Varoufakis by way of Tennyson
(not mine, this is from two comments http://crookedtimber.org/2015/02/03/greece-surplus-stimulus-strategy/#comment-607720)
It little profits that an idle Greek
By this still economy, among these barren markets
Match’d with an evil troika , who mete and dole
Unequal laws unto our savage race
Who hoard, and sleep, and feed, and pay not debt.
Greatly, we suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loaned us, and alone, on shore.
. . . Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer deal.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The hounding Euros; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the market, and the wrath
Of all the western banks, until I die.
It may be that the Gulf will buy us up:
It may be we shall touch the Cayman Isles
And see the great Onassis, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved oil and cargo; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of expatriate wealth,
Made weak by various new reporting regulations, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to borrow, and not to yield.
At the Radical Independence conference in Glasgow were, among many others, speakers from SYRIZA. Following the indyref (lost) and the Catalan referendum (meaningless victory), they've actually managed to get elected. Now they find themselves trying to deliver. The conflict between whether Greece is run by its electorate or its creditors (or its creditor's electorates) is being forced. SYRIZA really don't have a lot of cards to play, and the ones they do have are self-destructive and illegal. French-style straightforward physical violence is not yet on the table, but default-and-exit could be far more expensive than simply burning down a tax office.
I'm following this with avid interest, although nowhere near the level of horrible emotional intensity as the Indyref.
Meanwhile the SNP are looking at the wholesale collapse of the Scottish Labour vote and desperately trying not to have a "return to your constituencies and prepare for government" moment. It's less than 100 days to our own election which promises to be weird and chaotic.
It little profits that an idle Greek
By this still economy, among these barren markets
Match’d with an evil troika , who mete and dole
Unequal laws unto our savage race
Who hoard, and sleep, and feed, and pay not debt.
Greatly, we suffer’d greatly, both with those
That loaned us, and alone, on shore.
. . . Come, my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer deal.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The hounding Euros; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the market, and the wrath
Of all the western banks, until I die.
It may be that the Gulf will buy us up:
It may be we shall touch the Cayman Isles
And see the great Onassis, whom we knew.
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved oil and cargo; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of expatriate wealth,
Made weak by various new reporting regulations, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to borrow, and not to yield.
At the Radical Independence conference in Glasgow were, among many others, speakers from SYRIZA. Following the indyref (lost) and the Catalan referendum (meaningless victory), they've actually managed to get elected. Now they find themselves trying to deliver. The conflict between whether Greece is run by its electorate or its creditors (or its creditor's electorates) is being forced. SYRIZA really don't have a lot of cards to play, and the ones they do have are self-destructive and illegal. French-style straightforward physical violence is not yet on the table, but default-and-exit could be far more expensive than simply burning down a tax office.
I'm following this with avid interest, although nowhere near the level of horrible emotional intensity as the Indyref.
Meanwhile the SNP are looking at the wholesale collapse of the Scottish Labour vote and desperately trying not to have a "return to your constituencies and prepare for government" moment. It's less than 100 days to our own election which promises to be weird and chaotic.