GREECE MUST LEAVE EUROZONE.

The continuing saga about the Greek economy rumbles on.

Greece is bankrupt and, if it was an individual or company, would be applying for bankruptcy or an IVA. Sadly, such options don't exist in the world of the European Union. Political pressures require that a 'solution' is found which allows the creditors to continue to claim that their money is 'safe', even when it's vanished down the plug hole.

The simple truth is that Greece never should have adopted the Euro but politicians wanted it to and so they fiddled the figures; the current problems all stem from this one action. The Greek economy was a basket case before it joined the Eurozone and, being expected to conform to the same fiscal regime as far more successful economies, notable Germany and France, was always doomed to failure. The consequence is that hundreds of billions of Euros have been given to Greece in attempts to keep it afloat and now another €80-90 billion is on the cards. Little, if any, of this money will ever be repaid and it's odds on that Greece will be back for more within a year or so, unless it dumps the Euro and returns to the Drachma.

Leaving the Euro is, however, politically unthinkable. The Euro project is so beloved of those with the ultimate power that they will try to preserve the integrity of the Eurozone at all costs. This means that the Greek people will be subjected to yet more austerity (the real type, not the imaginary austerity that the UK has experienced in recent years) until they finally explode; there will be blood on the streets in due course. The worst part of the whole scenario is that biting the bullet now would be far less painful for everyone than trying to keep the show on the road with yet another 'bail out'; in a year or so, things will be much, much worse.

To cap it all, even though the UK is not in the Eurozone, it seems that we are being asked to contribute a significant sum, through loan guarantees, to the 'bail out' pot. David Cameron has rightly said that Greece is a Eurozone problem and nothing to do with the UK, but that may well be little more than political rhetoric. It's quite possible that somewhere in the European Union agreements, treaties, rules and regulations that we are required to abide by is a paragraph that says we have no choice. It wouldn't be the first time that a British political leader has told the EU that we won't 'play ball' only to back down a week or two later. We can only wait to see what actually happens.

The real overarching problem is that the EU is a mess. It's a political construct which has grown well beyond its original blueprint to a disastrous extent; its now also well beyond its time. Certain aspects remain valuable but much of its operation is purely feeding the political ambitions of strutting non-entities. In its current form the EU is outdated and needs major reform; the Eurozone is a catastrophic

mistake and should be disbanded. If neither of these things happens, the great post World War 2 project designed to ensure that there would never be another European war may just achieve the exact opposite.

DISINGENUOUS SNP SHOW THEIR TRUE COLOURS.

Everyone knows that politicians are inherently disingenuous but the Scottish National Party really has taken this trait to new levels.

For years, the tiny number of SNP members at Westminster have avoided voting on matters which do not affect Scotland, those matters for which power has been devolved to their own parliament in Edinburgh. However, now having a much larger number of representatives at Westminster, they have decided to take sides in a vote on whether or not the ban on fax hunting should be repealed in England and Wales; their explanation for this wholly unwarranted intervention is that they want to make the Conservative government aware of how small their majority is. This is poppycock; all they want to do is cause trouble.

At the same time, the SNP is railing against the Conservatives' plans to introduce 'English votes for English laws', the equivalent of which the Scots already enjoy for a significant part of their own legislation and for which they will soon be granted much wider powers. The fox hunting debate scheduled at Westminster on Wednesday has nothing to do with Scotland but the Scots MPs will do whatever it takes in an effort to defeat the Government and influence matters in England and Wales.

That this cannot be right is obvious. That the SNP has so quickly reneged on its various commitments not to interfere in matters at Westminster which do not concern it, shows only too clearly that they cannot be trusted and that the people of England and Wales were right to elect a Conservative government. Now it is time for David Cameron to fulfil his pledge and introduce clear and stringent rules to ensure that the SNP are prevented from imposing their ideals on people whom they do not represent and who have no complementary say over people whom they do.

The SNP has one aim. It wants independence for Scotland. I say let them have it and be done with what will otherwise be years, even decades, of pointless and destructive bickering. Fox hunting is just the beginning.