The Germans are Rattled (and so am I)

Dear Angela Merkel has done a complete U turn in less than a week about a bank transaction tax. (See TimesOnline Here)

This looks like another desperate ploy to try and shore up domestic German support for the the Greek financial bale-out.

If that falls apart then all hell will break loose.

Meanwhile the Stock market is in a tail spin. The Euro has nose dived against the dollar (as has the already heavily devalued Pound) and in the USA jobless figures are going the wrong way.

In South-East Asia, North Korea is threatening war against anyone who criticises it for murdering 46 South Korean sailors.

Just to round it off the BA strike is back on.

Blimey! Anything else about to turn sour?

Christmas, Turkeys and their Children

Unite, through their charismatic and vocal leaders have led the BA cabin crew into a strike that will at the very least, cripple BA for years. It could well spell the end for the company.

Perhaps those swayed by the likes of Charlie Wheelan and Tony Woodley should remember the fate of BMC, aka British Leyland, aka Austin Rover, aka Rover Group.

Each name change was a desperate and vain attempt to restore the brand name from the fatal strike and self interested tarnish that beset our car manufacturing in the 1970's

At the bitter end, Rover Group products were pretty good. Its work force dedicated and committed. But the brand never recovered from the petty strikes and stoppages of the Wilson/Callaghan era.

The final nail in the coffin for Rover Group was a government disinterested in its own people and industries.

Rover Group died.

The innocent children of the self interested strikers of the 70's truly inherited the sins of their fathers. They now collect the dole while their fathers collect their pensions.

Perhaps this will be the sad fate of BA in ten years from now.

If not sooner.

At least the cabin crews will have their perks and pensions.

As for their children. Who Knows?