossible for the Government to take the course of action proposed in this Private Members’ Motion—to “destroy” €25 billion of sovereign bonds and cancel interest payments and debt in their entirety…’: That, Jonathan, is NOT the Motion, nor is there any suggestion of such unilateral action; the Motion is to ask the ECB to allow that destruction – a quantum difference.

‘Not repaying the promissory notes (or their replacement) would equate to monetary financing, which the ECB is constitutionally obligated to prohibit…’: Odd how you now run to cite the law when defending the right of the ECB to demand payment on those Promissory Notes; would you also cite the legal/constitutional obligations of the same ECB and its EU parent when those Promissory Notes were used to print that 31bn, the use of the Emergency Liquidity Assistance Fund, which is specifically prohibited from being used to bail out insolvent banks? In your eyes Jonathan, do the people have NO legal protection from having odious debt of this kind and of this size imposed on them?

The Government achieved the best it could have achieved at the time and the vast majority of commentators and most importantly, the markets, agree.’: This, to me, is the most telling point in this entire sorry reply – ‘and most importantly, the markets, agree…’. Yes Jonathan, to you and all those like you ‘the markets’ dictate, they are the new Gods, they are the ones who need to be appeased and we – the people – are the human sacrifices. The fact that it was those same market forces who got not just Ireland, not just Europe, but the whole world into this sorry mess is irrelevant. They must be appeased, they must not be challenged under any circumstances, they must not be called to account for the destruction caused by their greed, by their regular flouting of law and regulation.

‘…if Ireland took the PMB’s proposed course of action and decided not to repay these bonds, what message would that send out to the markets on whom we are depending to finance ourselves post-bailout?’: Jonathan, have you heard of Iceland? Burned those same bondholders, now back in those same markets of which you are so terrified. Money has neither memory nor conscience; the vampires will feed wherever they smell blood. By the way, when the Troika leaves we will be close, very close, to funding ourselves; the borrowings at that stage will be to pay debt and debt interest, including on the odious bank debt.

Jonathan, I knew I was wasting my time writing to Michael, I know I'm wasting my time again on this reply. You, your TD, his Party, have all chosen to side with the sharks as nation after nation across the globe is forced into debt slavery.

Sleep well but know this; the people are awakening, and they don’t like what they’re seeing.

Regards,
Diarmuid O’Flynn
  
Apologies that the whole thing is so long but I have a suggestion; if they're going to send us stock replies, let's reply in kind - feel free to copy any of the above!