Tuesday 14 December 2010

CASANOVA OF ROME WINS TO FIGHT ANOTHER DAY


London is not the only city where “ordinary people” have protested about the blindness of the political class, living in a world of their own.

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi today scraped a vote of confidence in the lower house of parliament by 314 to 311, sending Rome into the worst street violence in many years and making people wonder how on earth the BILLIONAIRE managed it.

Clashes have left 50 police officers and more than 40 protesters injured. Cars were set on fire as protesters threw stones and overturned bins. Streets were closed in an attempt to keep the protesters away, but they enough g
ot through to throw paint and eggs at the parliament building. Police
used tear gas on the crowds. Doubtless Theresa May was watching very closely.

But it was not just in Rome that the protesters were out. In Sicily 500 students occupied the main airport runway whilst in Turin students occupied the railway station and in Venice they held a demonstration on the Rialto Bridge. All are demanding a change in government.

Berlusconi, who is 74 and half way through his 5 year term as Prime Minister, has become a figure of ridicule over the past few years. His alleged corruption is epic; he has been involved with “young” girls and prostitutes; his wife very publicly left him because of his philandering; he bawled something at President Bush in a photo call after some event in Britain causing the Queen who was in the room, to be heard saying that she wished that man would keep his voice down. And only last night at a dinner he was blowing off about how he was unable to say 'No', and had ever bee thus. He considered himself lucky that no gay person ha
d ever come to proposition him. As if!

His opponents say that he is too mired in scandal to continue as Prime Minister. He is certainly a figure of fun in the rest of Europe, and probably not what Italy needs right now as the economic crisis continues and Italy is in the line of countries at whose door the markets are barking.

What on Earth is it with these people? Like Brown (and Blair before him and Thatcher before him), they hang on and on and on to power. Does he think the women will like his less when he is not longer Prime Minister?


For heaven's sake you silly old fool, everybody's laughing at you. Just Go.


Pics (1) Protestors in Rome burned cars and threw paint on the parliament buildings; (2) The result is announced. None one knows how this very rich man managed to squeeze through by a whisker; (3) Syvio, in the lower house is taking a call on his cell. He’s never been able to say no and what with his expensive hair dye job, and the thickly applied make up to try to hide the deep canyons on his face, and his bulging....er wallet... you can imagine how incredibly appealing he would be to a certain type. He even makes Brown look a little less loopy!

17 comments:

  1. There is a lot of well meaning anger out there and these protesters are needing all of our support as they are protecting future generations from permament enslavement.

    Italy erupts - a student calls for solidarity

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  2. Mercuzio
    Everywhere in Italy
    December 14th, 2010
    3:05 pm

    There has been totally anarchy today in Rome, only fire, tear gas and streetfights. People burning cars, police's vans, rubbish, more than 100 000 students, immigrants, people from Aquila, people fired up at work because of the politics who don't substain their industries...1500 cops, everything blocked by the Guardia di finanza, and every kind of army force. People that has came from all over the country. Political leaders have had to stay into the parliament defendend from people who wanted to reach them from the streets all around there. We are quiet like in a dictstorship. A policeman had tried to take his gun to front the aggressions and had been stopped in time.Students have errupted in the Stock exchange today in Milan. We, the students have started our protest almost two years ago, it has all intensified in these 3 months, we have blocked train stations like in Milan, Venice, Padua, Pisa, and many more...we have blocked higways like Bologna, Salerno...Universities are occupied by students, there are manifestations everyday in our cities, we have reached our monuments, we are trying to let us be listened by institutions, but no one cares about us. We aren't yet only students now, people is enjoying us. We are fighting not against a simple educational legislative act, we are fighting against our sick system: we can't find jobs, we don't have any kind of agevolation for families, for living by ourselves, only depending from the people you know a career can come. We don't have information, we don't have cultural and social possibilities, all the best of us have to go away from the country, everything is corrupted, everyone is corrupted...and at least, thanks the Vatican for not paying any kind of taxes...I think we are at the break point. Please Help us in keeping attention


    Excuses for the english but we are still fighting and we haven't time

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  3. Yes, I agree ch. We need to stick together against these thieving, dishonest, self serving, self important, lying, out of touch megalomaniacs.

    I've included that student's message above. (It's in better English than most of ours could write, and better than my French, I suspect). It's good. They want to change this corruption.

    Power to their elbow. It's going to be a hard time for us all. At the end of it it would be nice if we had something better.

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  4. Well I'm not surprised that he wants to hang on to power, the man is the worst sort of patriarch, impotent and violent because of it, desperate and boorish, proving himself an embarrassment to everyone he knows in an attempt to establish/retain his role. I wouldn't wonder if he divided Italy between three benefactors next.

