In his famous book, 1984, George Orwell painted a nightmare picture of what the world would become. He called it 1984 because he wrote it in 1948 and switched the two last digits around showing it would be way into the future. Among the features of this nightmare world was something called “newspeak”.

This was a very simplified language where many words had been abolished in order to make it very difficult if not impossible to think. It was a language designed for the imposition of a totalitarian regime. A language that penalised clear thought, and tried to make everything sound pleasant and reassuring. The prime example of this is that there was no such word as bad. It was ungood.

Now if you want a current example of how newspeak works all you have to do is listen to the EU commissioners and try and understand what it is they are saying. They spew out a lot of words which you think must be the result of serious analysis and the expression of plans and decisions.

But if you listen carefully, you will see that they are really saying things which are the opposite of what is going on with the sole intention of fudging, trying to make nonsense sound serious and of course misinform us and deceive us. For instance, with the Greek bond swap, etc. we were told that Greece is a unique case! So this couldn’t be done for anybody else!

Now we have Spain in a flutter. Spain which is the 5th largest economy of the Eurozone. Olli Rhen, a master of newspeak, says the Commission will recommend Spain be given an extra year to reduce its deficit to 3%, but this is a special case! It will be only for Spain and not Greece or anybody else! The implication being, in such cases, that this is just an aberration, a special case, because really the rest of the EU is functioning smoothly and ticking with precision along the lines laid down by the directorate.

And then they go on with numbers and forecasts for 2092, and theories that we shall have growth after we have reduced deficits and we will do all this with no money and I don’t know what else. It is all made in serious statements by serious people with terrible diction usually.

It’s not that they are all so dumb. They know very well that neither Greece, nor Spain now is a “unique” or a “special” case. They know that it is the EU and the Euro that are in deep trouble causing the mayhem. But as in Orwell’s 1984, they just can’t say that for fear of Big Brother. Big Sister in our case. They need to tell another story from the real one. They need to convince everybody, but perhaps themselves above all, that really all is in order and all is going well and according to plan.

It’s all the fault of Greece, now Spain, then Italy. It is never the fault of those designing policy and putting it into effect. It is not the fault of a badly designed, half baked, distorting Euro, no! It is the fault of the profligate southern states and so on. As to the fiscal rectitude that Spain has been graciously given an extra year to achieve, it is all arrant nonsense and something that can never be achieved by anyone under the iron fist of austerity being imposed.

But if they know all that, why do they persist in the deceit and misinformation? Is it just because they are in complete denial?

In 1984 Newspeak was designed to keep a totalitarian regime in power. Something like that is going on now, though at a rather farcical level. Though the blood on their hands from the growing number of suicides in Southern Europe is hardly a farce.

But for whatever reason we are being fed all this Nonsense Newspeak, the bottom line is that as long as it persists there will be no solution to the EU crisis. Because if you keep squeezing the wrong screw and not bothering about the lack of oil, say, in the engine, then you mustn’t be surprised when you blow the gasket.

I am not a believer in conspiracy theories. Perhaps above all because it is believed that the evil plans drawn up by a handful of men in a dark and smokey room to rule the world, actually work. Which is not to say that some kind of a conspiracy is not attempted, but simply that even the best laid plans have a tendency of going really wrong.

Which appears to be what is happening in the EU today. Two aspects of this. The Frau’s brainwave of a plan for fiscal rectitude which has given even more power to the unelected and irresponsible commissioners to automatically penalize states that do not reduce their deficit to 3% next year.

This is nothing but more of her Nonsense Economics. The EU is already in recession. What can we do to push it further down the recessionary path? So is this all an evil conspiracy for the EU to turn into the German Reich with its lebensraum? If it is, it’s going to back fire. The Netherlands are already feeling the heat of this Nonsense idea. And The Netherlands are among Germany’s closest allies against the profligate south.

