Greece’s New Democracy, Pasok is Likely To Form Coalition
‘By Wednesday next sources say’
Greece’s conservative New Democracy party, which won Sunday’s fraught elections, has begun informal talks with the country’s Socialist party on forming a new government, officials from both parties said early Monday, with a cross-party coalition likely to be formed by Wednesday.
According to the officials, both New Democracy party leader Antonis Samaras and Socialist chief Evangelos Venizelos are prepared to move ahead on their own–and without the support of other parties–despite Venizelos’s public call late Sunday for a broad coalition government of four parties or more.
Greece’s radical left Syriza party, which came in second in the polls Sunday, has already ruled out joining such a coalition.
“Venizelos and Samaras agree that a coalition must be worked out as soon as possible. Now that it has become clear that Syriza won’t participate, the process can move quite fast,” said a senior Pasok party official with direct knowledge of the talks. “Senior officials from both parties are already talking. The expectation is that a deal will be reached by Wednesday.”
In an effort to speed up the process of forming a coalition government, both Samaras and Venizelos are pushing to have a joint meeting of all seven party leaders represented in parliament–ranging from the Communists to the ultra nationalist Golden Dawn–to meet with Greek President Karolos Papoulias in special session Monday to try and hammer out a coalition deal.
New Democracy officials say that former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas is the favorite candidate to become the country’s next finance minister.
Mr. Dimas, the former European Commissioner for the environment and, prior to that, briefly for Social Affairs, is a New Democracy heavyweight. He currently serves as vice president to the party and served briefly as the former foreign minister in the short-lived government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos when it was formed last November.
The 71-year-old Mr. Dimas has a degree in law and economics from the University of Athens and a masters degree from New York University. He has worked on Wall Street and the World Bank, but his Brussels experience would give him both respect at home and clout abroad in negotiating milder bailout terms with the country’s international creditors, the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund.
“He is well known in Brussels as a former commissioner and commands trust and respect. This is what Greece needs at this point, a person that can gradually restore the country’s credibility with euro zone partners,” one senior New Democracy official said. “If Dimas agrees, he will be the next finance minister.”
For Pasok, it is still unclear how many cabinet positions–if any–the Socialists would hold in the next government, said a Socialist party official. This is something, he said, that will be cleared up as early as Monday, but the intention by both party leaders was that the coalition should be strong enough to last and vote on some EUR11.5 billion worth of new austerity measures that the Greek government must take within the next few weeks as part of its bailout program.
Boost for Ireland as records show third-best trade surplus
IRELAND recorded the third-best trade surplus in the EU in the first three months of the year, thanks to rising exports and stable imports.
Germany and the Netherlands recorded the best trade figures, ahead of Ireland, but big economies including the UK, France and Spain all registered large deficits.
Irish companies exported €10.3bn more than they imported in the period from January to the end of March.
The German surplus of €45bn was the biggest of any European economy, followed by the Dutch with €11.8bn.
The UK recorded a huge trade deficit of €37.1bn in the first three months of the year, suffering in part because the weakening euro has driven up the cost of UK exports in European markets. The figures are for trade in goods, excluding traded services such as financial services and media, which is likely to flatter the German data and under-represent UK trade.
However, estimates for April show that the UK trade-in-goods deficit is likely to have worsened further, hit in particular by declining car sales.
Volume
Irish exports of goods were just 1pc higher in the first three months compared with a year earlier, but the volume of goods and services bought abroad was unchanged.
The latest surplus figure looks vulnerable, however, as the economy in Ireland’s nearest and closest trade partner comes under renewed pressure.
The euro area as a whole recorded a small trade-in-goods surplus in the three months of the year, after falling into deficit in 2011.
Initial estimates for April 2012 show that the positive trend is likely to have continued for the 17-member single currency, a rare piece of positive news.
Initial figures from Eurostat, the official statistics agency, show the eurozone recorded a €5.2bn surplus in the volume of goods traded with the rest of the world in April. In the same month last year, the eurozone bought €4.5bn more than it sold.
Estimates show that the trend is reversed across the 27-member European Union, which includes the large, non-euro economies like the UK, Sweden and Poland.
Early estimates show a deficit of €12bn for the EU as a whole in April, though it marks an improvement compared with a €17.2bn deficit in April 2011.
