Douglas Carswell's Blog

Eurozone default? Whitehall failed to see it coming

“... the EU Budget would meet the cost of repayments in the event of any defaults .... The UK’s estimated share would be an important amount ..... That is why there are strong safeguards to ensure a default does not happen”. - Letter from Economic Secretary to the Treasury, dated September 27^th 2010.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So there you have it.  We kept on extending our liabilities for bailing out the Eurozone for the simple reason that no one in Whitehall seemed able to envisage a default.   

Asked very directly by the House of Lords scrutiny committee about the prospect of a Eurozone default – and our liabilities under the bailout mechanism should that happen - the Economic Secretary to the Treasury talked of “strong safeguards to ensure a default does not happen”.

What safeguards? 

Soothing assurances from the Europhile mandarinate? A meeting in Brussels at which everyone is equally wrong-headed?  A Bill to amend the laws of maths such that 2 + 2 might equal 5?     

It has been obvious for months to anyone with a basic grasp of maths and economics that a default was coming. Yet not in Whitehall. 

This seems to explain we spent the past thirteen months adding to our overall Eurozone debt liabilities – until about ten days ago.

Back to all posts