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  5. Corrupt yes, moribund, clearly. But at least he is at the end of his political career and is hanging on by the skin of his teeth having spent 8 or 9 years (not consecutively) as Italian PM. “call me dave” and his pet poodle Cleggums have only been in the job for 7 months and they have already stoked up similar ire. Just imagine what it’s going to be like if they succeed in their desire to hang on till 2015

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  6. Golem XIV, the UK blogger, posted this last Sunday:

    "Madoff, UniCredit and Ireland's regulatory silence"
    http://golemxiv-credo.blogspot.com/2010/12/madoff-unicredit-and-irelands.html


    These were the headlines in Monday's Financial Times:

    'Italy: Roman showdown'-
    Quote - "One grim certainty for Italians is that with a national debt close to 120% of GDP - and, at $2,380bn, is more than the debts of Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain put together..."
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/65245ed0-061e-11e0-976b-00144feabdc0.html

    'New Madoff suits seek $40bn' -
    Quote - "The biggest lawsuit, against UniCredit and long-time Madoff associate S. Kohn, accuses them of participating in an "illegal scheme" to send money to Mr. Madoff"
    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/05013a3e-061c-11e0-976b-00144feabdc0.html


    I began my comment to Golem's post by saying:

    "I'm only too aware that we could easily cross the line and loose everything we have" said Mario Draghi, Governor of Banca d'Italia in Friday's Financial Times ( http://www.ft.com/draghi/ ). Would that be because Governor Draghi knows that he has a time-bomb ticking away in his own back-yard, a bomb called UniCredit?


    From reading Monday's FT it would seem that the other ticking time-bomb is Governor Draghi's national debt pile. Thankfully, THE ITALIAN STUDENTS ARE NOT LETTING HIM GET AWAY WITH IT!

    To read more about the adventures of UniCredit in Ireland, please visit my blog. It includes links to the official protocols of sessions in both the Irish Seanad (Senate) and Dail (Parliament), where the issue was raised as recently as 3 weeks ago.
    http://whistleblowerirl.blogspot.com/

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  7. It's not just in Italy that the "leaders" display this combination of uselessness and self-serving arrogance in neglecting the country's problems.

    Personally I think the whole world is going mad and it's beginning to become contagious to the extent that I'm beginning to question my own sanity.

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  8. Pretty much sums him up Laz...

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  9. Yes Munguin. I think that Call Me Clegg are definately Johnnie come latelys when it comes to sliminess. 2015...don't make me laugh

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  10. Whistler... The problem is that these people were living high on the hog when things were good... and now that things have gone wrong, they expect the less fortunate to pay for it.

    They might have got away with it once upon a time, but I suspect that it will be rather harder for them now. Generation X don't like being messed with by fat cats.

    I note that the Irish government simply stopped bank bonuses this week. "You pay bonuses this year and we will take away your bail out."

    No messing.

    It's a great pity that this lot in the UK aren't made of the same stuff. But no chance of that when the chancellor is a close friend of the Rothschilds.

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  11. Hello John. Out early for good behaviour, or did they just need the space for unruly students, parents, lecturers and people who poke sticks at Highnesses' extremely expensive clothes?

    Yes, the world has gone mad. But when you ask them nicely and they don't even hear you, then you shout out and they put cotton wool in their ears, I suppose the best thing to do is let off a huge firecracker in a tin box under their goodsedown pillow and see if that doesn't wake them up.

    Power to the people...

    Don't go questioning your sanity though. Just ask me... I'll tell you the truth, even if it hurts.

    Ha ha... Nice to see you back, John.

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  12. I can't help feeling that life would be a little duller without Berlusconi. He would only be replaced by another, probably less flamboyant, crook. One of his predecessors (who had also been an EU Commissioner but whose name I have forgotten temporarily) was known as "the greasy sausage" from the number of times he had slipped through the Public Prosecutor's fingers.

    On the whole, Italy seems to carry on because much of the economy is (shall we say) "informal" and so beyond the power of government to muck it up. Of course, various officials have to be squared.

    Back in the Sixties our firm had an technology sharing arrangement with a Dutch company. One of their directors told me "Here and in Germany we have to keep to the rules, in France it is possible to negotiate and in Italy, of course, we bribe". Nothing new under the Sun.

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  13. Tris,

    When we, as citizens of the UK, are supine enough to allow time and money wasters such as Foulkes, Martin, Des Browne, Mike Watson etc with all their blantant faults, to be considered Lords of the Realm, we are not in a position to criticise other country's parliaments.

    Despite that, the fact that I was in London at the time of the riots is purely co-incidental. Ha Ha...

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  14. Greeks on the boil and the UK simmers waiting for the heat to increase.

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  15. Well you have a point Mr S. We need people like Berlusconi and Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson... de Pfeffel huh? Crikey! (I was going to say that I bet he had a rough time at school with that name, but then I remembered that it was probably considered quite plain by their standards!!) We need some comedy now that Morecambe and Wise are no longer with us for Christmas Day.

    I like your story about how to deal with people from the different countries. What did your colleague say about Scotland (buy them loads of drink and they’ll be all yours?) LOL

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  16. Lord Des Browne.... I've heard it all now John. That was a shameful list of wastrels and incompetents that McSnott left beind him.

    As for the riots, I recognised your hand on the end of that stick giving that bejewelled old woman a good hard poke.

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  17. Bring it on Cynical. (I learned that expression from a person who has a brain as big as a plant.) And yes, I checked my spelling.

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