In my sensible, rational mode I would say that The Frau’s policy is not really dictated by a warped conspiracy to rule Europe and then the world! No I would say it was the result of limited intelligence, dogmatic inflexibility, stubborn pig headedness, fear of a ghost (hyperinflation) and perhaps above all the arrogance from someone drunk with unexpected power.

But then we read something like Reuters Insight: Europe Treads a Thin Line on Greece and you begin to wonder again. The desperate attempts of trying to meddle in the democratic process of a member state because, of course, the electorate must toe the line and must not be allowed to deviate or even object, to a policy that has already ruined their economy, and is set to grind it well into the ground if continued as designed by the IMF/EU troika.

Among the various heavy handed attempts to influence the Greek election we also have a comment by Barroso to the effect that if you don’t toe the line you will be thrown to oblivion. An unhelpful remark and one more likely to antagonise the Greek voter rather than persuade him to continue down the path to ruin.

However, the article tells us that Barroso did not intend to make such a harsh comment but that “He only did so because he got a call from Greece’s caretaker Prime Minister, Loukas Papdemos, asking him to do so, a Commission official said.“

Whoops and double whoops. The gentleman in question was Vice President of the ECB, and was appointed Technocrat Prime Minister to “negotiate” the terms of the new bail out. After Papandreou’s catastrophic handling of the crisis, everyone had great expectations. Till we saw his government. 50 Ministers, the whole of the Greek government that had already failed so miserably with a few more nonentities added to make a show of some kind of coalition.

As to the Minister of Finances, Papademos kept on Evangelos Venizelos who hasn’t a clue how an economy works, who blusters but never acts, who did nothing at all in his tenure up till then, allowing the economy to go from bad to worse and who slapped the exorbitant property tax on electricity bills which was the final nail in the coffin of the Greek economy. But obviously someone who would have no idea how the “negotiations” were really going and still less what this agreement was all about. A perfect choice for Papademos? Well most certainly if we believe in Conspiracy Theories.

And what did Papademos end up doing in the great negotiation? He pushed through terms that were totally toxic for Greece and the Greek economy, signed away any rights to her assets that Greece might have, abolished all labour laws and slashed wages in the private sector which was already moribund. In order to pass this despicable unconditional surrender of Greece, he went on television to paint a terrifying picture of doom and hunger and a return to the stone age, should Parliament not vote for his wretched achievement.

And now he is caught phoning Barroso secretly and telling him to lay on the scare tactics again so as to terrify the Greeks into voting the way he wants, that is pursuing this policy of attrition. By 2020 you may have reached the debt/GDP ratio of 2009 but anyway, you are going to have to live in a state of permanent austerity till at least 2040. And lovely things like that.

Can you blame people for believing in Conspiracy Theories when such dastardly actions come to light?

But don’t forget, even the best laid plans have a tendency of going terribly wrong. Of course, it’s not the “conspirators” like Mr Papademos that will pay for this but the Greek people. So let them vote what they hell they like! If they are facing ruin anyway, they should at least be allowed to chose their own way to go! And besides. We are a very impatient people. We can’t wait till 2040 for complete ruin!

P.S. This goes for the other people’s of Europe too. I dare say they have their own Papademoses working against them as well.

It feels as though everyone, or at least everyone who has any decision making input, is in complete denial. As the main Eurozone leaders prepare to meet, inconclusively,  later in June, as The Markets go up and down without any rhyme or reason, as everyone has the jitters over a tiny little country in the south eastern Mediterranean preparing for yet another election which we all know will hardly be the last, can no one see that the horse is already dead?

Why keep whipping it so mercilessly? Lets face it. All of us and all of Them! In 2008 the finance phase of capitalism self destructed. Horribly. Fatally. The bubble burst releasing terribly toxic gases that covered the whole world, the so called first world perhaps above all. But rather than face what has really happened, those in charge are just whistling in the wind, kicking the can down the road and immersing themselves in their own unlimited perks.

