18th March 2013

Extra, extra, read all about it.....an EU country is legally allowed to dip its hard-up hands into ordinary savers' bank accounts. Throw up your hands in horror. Armageddon is nigh.
The situation is Cyprus is surely sending warning signals right across the continent.  The troika of EU wise-men has decided that they are not going to support trashing the actual banks and finance houses that caused the country's default, but to hurt the common man who had nothing whatsoever to do with it in the first place!  How can it be legal to take money from ordinary savers?  It's daylight robbery.
But, all this is nothing compared to what it may signal for the future.  O.K. it's only little Cyprus at the moment, but what happens if the other, bigger, EU countries get sucked into this morass?  Who is the common saver?  Is he a member of a criminal gang, hoarding away his ill-gotten gains?  No, it's someone like you and me:  pensioners, many of them British expats, who have brought their savings over to the EU - money they've saved all their lives to provide something for their retirement.  And, what happens when nervous people like me decide enough's enough and send their money back to the relative safety(!) of a British bank?  I'll tell you.  It's called 'a run on the banks' - and could even cause the eventual fall of the euro.
You see:  Him indoors was right.  Take your money out now and put it under the mattress.  Should be safely out of reach of the stealing hands of the EU troika, shouldn't it??