"Let us therefore brace ourselves..."

'If SYRIZA survive the tough beginning, a looming change in European attitudes to austerity politics in Europe might vindicate their struggle.' SYRIZA are inexperienced in government and up against such powers and carrying such hopes in Greece and across Europe. I would have thought that the most important requirements within this government along with Odyssesian agility is courage. ("Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves etc".) For us watching and, in some cases, directly experiencing this bold attempt to end Greece's 'fiscal waterboarding', the trickiest thing will be sorting out the truth amid the media blitz that arises from the fact that we are seeing a small country, a truly 'forlorn hope', charging the agents and agencies of mainstream economics. Tsipras and his cabinet are up against current economic science, present economic faith and almost universal economic common-sense. But all these things, for which we can see no clear alternative, means imposing upon Greece a prolonged version of what the Treaty of Versailles - so very understandable, such common sense - did to Germany in 1919. We have a dear friend in Greece who pays her bills, obeys the law, pays all the latest taxes, and works work works. 'There is not a morning I do not wake up scared" she says. In the case of Greece economic 'common sense' is not working. Some people use language and interpretations of events in Greece as though they have nothing to do with this. That is not the case. Let's have some tunes? Hallelujah

"We need to stop this carnival of tax evasion and tax avoidance" Alexis Tsipras