And for all their pontificating and finger wagging at everybody else, they don’t even think about what really should be done, they don’t even think about carrying out a radical restructuring of the world’s institutions or anything else that really needs to be done now. At once. And not some time later after we’ve all enjoyed our lunch.

That is once ‘they‘ have enjoyed ‘their’ lunch at the expense of the peoples they are supposed to be stewarding in one way or another. But they have no incentive to do anything about this devastation that has been wreaked upon the planet. They are not answerable to anyone, they have their exorbitant tax free perks and salaries.

(I refer here to the Director of the IMF who has an enormous salary which is not taxed under diplomatic immunity. What did you say? Yes, that’s right. the lady who complains about others not paying their taxes and whose heart bleeds for the kids in the Niger. Does she donate anything to them out of her own enormous pocket? I don’t really know, but I very much doubt it.)

The world we know has blown up in our face and the toxic gases are poisoning us completely. Could all those good for nothings, enjoying their perks and relishing the power to wag their fingers and  sadistically inflict pain on the weakest and least responsible for the destruction, at least acknowledge the truth of what has happened? 

It may not be much but it would be a good place to start. Anyway it is the only thing they can do. The only thing that might help the world out of the quagmire of their creation. For once they have acknowledged the truth then there would only be one thing left for them to do. Step aside, gracefully or not, and let the great reconstruction begin.

So they better do it quick, otherwise there will never be a way to save and restore civilization. At least not a peaceful way.

Well, well, well. Imagine that! What? Opinion polling results concerning the up coming Greek elections were published here in Greece over the weekend. They seemed to give the right wing New Democracy party a lead over the left wing SYRIZA party. Either of which will have to form a coalition party if they come first.

The New Democracy Party will be forming a coalition with what remains of the once all mighty PASOK party, that persists in deluding itself or trying to delude the electorate, that it is still a socialist party. Which of course it no longer is if ever it really was.

Now, more jokes. Apparently this news, of the ND lead in the polls, appears to have filled The Markets with incredible joy and we witnessed a rally on the stock markets today. How extraordinary. And why do you suppose that was? Can anyone really believe that such a coalition, which does appear likely, will do anything at all to resolve the crisis?

The two parties in question are the ones that jointly and severely managed to ruin the Greek economy, mire it in indebtedness and plunge it into recession. Well, with great help from the IMF/EU for the recession. But they must take most of the credit themselves. At the moment they are engrossed in a game of which of these two parties will tell the biggest lies to the Greek electorate.

These are arrant lies and promises that they will extricate Greece from the so called Memorandum and improve life for everybody all around. Now it is common knowledge that these two parties are the ones that have signed the despicable terms of the new memorandum that is tantamount to a death warrant for the Greek economy. We also know that not only did they sign the agreements but also sent personal letters to the IMF and EU pledging themselves always to uphold these terms for as long as they are in politics.

Now since these people have proved themselves worse than useless, it should not come as a surprise to anyone when a few months (if not weeks) down the line, the same panic shall arise again. You didn’t meet your targets! You haven’t carried out any reforms! Where is the restructuring? We wont pay you the tranche of the loan due! Help! Greece is going bust! Greece is going to be flung out of the Eurozone! Which, presumably is what The Markets are scared of in the event of a Left wing win in the elections.

But this is exactly how it is going to play out, and The Markets should know that by now. So why the euphoria? Well, I suppose because of the reassurance of having a right wing conservative government back in power again. Yes. You can always rely on them.

However, perhaps someone might like to point out to The Markets and whoever these gullible herd like entities are, that the events leading to the 2008 crash, and the policies dogmatically applied by Europe in the aftermath of this disaster have proved one thing if nothing else.

The myth used to be, vote for right wing conservative governments because they are the ones who KNOW really KNOW how to handle the economy. The above mentioned events and obsession with destructive policies have managed to burst this myth to smithereens.

