Behave yourself.

I gave the examples of the Olympics and the Metro system as examples of Greek corruption and incompetence....are you suggesting they didn't have an effect? Have you been to Greece and witnessed the pace of life there? They need a collective rocket up their arses to become competitive and profitable instead of granting ridiculously early retirement ages with outrageously generous benefit levels.

I couldn't care less about Stirling's views and WAGU (whoever she is?).

I look at situations and make my own mind up and quite obviously Greece have fcuked up bigtime here.

Luckily for us, there are enough sane credible people to keep out people like you, Miliband and Balls from creating the same sh1t here.

You are so out of touch you believe that Corbyn will be a good leader for Labour and therefore a prospective Prime Minister.... get a grip man.

Firstly - and this is the biggest point I want to make here Hoof - you can attack me for being left wing. You can attack me for being a socially liberal, PC-brigade Marxist. But don't ever, ever, put me in the same category as Milliband and Balls again. They are almost as far gone from my political ideology as you are Hoof, and I hold them in total contempt.

Anyhow. On your first point, I'm going to have to tell you some facts, and I know you won't like them, but you have to deal with them because they're true. The Olympics cost Greece 9 billion euros. Their rail project cost around 1.5 billion, but let's be generous and factor in maintenance and ticket receipt losses, and say it's cost them about 5 billion. That still accounts for about 4% of Greek debt, which has nearly doubled as a percentage of GDP since 2007. It would be better to look at the excessive military spending Greece took part in before 2007 for an example of public debt accumulation, but most of that came from a corrupted government, and pressure from European nations like Germany and the UK who forced Greece in to buying frivolous submarines, arms etc.

After the financial crash, European banks lent Greece money so its own banks could continue to operate, but with very high interest rates. To repay these loans, Greece borrowed short term loans from the Troika, and saw one of the biggest economic depressions ever experienced by a developed nation with massive cuts to pensions, public infrastructure, as well as record high unemployment levels. Thus, while of course public overspending played a role in Greek debt, for you to focus on that instead of, say, the monetary union, or the debt pressure placed on the banks, or the bankers themselves, is not only to miss the elephant in the room, it's to be unaware of a herd of elephants in a room painted in sparkly colours farting directly in your face.

I have been to Greece, but unlike you I sadly wasn't able to gauge the productivity of the whole nation. However, an OECD report claims Greeks are some of the most hard working people in the world, working around 2000 hours a year, 700 more than the average German, and about 300 more than the average Brit. Not only does this dispell the myth that they're all lazy and feckless, it also suggests that maybe they actually earn that early retirement in many cases.

As for your last point, what exactly has that got to do with anything? Oh yeah, you're copying the tricks of the trade from your mentor Paul Dacre and his Nazi-supporting rag, going for tenuous personal slander rather than genuine intellectual debate. And you're telling me to behave.

Christ Hoof - I spend half an hour writing a post, then you have a go at me for not being intellectual enough! Give me a chance

Please do tell me though: do you actually believe bankers and corporations have ever done anything wrong?

That is the nub of it...... spending an hour to write a post FFS.

Keep it simple.

You over think all situations and over complicate arguments.

See my previous point about PIGS. Simple analogy, hard to argue against.

Of course some bankers and corporations have done wrongs, and a lot of them have been hit hard for indiscretions.... Lloyds Bank and PPI claims/penalties as an example.

Greece should be made to face up to their shambolic attempts to run their economy and pay their dues like Portugal, Ireland and Spain are attempting to do.