Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

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Rudolf Hess, Hitler’s deputy and right hand man, flew to Scotland on a mysterious peace mission in 1941, which has never been convincingly explained, to meet unidentified politicians who wanted to end the war. The truth has been covered up for generations because to reveal it would somehow undermine the honour and constitutional fabric of the United Kingdom. Who was plotting against Churchill? What were the peace terms on offer? What happened to Hess? Was he killed in the War? Was the prisoner in Spandau a double?
There are many questions to which in the modern day one man, Saul Benedict has all the answers, because his parents were players in the drama involving Churchill, Hitler, leading politicians and an important Royal. Saul is an author and declares his intention to write a book to reveal all, but he is shot dead, apparently accidentally by a poacher. But was it an accident? Rick Coleman an investigative journalist determines to find out and in doing so to uncover the mystery.
Taking place in the modern day but with flashback chapters which gradually unfold the hidden secrets, the novel is a fast moving and compelling read based on the family knowledge of the author whose parents had connections to both Hess and Hitler and to British Intelligence.

Set in the mid nineteen nineties, this fast moving thriller lifts the curtain on sex, sleaze and corruption in high places as the long reign of the government totters to an end, following the ousting of the iconic Margaret Thatcher. The novel catches the mood of those times with a host of fictional characters who engage in political intrigue, sex, money laundering and murder, pursued by an Irish investigative journalist and his girlfriend, the daughter of a cabinet minister found dead in a hotel room after bondage sex.

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As crunch moment draws ever closer, tempers are fraying both in Greece and all across the eurozone. This could signal the final shouting match which proves agreement is near, or it could demonstrate that agreement is now impossible. There is however a change in the political dynamics of the corners into which Germany and Greece are boxed. The loss of tens of billions German  Euros will be hard for Merkel to explain to her taxpayers if Greece defaults and national bankruptcy was not what Tsipras promised his voters. This may just be enough to force both to cut a deal.

The trouble is the deal will be just that. It is unlikely to last and the crisis will return, so in some ways it might be better all round to bite the bullet and accept reality. This is that Greece is bust big time, it should never have been allowed into the Euro in the first place and having let it join it should never have been allowed to borrow so much. Because there was nobody in charge of this ungoverned currency and because the system of governance in Euroland generally suffers from an acute deficit of democratic legitimacy, one thing led to another with nobody calling the shots. When shots finally began to be called they all came from Berlin, which set out such strictures of fiscal puritanism that none of the measures which might have helped were applied in time.

What is now left if the day is to be saved and not just deferred, is a write off of 75% of Greece’s debt and a quantitative easing programme to reboot the Greek economy. The process would keep Greece in  the euro and a side effect will be to devalue it. That would help re-energise the whole euro economic zone. Germany will never agree, so the alternative is for Greece to default and re-issue the drachma with the IMF supporting, together with the World Bank, the financial reconstruction of the Greek economy. Germany will not like that a lot either. What must not happen is a marginal haircut and tinkering around with repayment dates coupled with more loans. That will not work and to attempt it would be just plain silly.