Right wing conservative governments and International organizations such as the IMF and its current head, simply haven’t got a clue as to how to handle the economy, and they keep doing everything wrong. From deregulation of the banking system to stringent across the board austerity in a recession.

So really, The Markets have no cause to be so overjoyed at the prospect of a right wing conservative government in Greece. Not at all!

Well, it seems as though there was quite a barrage of protest against Mme Lagarde’s lack of any sympathy for little Greek kids going hungry and not only from Greeks. Well she fudged a sort of, not an apology, but one of those diplomatic “clarifications”. Yes, well er um.. I didn’t quite mean that, sort of and so on.

Personally the best riposte came from someone who said it was a welcome change for an IMF Director to actually say she was concerned about the children in Nigeria. Given that the state of children in Nigeria is directly the result of IMF policies. However, having shown us how much she knows or thinks about things, in her defence I would say Mme Lagarde probably hasn’t a clue about that either.

Nevertheless, another alarming fact we have discovered about the lady is that she is a teetotaler and a vegetarian. Whoops! Now that doesn’t auger at all well. Not if we remember the last time someone with those specific preferences held sway over Europe!

I have just read an excellent interview of Christine Lagarde by Decca Aitkenhead in the Guardian. She is not very nice about Greece in that she appears to have no sympathy for Greek children going hungry because it’s all the fault of their parents who don’t pay their taxes, so it serves them right.

Unfortunately, she doesn’t even have the imagination to realise that the parents of the children going hungry are not the ones who don’t pay taxes. No, those people are the ones she rubs shoulders with in Washington and New York when sharing a giggle over the purchase of their new Hermes scarves. In fact the parents of the children going hungry are the ones who are paying taxes, being bled dry by the inhuman austerity she favours so much.

Then she says she has much more sympathy for the children in a village in the Niger, than for Greek children suffering. Now, though it does seem like an odd way of putting it, she does have a point. The point being that Europe is rich enough and has plentiful resources and could well resolve this crisis on its own without any outside help. Only she doesn’t put it that way. It’s not Europe that comes in for criticism, but the Greeks as such again.

Anyway, never mind. This is her point of view and given that the Greeks are totally unmanageable as she sees it, perhaps we can understand her impatience. However, when you finish reading the whole interview you feel terrified. This wonderful, charming, composed French lady at the helm of the IMF is just as clueless as all the rest of them in the EU.

She has no idea what she is doing or even where she hopes to get. Her idea of democracy is, yes of course it is a “good thing”, but governments must do what she wants whoever is voted in. Look, she says with pride, we got rid of Berlusconi and now have Monti who is doing a very good job. (Well, perhaps, he has just plunged Italy into recession.) And in Greece the technocrat Lucas Papdemos took over. (Who did nothing at all while PM other than negotiate, or rather be dictated, a loan agreement that is a death warrant for the Greek Economy.)

Nevertheless, Mme Lagarde is very pleased with these two gentlemen and to crown it all she says, well look there were elections in Spain and the new government continued the economic policy imposed, despite his pre election rhetoric. Does it matter that Bankia has crashed, spreads have soared and Spain is teetering on the brink? Apparently not. All that matters is that Rajoy toed her line.

And her closing remark is devastating. When asked when she thinks the crisis that began in 2008 will end, she fudges and puts on the charm, ending up with, 2000 something. “I know the first two digits but not the last two”.

We may well ask with her level of competence and that of all the other “deciders” involved, how can she be so sure about those first two digits? A bit cocky of her isn’t it? Anyway, as she admires herself in the mirror while fixing her latest Hermes silk scarf, she can shrug her shoulders, confident that anyway, everybody else will be eating plenty of cake as she carries on in her cushy little job, doing nothing much other than destroying economies, for many more years to come, as she expects.

When we all start singing “La Bandiera Rossa”, I dare say she will find us horribly out of rune and shudder at that.

