Personne se bouge! Ou...

… or something or other.

From the BBC:

Mr Macron told Le Monde: "Leaving the EU would mean the 'Guernseyfication' of the UK, which would then be a little country on the world scale. It would isolate itself and become a trading post and arbitration place at Europe's border."


And he said the European Council would have to deliver an ultimatum to the UK about its intentions and that France's President Hollande would be very clear.

"If the UK wants a treaty of commercial access to the European market, the British will have to contribute to the European budget like the Norwegians or the Swiss. If London doesn't want that, then the exit will have to be total."

It's not clear whether he's just insulting us, making predictions or making threats, either way, it makes me even more determined to vote Brexit.

Witterings From Witney has received A Threatening Letter...

... which he promptly posted on his shiny new blog.

I can't see anything particular offensive or defamatory about the original post. He did a bit of digging, starting with the Members' Register of Interest and ending with a couple of unanswered questions.

Nice little career you've got there. Shame if anything were to happen to it.

As if to cement their hard-earned reputation as crooks of the highest order:

One recruiter warned that Smith’s bold parting shot could make it tricky for him to find a new employer.

"If Smith is looking for a new job, he’s playing a very dangerous game,” said Dave Way of Marks Sattin, "Like most of the City’s major employers, Goldman Sachs have a strong network of alumni running companies across the world who could be bosses or clients for high-level professionals changing jobs. Those that didn’t leave for the same reasons as Mr Smith may not think his words about their former colleagues were particularly well chosen."

Veiled Threats Of The Week

From The Daily Telegraph:

Euroscepticism leads to war and a rising tide of nationalism is the European Union's "biggest enemy", Herman Van Rompuy, the president of Europe has told a Berlin audience. "In every member state, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world. It is more than an illusion: it is a lie."

... a spokesman for Mr Van Rompuy, stressed that he was not talking about Mr Cameron's brand of Euroscepticism but about those people who want to leave the EU. "It is nothing to do with what Mr Cameron thinks. It is a point that Britain or other countries are not able to survive on their own. I am sure Mr Cameron would agree with that," he said...

Mr Van Rompuy and other senior EU officials are concerned about the spread of populist Eurosceptic groups, such as Ukip, beyond Britain to Germany and the Netherlands. The former Belgian Prime Minister, who was appointed as President of the EU Council a year ago, sees the new nationalism as being based on fear.

So who's the scaredy cat here? The EUrocrats or humble 'populists' like UKIP?

"Nice house price bubble you've got here. It'd be a shame if anything happened to it."

The Council of Mortgage Lenders' shroud waving before the Comprehensive Spending Review was quite professionally done, wailing on about 'hard pressed buyers suffering during the recession', subtext: ensure that money keeps rolling in and that the banks' collateral doesn't fall in value.

The government was only too keen to continue with the other Home-Owner-Ist policy of transferring money from tax payers to 'hard pressed buyers' and hence to the banks and building societies, but methinks that the CML are getting a bit over confident. Instead of just thanking them politely, they have started making veiled threats:

The Council of Mortgage Lenders welcomes the extension of the temporary concession on support for mortgage interest announced today under the government's comprehensive spending review.

The £200,000 limit on mortgage size and the 13 week waiting period (down from 39 weeks) will now remain in place until January 2012. The CML trusts that the government will review the housing market conditions before that point and decide on whether further continuation would be appropriate.

Epic Fail.

They should have said 'jobs market conditions' or something. The official lie is that handing out money to reckless overstretched hard pressed borrowers is about helping the borrowers from preventing the 'spectre of repossession'; and not about propping up house prices and bailing out banks.

“We do not want to hold a gun to their heads ...”

... but?

Via Christina Speight