Pontignano conference continued: after the crash

Jack Straw the Justice Secretary talked here about the “granulisation” of politics, the fragmenting of voters’ preparedness to carry on with voting for conventional old order politics.

How serious is it? I have blogged before about the disenchantment of younger voters in Ireland with their leadership and how it may come to deliver a No vote to Lisbon.

Today we are discussing the impact of the crash upon European societies – no riots, no deaths, amazingly the economic and financial carnage has claimed few actual casualties, but the jobs and livelihoods of many are gone and were it not for the benefits cushion one suspects there would have been far more strife on the streets.

What amazes me here is how few answers the conventional politicians have to it all. The real fear here is that the banks are returning to their old pre-crash ways.

Barclays’ operation to hand over toxic debts to a company who will buy them with a loan from the bank is causing a stir here.

There is much muttering about the “cynical manoeuvre” (their words not mine) to insert Tony Blair into the Presidency of Europe. Critics point to the Iraq War as one of the most divisive moments in modern European history and add that it is strange to reward one of its architects in this way.

The debate is just getting under way, so I’d better get in there.