I believe – and I’m speculating here – a great deal of Italian Sovereign debt has been transferred to regions where it is essentially unreported. I think the fear is that when Berlusconi goes Italy may be torn in two. The Lega Nord (the Northern League) will not want that debt to be returned to Milan from whence it came (bank debt taken on by the state).

Is there anything to support this?

Silvio represents crony capitalism. The Italians who vote for him do so because they don’t pay their taxes,and they know he will turn a blind eye. It is why he stays in power despite the fact that he is an embarrassment.

It is the Italian way.

A bit of a stretch that headline – but I guess Mubarak and Berlusconi have do have something in common.

Mubarak was a leftie and his National Democratic Party remained member of the Socialist International, alongside our own Labour Party, until February this year. Must have been embarrassing for Ed Miliband to have Hosni as a political ally, particularly while Hosni’s boys were torturing people and trying to crush democracy. But that’s actually existing socialism for you.

Silvio, by contrast, doesn’t go in for killing people or torturing them and isn’t trying to crush democracy. But he’s still a bit of an embarrassment to the centre right ‘cos he’s got an eye for the ladies.

Not sure that stacks up to moral equivalence though.

Perhaps it’s a little distasteful to venture the comparison?

Er, no.

That’d be Putin.

“Must have been embarrassing for Ed Miliband to have Hosni as a political ally”

Must be embarassing to have to ignore a decades long policy of military and financial support for Mubarack on the part of successive US presidents in order to attempt political points scoring against somebody who spoke in support of the egyptian revolution. Particularly when influential right wingers like Niall Ferguson were urging the violent repression of the movement, and non-influential nobodies on the right were on here demonising the movement at the same time.

Silvio, by contrast, doesn’t go in for killing people or torturing them and isn’t trying to crush democracy. But he’s still a bit of an embarrassment to the centre right ‘cos he’s got an eye for the ladies.

That’s like saying that Richard Nixon was only embarrassing because he was a little nosey. The whole corruption, cronyism and conspiratorialism stuff should be more disturbing.

‘but I guess Mubarak and Berlusconi have do have something in common.’

Yep, they both let the Blairs use their houses for private holidays. Aren’t we proud of our ex-PM?

No we are not proud of our old PM. But then now it has been shown that new labour was far more tory than Labour, and seeing as Cameron thinks Blair was a genius, it would seem the tory party is the one that is proud.

“Mubarak was a leftie ”

Someone who doesn’t understand the word “leftie” might believe this. Mubarak’s (dissolved) NDP were for decades a social democratic party with strong centrist tendencies. Berlusconi, by contrast, has been every variety of corrupt right-winger he can think of – and, as usual, right-wing policies have resulted in corruption, tax evasion and scapegoating of the poor, foreigners and women.

Sooooo…. we Greeks “must be bullied frightened in to voting ‘yes’ for austerity” — really?

Where is the news?

Tony Blair went on holiday with Berlusconi. Do I need references for that?

Hosni Mubarak took Tony Blair on holiday:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-447421-row-over-blair-holiday-funded-by-egypt.do

Headlines that pronounce news must deliver news. Something that I didn’t know already, or something that I sort of knew but which did not yet excite me.

There was an element of interest in the OP, enough to trigger a spark but insufficient to light a flame.

Duce-lite. As the great man said “history repeats itself – first as tragedy, second as farce”.

Leave him alone. After Liberace, he’s my favourite musician

Morzer @ 9

I’m afraid that your attempt to hi-jack the Egyptian revolution for the Left doesn’t square with the facts.

Thanks to Wikileaks, we know that the US government was sponsoring dissidents under the Bush administration and that a plan for toppling Mubarak had been drawn up in 2008. A number of the leaders of the Tahrir Square demonstration received help and instruction from the US Embassy, while others attended a summit in New York under the auspices of the Alliance for Youth Movements, funded by the US State Department.

Mubarak was a leftie and his National Democratic Party remained member of the Socialist International, alongside our own Labour Party, until February this year. Must have been embarrassing for Ed Miliband to have Hosni as a political ally, particularly while Hosni’s boys were torturing people and trying to crush democracy. But that’s actually existing socialism for you.

You know, the SI isn’t the only International to have dodgy members. The IDU (to which the Tories belong) includes the Kuomintang (no introduction needed) and ARENA (a delightful party from El Salvador founded by the man who organised the death squads in the 1980s).

The IDU (to which the Tories belong) includes the Kuomintang (no introduction needed)

Well, they are the democratically elected Government of Taiwan.