Osborne talking ‘sheer nonsense’ about Cyprus

Green Politics

George Osborne has been humiliatingly been accused of talking "sheer nonsense" by U.S. business and technology news website Business Insider, after Osborne cited the crisis in the Cypriot banking system as an example of why Britain must continue the "painstaking work" of austerity.

Oh dear.

George Osborne has been humiliatingly accused of talking “sheer nonsense” by U.S. business and technology news website Business Insider, after Osborne cited the crisis in the Cypriot banking system as an example of why Britain must continue the “painstaking work” of austerity.

Cyprus is set to receive 10 billion euros to stave off bankruptcy but the island’s savers are being forced to pay up to 10 per cent of their deposits to raise another six billion.

“That is an example in Cyprus of what happens if you don’t show the world that you can pay your way.

“I mean that is why in Britain we’ve got to retain the confidence of world markets,” Osborne said.

Business Insider deputy editor Joe Weisenthal responded by branding Osborne’s words “sheer nonsense“:

This is sheer nonsense. This has nothing to do with whether the country could “show the world that you can pay your own way.” It has to do with the fact that the Cypriot banks had large exposure to Greek debt (because of how intertwined their economies are) and took big losses on Greek debt writedowns. And it has to do with the screwed-up Euro system, whereby no country has their own currency.

And it has to do with having an oversized banking system, and all kinds of other things. There are virtually no applicable lessons to the UK here. But the government is using the incident as another excuse to justify disastrous policy.

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19 Responses to “Osborne talking ‘sheer nonsense’ about Cyprus”

  1. LB

    Nice try Newsbot.

    I’ll give you 1 / 10 for repeating what other people say.

  2. James

    Is the state bankrupt? Have we stopped paying creditors!

  3. LB

    There are two conditions for bankruptcy.

    1. Insufficient cashflow to pay on time
    2. Insufficient assets to cover liabilities and no foreseeable chance of a reversal.

    You need to apply both tests.

    So as to your question, have they stopped paying creditors in full, the answer is yes.

    Raising the state retirement age is a default. You get X years less payout. Just one example.

  4. Newsbot9

    And I give you 10/10 for ripping off the poor.

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