What’s a Grecian Urn?

Not even the price of a cup of tea these days.

For the benefit of those as simple-minded as myself, I offer the following analysis:

1)      Greece, in its anxiety to be ‘Modern’ and ‘European’, asks to join the club.

2)      The club, pleased for political rather than economic reasons, (insofar as it is possible to separate the two) says ‘Yes, all right, but you’ll have to comply with the following conditions:’

3)      Greece prepares a set of ‘massaged’ (i.e. false) figures that seem to meet the conditions.

4)      The club pretends to believe them and welcomes Greece with open arms.

5)      Too open: they realize they will have to support Greece with grants and loans.

6)      People in the rest of the club get cross about this.

7)      The club, finding it can no longer get away with the deception, throws up its arms in outraged innocence; ‘Oh, how could those naughty Greeks deceive us so? We must punish them!’

8)      Greece is reduced — at least in the cities, not, thank God, everywhere — yet — to conditions not seen since the German occupation: children fainting from hunger in the classrooms, beggars on the streets, fathers hanging themselves for shame that they can no longer feed their children, the homeless freezing to death.

9)      Greek elections return a leftish government which seeks a decent resolution of the problem; one that would allow the Greek economy to recover, make money, and perhaps eventually repay the loans.

10)  The rich members of the club — out of, as far as one can see, sheer vindictiveness; it cannot possibly be to their advantage to continue to impose austerity — refuses the Greek proposals.

11)  Who knows? Wars have broken out for far less than this.