Many are calling it a game of Chicken. Others have likened it to the cold war. What? The Great Showdown between the EU and… little Greece! How extraordinary! The bullying and threats and blackmail the Greek voters (yes, the Greek voters, not some government) are being pelted with relentlessly on the one hand, and the counter threat that: yes, okay, but if Greece goes down it will pull the rest of the world down with it, is basically what this is all about.

If you step back a bit and look at this miserable little performance from a distance all you can come up with is, You must be joking! Unfortunately, whatever else it might be, a joke it is not. An Ionesco play maybe, but a joke no. At least not for the Greeks living through this horrible nightmare and not for the peoples of Europe being subjected to policies that risk turning them into the next Greece either.

Who is benefiting? That is always a good place to start. The instant answer that might snap to mind is Germany of course! It is making money from all these extra loans piled on Greece at a pretty good interest rate (it’s own borrowing rate has slipped to under 1%, whereas it lends to Greece at over 4% and more). But even that doesn’t warrant subjecting a country to destruction policies and insisting on their continuation in this way.

The only result will be killing the chicken that lays the golden egg. This chicken, in the game of chicken, is already moribund. So it can’t be that either. What then? All sorts of wicked and evil German schemes are being concocted by the Conspiracy Theorists. Angela is about to succeed where Hitler failed! And all that crap. But none of these cut the mustard either.

Nevertheless we are indeed witnessing this so called “cold war” between Greece and the EU, perhaps even the rest of the world. Out of fear of the outcome of the Greek election, this barrage of threats and bullying tactics has been unleashed on the Greek voter. The Greeks MUST vote the way the EU wants, or else… Greece will be consigned to a savage stone age at best.

But what are they insisting on? That Greece carry out without fail its “commitments” (which were agreed to under duress but never mind that). Now these commitments include measures that if taken as demanded will consign Greece to a savage stone age anyway, so why all the huffing and puffing?

On the other hand, the terror this side is trying to induce in the piddly little country it has chosen to so bully, may show something interesting. Could it be that they, in their turn, are terrified that if Greece does blow its gasket in this election, the whole continent, not to say the global economy as such, is in danger of devastating consequences?

So, the Cold War designation. Each side holds a bomb that could annihilate the other. The loser is the one who blinks first and puts down his bomb. A zero sum game?

The big guys want to coerce Greece any way they can into doing what they want. Quite regardless of the fact that what they want has already proved a most devastating failure and not only for Greece. In its efforts to defend itself Greece is holding onto its own bomb, ready to detonate it. Greece is being told severely, “This is not a bluff! You really will be consigned to the stone age!” To which it is feared the Greek answer may be, “One way or another that’s where we’re headed anyway, so we may as well take the lot of you with us. What have we got to lose?”

This seems to upset The Frau terribly, poor dear. But couldn’t this great woman, let alone all those minor nonentities fluttering wildly around her like moths, think of a more sensible way of dealing with this impasse? Would it really hurt her pride just to talk things over and perhaps recognize that throwing a country into prolonged Economic Depression is only going to create more problems rather than solve anything at all?

Firstly, this policy means that no one will ever get paid anything back. How? From an economy that has ceased to function because of your policies? Not to mention the fact that usually, when something like this goes on for too long, insurrection and revolution flare up. And these manifestations have proved particularly contagious in Europe.

So why this stupid game of Chicken that will lead nowhere however it goes? Except for throwing the whole of Europe in the soup sooner rather than later.

Translation: “During yesterday’s G8 summit, Frau Merkel, Mr. Cameron, Obama, Francois Hollande, Signor Monti, Barroso and… found themselves completely isolated.”

Caption on the explosives: “Memorandum” or loan agreement.

We’ve all heard of conundrums and vicious cycles and so on. Well, here is our own European version of one in the aftermath of yet another inconclusive, idiotic Brussels summit.

