We Can Recreate Paradise

... was the concept behind Eurosocialism. Libertine secularism, good wages for all, secure jobs and plenty of government benefits would lead to a new kind of Garden of Eden. Man is not fallen, he is perfectable through political action.

That's not working so well.

Let us be clear, the chief reason why Greece cannot meet its deficit targets is because the EU has imposed the most violent fiscal deflation ever inflicted on a modern developed economy - 16pc of GDP of net tightening in three years - without offsetting monetary stimulus, debt relief, or devaluation.

This has sent the economy into a self-feeding downward spiral, crushing tax revenues. The policy is obscurantist, a replay of the Gold Standard in 1931. It has self-evidently failed. As the Greek parliament said, the debt dynamic is "out of control".

We all know that Greece behaved badly for a decade. The time for tough love was long ago, when the mistakes were made and all sides were seduced by the allure of EMU.

The only tough love you can expect is the type that comes from within yourself. It's never going to come from political action. No one else cares enough to make you do the things you need to do in order to succeed.