Dream on; it is too late to wake up now, the nightmare is about to start.

Eire a country with a population of just over four million is about to receive courtesy of the EU and the IMF an eighty billion euro bailout. That works out at €20,000 for every man, woman and child in the Republic of Ireland. How can they possibly pay it back? The UK’s contribution to the bailout is eight billion, that will mean everyone and I mean everyone living in Ireland will owe the UK taxpayers €2,000.

The UK is not doing this because we love the Irish, but because UK banks and in particular RBS and Lloyd's - which are largely owned by the UK taxpayers - are owed €140 billion by Irish banks. Unbelievable but true, every man woman and child in Ireland owes UK banks about €35,000 each! Just imagine what that figure is if instead of considering the whole population we considered only those who are economically productive: no children, no students, no retired people, no unemployed and no one on sickness or invalidity benefit; it is a depressing thought. What happens if we consider only those who work in the wealth generation part of the economy, the private sector and remove public servants? The answer is that we would probably have a nervous breakdown; as we are talking about a debt per wealth generating individual of €80-100,000.

How stupid were the UK government to take on that liability by bailing out the UK banks? How stupid are they intending to be, by throwing another eight billion euro at the problem? The answer I think is incredibly stupid. Simply put, the Irish cannot repay that size of loan.  If that wasn't bad enough UK banks have a similar level of exposure to Spanish banks.

Thanks to our UK banks and their bailout by the UK taxpayer, we have been sucked into propping up the euro currency. Today there is real concern that the euro currency will fail, it is not idle speculation; it is a very real possibility. I believe it is a real probability. What is certain is that there is more, much more, pain and hardship on the way.

I for one simply cannot understand how it is that two years after the banking crisis first started there is still no clear division between high street retail banking and the casino world of investment banking.

Best Wishes
Will