Why did the original sovereign debt crisis come about in the first place? Because of over indebtedness caused by cheap Euros being thrown down south not least so that the southerners would keep on buying the northerners’ products while impoverishing themselves; and of course because of the vane attempts to shore up Europe’s insolvent banks after the 2008 bubble burst. And of course at the taxpayers expense. The well known scheme of profits are kept private but losses are socialised.

That was the background against which The Markets (proved so horribly wrong with their AAA ratings of Lehman Brothers for one) started getting jittery. These jitters caused the so called spreads, that is interests on the bonds of EU countries to start rising. First victim, the weakest link in the chain, Greece. Spreads soared so high the country crashed and had to go cap in hand to the EU and IMF with all the disastrous results thereof.

Then one after another the weaker countries were targeted. Portugal and Ireland were forced by The Markets down the same miserable and destructive paths. After that, The Markets have been targeting the next weak economies up the line, Spain and Italy, even France a bit. Oh, and in case you idiotic Europeans start getting ideas, we shall eventually target the whole damn bunch of you!

Meanwhile back at the ranch in Brussels, or Berlin rather, the whole exploding crisis was met with dithering, small mindedness, the intelligence of a village grocer, indecision and above all denial that anything at all was the matter.

The EU has now reached an apogee of hysteria over… what? Elections in that tiny less than 2% country Greece, through fears that the Greeks will vote for the “wrong” parties! Disaster! Calamity! They must toe the line! They must continue the self destruction till it is complete! Otherwise they will go back to the drachma and have no access to medicine or petrol! Well, we already have no access to medicines and half the buildings in Athens and elsewhere remained without heating during the winter already. But be that as it may. A threat is a threat.

Now, at the height of the panic induced by the complete and utter failure of The Frau’s imposed policies an informal summit was held in Brussels yesterday. Just another same old same old. Dithering inconclusiveness. Everybody agreeing on “growth” or at least paying lip service to the concept. No one being at all specific on how to achieve this lofty aim sort of like “I believe in peace and apple pie” . Hollande trying to push the Eurobond idea, The Frau against it, as she is against anything at all that could be productive.

And all this against the backdrop of “We shall kick Greece out of the Eurozone UNLESS it sticks to all its commitments to destroy what is left of its economy!” We don’t really want this, but we have made contingency plans! So watch it! Make sure to vote in all those idiots who got you into this mess in the first place, rather than anyone who might just be able to get you out.

So while the EU is squabbling and threatening and the established bully girl is trying to keep her place in the school yard because there’s a new boy in town who might threaten her… The Markets have gone hay wire. Up and down, stock markets fall, the Euro drops, in short havoc all over the world. Some might say it serves The Markets right. They were the ones to get us into this mess, they should pay the price for it. Full circle. The Markets caused the crisis, The Markets find themselves paying for it. Poetic justice.

But others might just venture a question. If Greece is such a pain in the ass and creating such terrible problems for Europe and the world, then why did The Markets not soar at the loud threats and perceived imminence of a Grexit? Surely, since we are assured that contingency plans for such an eventuality have been made, that would be problem solved. Greece would be left to its fate, outside the Eurozone, and the rest of the world could carry on nicely.

But quite obviously, The Markets did not see it that way. They did not see it that way at all. Why?

Which is how the EU functions. Low on Democracy, high on threats and blackmail. In an excellent article in the Guardian today, Seamus Milne describes perfectly how the EU functions and why. The why is quite simply that the European Union has turned into a Soviet Union except that the ideology forced on the people is not a Marxist ideology but a Neo Liberal “shock and awe” ideology.

This is not new. The EU has been functioning under this dark dogma for a long time. What is relatively new is that Germany’s right wing government has decided to take over the whole show and ram it forcibly down our throats in a way only Germany, it appears, has the know how to do.

In this article Seamus Milne points out that both Greece and Ireland are being subjected to particularly hysterical threats because both countries are due to exercise their democratic rights and actually vote, much to the EU directorate’s displeasure. The Irish in a referendum on the already defunct Frau inspired fiscal stability pact, and the Greeks in a rerun of a general election that proved so alarming the first time around.

