Nero fiddles while Rome burns

Date posted: November 11, 2011

Nero fiddles while Rome burns during the great fire of AD64. This saying is apt for 2011. Except we are watching Europe implode as our politicians make one wrong decision after another.

The vast majority of us have been aware for years that huge problems were looming ahead. Problems that will overwhelm us and will be left for our children to sort out. Yet the politicians insist on continuing down the same track at the end of which is Armaggedon. At the start of this morning’s Nicky Campbell show they quoted Italy’s debt as 1.6 trillion and by the end of the show the experts were quoting 1.9 trillion!! Both Dorothy and I were brought up by mothers who handled the family finances. They did this along the lines of Charles Dicken’s Mr Micawber. For any younger readers of this blog, the Micawber principle is:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.”

How can the politicians have got it so wrong? – I don’t even know how many zeros are in a trillion! If only they had followed the principles of our parents generation – putting something away for a rainy day. As a child I well remember my post office savings books where 50% of my pocket money was invested every week – not something I see happening with today’s children. By the way Meg Griffiths in A Million Tears is based on both my mother and mother-in-law. Strong women, very much the backbones of their families.

I’m an author and if I had written a novel 10 years ago about our current international debt fiasco, I would have been ridiculed. Yes, most of our politicians have never had a proper job. Yes, most of our politicians do not understand that in order to have economic growth people need to be spending money – a great deal of money. Yes, they have no understanding of the fact that all of us are now reducing debt. Hence there won’t be economic growth at the level we need to solve the problems they have created.

Do you ever get the feeling that the lunatics are running the asylum? I do.

One last thing about Nero. First, there was no such instrument as the fiddle. It wasn’t invented until the 16th century. Secondly, as always, the story was written by those who won the war against Nero. Hence, the battle for Europe and the Euro will be written by Europe’s politicians, if they continue with political unity and Europe’s bankruptcy. Somebody please hand me a sick bag.