The next stage in a year of shifting sands comes in Italy on 4 Dec
It's been a year of global protest vote which has brought us Brexit and a new US President in Donald Trump and now the focus turns back to Europe.
Moneyweek have published an excellent article that I'm re-posting here for some weekend reading.
"On 4 December, Italy is holding a referendum.It's not a referendum on the euro - neither on the surface, nor implicitly, as we'll get to in a moment. But lots of people are worried about the outcome, and what it might say for politics across the globe in the wake of Brexit and Trump.
The referendum is meant to reform Italy's political system. Without going into the details (which are boring to anyone not intimately involved in Italian politics), the idea is to make changes that would make it easier to form stable governments and pass laws in the country.
To be clear, the changes seem reasonably sensible to an outside observer - this isn't an attempted coup or creeping authoritarianism, it's an effort to have a semblance of someone being in charge and getting the odd thing done.
However, Italian citizens are fed up and irritated like many around the globe, and it looks like they'll vote against the changes, to give the people in charge a bloody nose as much as anything else"
Full article here
What do our Italian/European make of the referendum? Is it all being over-hyped? Or along with Brexit does it have the potential to mark the start of the end?
I'm heading out now to watch the mighty Southend United do battle once more. Have yourselves a great week-end wherever yours takes you, and thanks again for all the brilliant support.
Renzi - Going down? And if so will it really make any difference?