Already here in Greece the threats are reaching an extraordinary height of hysteria. Even the previous appointed Quisling Prime Minister and former Vice President of the ECB made loud statements about preparations being made to kick Greece out of the Euro… unless you stick to the terms of the program!  as the mantra goes. Or in simple language unless you continue plunging your already shattered economy into even greater and greater recession till there is nothing left.

By the way, Mr Papademos’ statements in the Wall Street Journal caused quite a flutter in the markets. The kind of flutter some wily operators tend to flourish on. Shouldn’t a former Central Banker try to avoid such ‘opportunities’ for speculation rather than create them? Are they so desperate to terrorize and intimidate electors that they don’t even bother to think of the consequences of their remarks?

So far, the only person to have spoken sensibly is Christine Lagarde of the IMF. She does not say, you must ruin your economy otherwise…! (Otherwise what? one can’t help asking). She says you must really fix you taxation system and carry out the structural reforms of your state machinery. Both of which are entirely true. And if all the idiots stopped threatening us with summary exit from the Euro, but promised help, perhaps, in dealing with these problems, then the electoral result would have greater chances of going their way than it does now.

But again. We have here another example of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland logic. The kind of logic Mr Papademos  also expresses with great zest. If you don’t stick to the plan imposed on you which will inevitably end up in the complete destruction of your economy and result in  hunger and death, we will throw you summarily out of the Euro, cut off all your funding and the result will be hunger and death! How come they don’t even realise that they are not giving us any choice?

Lots of bright ideas to solve the European crisis are being bandied about, from creating a new G-Euro, to replace the Euro in Greece at a lower value. How exactly this would work is not entirely clear. To anyone. To former German deputy finance minister Jorg Asmussen’s for a politically integrated eurozone that will be a “banking union, fiscal union, political union”.

Though this last proposal does sound extremely sensible, is there enough time to constitute such a union before the whole thing blows up in our faces? Not to mention the complex intricacies of what would actually be agreed to. That is a fully democratic union or another German imperial project where everyone cedes their sovereignty to the German Imperium?

As for the famous Euro bonds, after yet another resounding Nien from The Frau how can we hope for any remedy of the mess she has made of Europe? Let alone a remedy that may be set to work immediately since the EU no longer really has any time left.

So back to the very old idea. When the Greek armies had gathered to set sail for Troy at Aulis, the wind wouldn’t blow for them to launch their ships. So for the project to take off the Gods decreed that King Agamemnon of Mycenae, the top King of the pack (something like Angela Merkal perhaps, unless that is not a politically correct thing to say) would have to sacrifice his own daughter for the winds to blow in the direction of Troy.

The daughter who was sacrificed was none other than Iphigenia, tricked into coming to Aulis through a promise of betrothal to the hero Achilles. Now after she was sacrificed the winds did blow and the infamous “thousand ships” launched by that capricious lady Helen set off for the ensuing carnage.

The story, however, did not have a happy end. After ten years of war, when Agamemnon returned home he was savagely murdered by his wife, Iphigenia’s mother, and her lover, plunging the whole family into turmoil and more murder.

At this point the only thing that may save the rest of the EU is if Iphigenia/Greece is sacrificed. It is hoped and believed by a great many that if we throw the sick gall of Europe completely out onto the streets without a penny to her name, then the Union will have got rid of its problems and will sail off smoothly into the sunset.

So, many are hoping and planning and engineering such a sacrifice. Amputate the ailing limb! Turn Greece into the modern Iphigenia. It was their idea in the first place.

Such a solution is getting ominously nearer. It is difficult to envisage that Germany under today’s leadership will agree to anything sensible that might turn the Euro project round and bring it back on course. Would the Iphigenia style sacrifice of Greece do the trick?

Hardly! But it would play oh so well with The Frau’s voters. At least for the very short run.

When this happens, we shall go with the same dignity.