Energy is Europe’s biggest import, with the EU energy deficit a whopping €110bn.
Irish people’s loyal support an ‘inspiration’ for Suu Kyi’s work in Burma
The Burmese activist will be honoured at events in Dublin today by Bono & Co,
Right picture Suu Kyi’s welcoming Hillary Clinton to her home.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s European trip, including today’s six-hour stop in Ireland is being overshadowed at home as Burma experiences its worst communal and sectarian fighting in years.
About 30,000 people are displaced and 50 reported dead since simmering tensions – between Rakhine state’s majority Arakanese population of mainly Buddhists and minority Rohingyas who are Muslims – erupted into violent clashes and torching of homes earlier this month.
While the army restored relative calm in recent days, the tensions underline the challenges ahead for peace and democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi on Burma’s tentative road to reform.
Following the delivery of a moving Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in Oslo on Saturday, Suu Kyi will be recognised today for her steadfast efforts on her country’s behalf at Dublin’s star-studded Electric Burma concert.
On the eve of her 67th birthday, U2’s Bono will present Suu Kyi with Amnesty International’s Ambassador of Conscience Award. Youth and media will be among the rock concert’s followers in Burma’s largest city Rangoon, where musicians and artists have long injected vitality into the struggle for political freedom.
Veteran activists and politicians will be interested in the Dublin stop for strategic and historical reasons.
Suu Kyi wishes to convey “reciprocal appreciation and thanks” to people in Ireland for their long support, said U Tin Oo, her oldest and most senior political ally.
Their efforts had “inspired her work”, said the co-founder and key leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party which won 43 out of 45 seats in recent byelections, heralding a new era of participation in parliamentary politics.
Irish governments, Amnesty and Burma Action Ireland campaigners, trade unionists and U2 are among those who have backed Suu Kyi and highlighted the plight of Burma’s ethnic refugees and political prisoners.
In 2000, Suu Kyi’s youngest son, Kim, accepted the Freedom of Dublin award on behalf of his mother who was under house arrest. Today she will sign the honorary roll of freedom in the company of Lord Mayor of Dublin Andrew Montague before addressing the public. She is earlier due to meet Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and President Michael D Higgins.
Octogenarian U Tin Oo recalled that in his student days he and Gen Aung San, father of Suu Kyi and leader of Burma’s independence struggle, were keen to learn about Irish political figures such as Michael Collins.
“We were interested in how Irish people were so close to the British, but not the same,” he said. Suu Kyi has jested about how British colonials tended to refer to the Burmese as “the Irish of the east”. Irish links with Burma originate mainly with colonial-era missionaries and civil servants. U Tin Oo’s extended family, for example, includes relatives with the name Donovan who are descendants of an Irish clerk and his Burmese wife.
Dublin-born colonial administrator Maurice Collis’s books on Burmese culture and history are still circulated here and shops are selling a new Burmese-language translation of his autobiographical Into Hidden Burma. First published some 60 years ago, the book’s title still resonates as Burma, officially known as Myanmar, experiences a new opening tempered with many unknowns.
President Thein Sein has released many political prisoners, increased media freedom, introduced new labour laws and brokered ceasefires with more ethnic groups. In response western countries have suspended or lifted most economic sanctions, opening the way for additional foreign investment and aid.
Yet a great deal appears to depend on just one man, the president, and his personal rapprochement with Suu Kyi, while the army, quasi-civilian government and bureaucracy structures remain opaque.
Along with western governments, a handful of prominent former activist and academic exiles have decided that getting behind President Thein Sein’s reformist efforts is a gamble worth taking. The former exiles’ Vahu Development Institute is working on mainly economic policy issues with a key presidential adviser. Land and labour disputes are emerging as major challenges in the cripplingly-poor country.
Other exiles and released political prisoners remain more tentative, preferring to “wait and see”. U Tin Oo describes the NLD party as “warily, cautiously, optimistic”. In an era of unleashed new expectations, the NLD will also face more scrutiny. Some say Suu Kyi’s party, many of whose members have experienced jail and other trauma, will need to move beyond a “bunker mentality” and open up to wider viewpoints, expertise and strategic thinking ahead of what could be enormously significant national elections in 2015.
