At the Rally Against Debt we started a petition against eurozone bailouts. Here is what it says:
Contrary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's comment that we "have to live with" the Portuguese bailout, as Alistair Darling signed us up to the European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, we believe it must be challenged. If necessary, in the courts. The European Scrutiny Committee has referred to that mechanism as "legally unsound". But otherwise the Government should simply refuse to accept British taxpayers' money being used to delay the inevitable reckoning for the economic failure of the euro. With huge pressure on our finances, we do not believe we can afford to bail out others for mistakes we have not made.
We the undersigned do not accept that British taxpayers' money should, or has to be, used to bail out eurozone economies.
Click here to sign the petition. There is a debate on the issue in Parliament today and the next few weeks and months are absolutely critical. Our money shouldn't be spent kicking the can down the road and delaying a reckoning for the euro's failure. While the consequences of a default in a country like Greece could be dire, that is unavoidable as a result of the financial disaster brought on by monetary union. Keeping up the pretence that the current strategy is viable is more about the political interests of politicians in France and Germany than the needs of people living with the crisis in peripheral eurozone economies. Please sign the petition, and pass it on to your friends and colleagues.