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Saturday, 17 June 2017

German Nordstream II investors running scared

The unexpected inclusion of sanctions measures against Euro firms assisting Russian energy exports in a Bill supposed to penalise Iran in the US has caused panic amongst the Euro corporates. The Local reports that Merkel's spokesman said that she 

'shared the concerns raised by Germany's Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel and Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern who charged in a joint statement on Thursday that the measure brings a "completely new and entirely negative quality to European-US relations". In a hard-hitting statement, the German and Austrian said they "cannot accept the threat of extra-territorial sanctions against European companies that participate in the expansion of European energy supplies" adding that this would "violate international law". They accused Washington of using the sanctions to squeeze Russian gas supplies out of Europe in favour of US energy exports. "The aim is to secure jobs in gas and oil industries in the US," said Gabriel and Kern.'

The major panic seems to be with the Nordstream II  scheme - owned by Russia's Gazprom but with substantial investments from Uniper, OMV, Royal Dutch Shell, BASF's Wintershall and Engie. All now face penalties wherever Trump's administration can reach them. 

Nothing to do of course with the EU's signalled intention to fine Google €1bn this year, of course, and if US penalties equal this figure it will be purely coincidental.

Watch out BMW and Audi ...

Thursday, 15 June 2017

BREXIT IS DEAD - Der Spiegel



Hey ho. 

Austria bans Burqa, Niqab in fight against Islamism

Austria's fight against Islamism continues with the passage of new laws that make it illegal to wear a Burqa or Niqab in public from 1st October. These garments are not part of core Muslim faith but rather a hostile declaration of Islamism and non-integration - both unacceptable here. The same law makes mandatory attendance for both migrant men and women at Austrian culture and language courses. 

The Libertarian part of me abhors any control over what people can wear - I'll defend to the death a young punk's right to express through bin liners, safety pins and a pink mohican his contempt for a corrupt world. And any man's right to wear ladies' vestments in public. That sort of thing. But these bloody black ghost garments are something different; anarchy in dress actually expresses uniformity of values, those values being freedom, liberty, liberalism, but the uniformity of Islamist costume expresses the opposite, expresses a destructive apartheid that we simply cannot tolerate. 

Christian nuns have long known that covering the hair and neck is a gesture of modesty; indeed, in my childhood all Catholic women were obliged to cover their hair in church with a headscarf. However, nuns have also long known that leaving the face and the eyes free was essential in order to communicate honesty and sincerity. 

As for my personal crusade with silly men who try to talk to me whilst they're wearing mirror sunglasses I simply keep repeating "Ich kann dich nicht hören" until either they give up or take them off, at which point my hearing is miraculously restored.

Monday, 12 June 2017

Ruth, not Boris