Meanwhile, some of the deepest scepticism around the current situation centres on the army’s war with the ethnic Kachin Independence Army which has resulted in some 60,000 displaced in a year of fighting.
The government’s willingness to address the grievances of Burma’s ethnic nationalities is seen as its greatest test ahead.
Ken Maginnis loses the UUP whip over his homosexuality comments on TV
Veteran politician compared homosexuality to bestiality during a discussion on BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show
Lord Maginnis has had the UUP whip withdrawn following his remarks.
The Ulster Unionists have withdrawn the party whip from one of Westminster’s veteran politicians, Lord Maginnis, over remarks comparing homosexuality to bestiality. During a discussion on gay marriage on BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show, Maginnis said: “This is based on sexual practice. Now, does that mean that every deviant practice has to be accommodated? Will the next thing be that we legislate for some sort of bestiality?”
In a statement, a UUP spokesman said Mike Nesbitt, the party leader, had “informed Maginnis that he was withdrawing the party whip. While this situation pertains, any public comment made by Maginnis, in the media or elsewhere, should not be considered to represent the views of the Ulster Unionist party.”
The spokesman added that Nesbitt “remains respectful of Lord Maginnis’s enormous contribution to the party, to Northern Ireland, and to the making of peace, and is hopeful a resolution can be found to enable Lord Maginnis to again contribute to the party’s development.”
Maginnis has been a popular member of the UUP and represented Fermanagh/South Tyrone in the House of Commons for more than a decade.
A former soldier and school teacher, he was also a target of several republican murder plots during the Troubles. He was one of David Trimble’s key allies in the then UUP leader’s support for the Good Friday agreement in 1998.
However, the UUP has over recent years sought to become more socially inclusive and has within its ranks many gay members.
Week long breaks/holiday’s just gives three days rest because it takes four days to switch off work
People who go on a holiday for one week only get three days rest because it takes four days to switch off from the pressures of work, a study suggests.
Researchers found that halfway through the fourth day of a holiday is when workers feel most relaxed and have finally unwound from everyday stress.
And with most holiday being just over a week, that only leaves a few days of real relaxation.
But one in five workers are failing to use all of their annual holiday allowance as they feel too pressured to take time off, according to new research.
And one in four of those who do take a break end up working while on holiday.
The survey of 2,021 adults for LV= travel insurance found that although the average worker now gets 25 days’ annual leave each year, many fail to use all their allowance.
One in five working people will not take their full holiday entitlement this year and will waste an average of seven days’ holiday each.
The main reason given by those who do not take their full holiday entitlement is they say they struggle to fit holidays around their work schedule.
One in four say their workload is too demanding for them to take a break, while a similar number say they cannot fit in annual leave days around their colleagues’ holidays.
However, job security is a real concern for many with around one in seven saying they worry about being away from work in the current economic climate.
Yet even when people do holiday they are never far from work.
A quarter of those currently employed admitted working while they are away and almost a third say they spend time thinking about work on their holiday.
Most workers spend an average of three hours and 40 minutes either working or thinking about their job during their break, according to the survey.
The research also found that the average Brit needs three-and-a-half days to feel relaxed and unwind – almost half the length of the average holiday.
However, employers will not necessarily benefit from having staff who are unable to switch off from their job.
More than one-in-four workers say they feel more productive after a holiday.
Psychologist Dr Glenn Wilson recommends people take regular breaks from work to improve their work output.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Wilson said: “There is ample evidence that holidays have a positive effect on mood, well-being and health.
“However, as these benefits appear to be mostly short-lived and tend to fade within two to three weeks it is best to take a series of short breaks rather that one long, extended holiday.
“Holidaymakers returning to work are healthier, happier and therefore likely to be more productive.
“A balance needs to be struck with workers who say they are too busy to take a holiday as the strain of not having a break will accumulate over time leaving them more likely to burn out and be less effective at work.”
Selwyn Fernandes, managing director of LV= travel insurance, said: “In these uncertain economic times many people find themselves not only with less money, but also with heavier workloads.
“Yet a few days off is good for our general well-being.
“With people continuing to worry about work while they are away it is important to have adequate travel insurance to take away any other holiday worries.”
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