Michael Meacher MP

2012, even just a year ago, was the year when things began to get steadily better.   It’s amazing what a year can do.    We can now see 2012 as the year of make-or-break for the euro, Britain surveying life on the rim of Europe or even outside the EU, the Chinese economy decelerating fast, the US in political lock-down, and global joblessness now exceeding 200 million.   There’s no escaping the coming slump, it’s just a question of how deep and nasty and long-lasting it turns out to be.   Worse, all the wrong decisions are being made.   Cameron bats for Britain by picking winners (which no market-trained British government was ever supposed to do) and promptly picks the City of London at the recent EU summit, the biggest millstone of all.   Then Merkel-Sarkozy demand a fiscal stability pact as the price of saving the euro, which would deliver Europe over to constant deflation and high unemployment.   So congratulations to Cameron for staying out, but for all the wrong reasons! (more…)