So as Italy officially slides back into recession, we are treated to the unedifying spectacle of fights in parliament and the usual gratuitous political scene stealing. Yesterday Renzi met Berlo for 3 hours to discuss stuff. We are told that the Nazarene Pact as its become known, includes no ‘save silvio’ legislation. But then it wouldnt would it? More likely a word, a handshake and a masonic nod to guarantee that there will be no unpleasant new laws to limit Silvio’s grip on the tv, newspaper and misinformation industry. Matteo has sold his soul, and yet tells us how his new senate will somehow make Italy the golden calf of the economic miracle and make everyone want to invest here. Italy will rise like a phoenix from her woes and become a worldleader with her head held high. What Matteo fails to realise is that his little get togethers with convicted criminal Silvio and soon to be convicted criminal Verdini have made the Italians think that Renzi is no better than the others, and they have no faith in his new broom approach.
Matteo tells us we should be proud to be Italian. Why exactly? the famed 80 euros does not apply to the pensioners and self employed , who are getting tax bills for more than their income. The state has implicitly declared war against its citizens, and is scrabbling about trying to accuse the people of something in order to squeeze a few more euros from them. The latest one, from a capitalist free market country in the G8 – is that the state decides how much you can sell your house/land for. Sell it too cheaply, becaause for some wild instant you decide you need some money – and the state will come along and tell you that although not illegal they dont believe you acted in good faith. Therefore you need to pay the difference, according to them, to the state. You should pay the taxes payable on a notional state fixed price, and not on the price actually paid. Which all goes to show that the State treats all Itlaialns as criminals, and then demands respect – which it will never have. Unlike Schettino – the captain of the Costa Concordia – who has become a VIP and now gives lectures at the Sapienza on panic management, and how to act calmly in a crisis. That would be, I presume, by abandoning ship and doing a runner while leaving people to die. It seems that only in ITaly, where Z list celebs are feted – that this could happen, but then Schettino seems to be a mirror of Italy – inept, incompetent but brazen enough to say its someone elses fault.
