The callous cruelty of the EU is destroying Greece, a once-proud country, Telegraph.co.uk, February 15, 2012, by Peter Oborne, quoted almost verbatim with apologies, commentary by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans:

For all of my adult life, support for the European Union has been seen as the mark of a civilised, reasonable and above all compassionate politician. It has guaranteed him or her access to leader columns, TV studios, lavish expense accounts and overseas trips.

The reason for this special treatment is that the British establishment has tended to view the EU as perhaps a little incompetent and corrupt, but certainly benign and generally a force for good in a troubled world. This attitude is becoming harder and harder to sustain, as this partnership of nations is suddenly starting to look very nasty indeed: a brutal oppressor that is scornful of democracy, national identity and the livelihoods of ordinary people.

The turning point may have come this week with the latest intervention by Brussels: bureaucrats are threatening to bankrupt an entire country unless opposition parties promise to support the EU-backed austerity plan.

Let’s put the Greek problem in its proper perspective. Britain’s Great Depression in the Thirties has become part of our national myth. It was the era of soup kitchens, mass unemployment and the Jarrow March, immortalised in George Orwell’s wonderful novels and still remembered in Labour Party rhetoric.

Yet the fall in national output during the Depression – from peak to trough – was never more than 10 per cent. In Greece, gross domestic product is already down about 13 per cent since 2008, and according to experts is likely to fall a further 7 per cent by the end of this year. In other words, by this Christmas, Greece’s depression will have been twice as deep as the infamous economic catastrophe that struck Britain 80 years ago.

Yet all the evidence suggests that the European elite could not give a damn. Earlier this week Olli Rehn, the EU’s top economist, warned of “devastating consequences” if Greece defaults. The context of his comments suggests, however, that he was thinking just as much of the devastating consequences that would flow for the rest of Europe, rather than for the Greeks themselves.

Another official was quoted in the Financial Times as saying that Germany, Finland and the Netherlands are “losing patience” with Greece, with apparently not even a passing thought for the real victims of this increasingly horrific saga. Though the euro-elite seems not to care, life in Greece, the home of European civilisation, has become unbearable.

Perhaps 100,000 businesses have folded, and many more are collapsing. Suicides are sharply up, homicides have reportedly doubled, with tens of thousands being made homeless. Life in the rural areas, which are returning to barter, is bearable. In the towns it is harsh and for minorities – above all the Albanians, who have no rights and have long taken the jobs Greeks did not want – it is terrifying.

This is only the start, however. Matters will get much worse over the coming months, and this social and moral disaster has already started to spread to other southern European countries such as Italy, Portugal and Spain. It is not just families that are suffering – Greek institutions are being torn to shreds. Unlike Britain amid the economic devastation of the Thirties, Greece cannot look back towards centuries of more or less stable parliamentary democracy. It is scarcely a generation since the country emerged from a military dictatorship and, with parts of the country now lawless, sinister forces are once again on the rise. Only last autumn, extremist parties accounted for about 30 per cent of the popular vote. Now the hard Left and hard Right stand at about 50 per cent and surging. It must be said that this disenchantment with democracy has been fanned by the EU’s own meddling, and in particular its imposition of Lucas Papademos as a puppet prime minister.

Late last year I was sharply criticised, and indeed removed from a Newsnight studio by a very chilly producer, after I called Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio, a European Union spokesman, “that idiot from Brussels”. Well-intentioned intermediaries have since gone out of their way to assure me that Mr Altafaj-Tardio is an intelligent and also a charming man. I have no powerful reason to doubt this, and it should furthermore be borne in mind that he is simply the mouthpiece and paid hireling for Mr Rehn, the Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner I mentioned earlier.

But looking back at that Newsnight appearance, it is clear that my remarks were far too generous, and I would like to explain myself more fully, and with greater force. Idiocy is, of course, an important part of the problem in Brussels, explaining many of the errors of judgment and basic competence over the past few years. But what is more striking by far is the sheer callousness and inhumanity of EU commissioners such as Mr Rehn, as they preside over a Brussels regime that is in the course of destroying what used to be a proud, famous and reasonably well-functioning country.

In these terrible circumstances, how can the British liberal Left, which claims to place such value on compassion and decency, continue to support the EU? I am old enough to recall their rhetoric when Margaret Thatcher was driving through her monetarist policies as a response to the recession of the early Eighties. Many of the attacks were incredibly personal and vicious. The British prime minister (who, of course, was later to warn so presciently against monetary union) was accused of lacking any kind of compassion or humanity. Yet the loss of economic output during the 1979-82 recession was scarcely 6 per cent, less than a third of the scale of the depression now being suffered by the unfortunate Greeks. Unemployment peaked at 10.8 per cent, just over half of where Greece is now.

The reality is that Margaret Thatcher was an infinitely more compassionate and pragmatic figure than Amadeu Altafaj-Tardio’s boss Olli Rehn and his appalling associates. She would never have destroyed an entire nation on the back of an economic dogma.

One of the basic truths of politics is that the Left is far more oblivious to human suffering than the Right. The Left always speaks the language of compassion, but rarely means it. It favours ends over means. The crushing of Greece, and the bankruptcy of her citizens, is of little consequence if it serves the greater good of monetary union.

Nevertheless, for more than a generation, politicians such as Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Nick Clegg and David Miliband have used their sympathy for the aims and aspirations of the European Union as a badge of decency. Now it ties them to a bankruptcy machine that is wiping out jobs, wealth and – potentially – democracy itself.

…Thus far only one British political leader, Ukip’s Nigel Farrage, has had the clarity of purpose to state the obvious – that Greece must be allowed to default and devalue. Leaving all other considerations to one side, humanity alone should press David Cameron into splitting with Brussels and belatedly coming to the rescue of Greece.

UPDATE: See Europe’s Failed Course, NY Times Editorial, February 17, 2011:

Struggling euro-zone economies like Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy cannot cut their way back to growth. Demanding rigid austerity from them as the price of European support has lengthened and deepened their recessions. It has made their debts harder, not easier, to pay off.

This is not an issue of philosophical debate. The numbers are in.

Recommended: Greek economy spirals down as EU forces final catharsis, Telegraph.co.uk, February 14, 2012, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. The Telegraph is the only prominent news source I know of that in the last few days has consistently given the Greek crisis the coverage it deserves.

A Greek default and traumatic ejection from the euro moved a step closer last night after eurozone finance ministers cancelled a crucial meeting, accusing Athens of failing to flesh out austerity cuts.

Also See: Greece won’t see a cent of the great bail-out, Telegraph.co.uk, February 13, 2012, by Andrew Lilico:

MPs in Athens may have voted for austerity, but the reality is that default is looming. …Over the weekend, the Greek parliament voted to accept Europe’s latest demands for spending cuts and tax rises and other reforms and retrenchments. The aim was to make it marginally less implausible that Greece will pay back the hundreds of billions of euros that its neighbours are lending it. The alternative, we were told, was that it would become “ground zero” for a new financial meltdown, with its exit from the euro leading to social chaos within the country and economic chaos outside.

So Greece’s MPs voted it through, 199 to 74 – despite the tens of thousands rioting on the streets of Athens, despite GDP having contracted for three years in a row, despite tax revenues collapsing thanks to austerity-induced depression and overt, systematic tax evasion, despite the main governing party’s popularity falling to 8 per cent in the opinion polls.

The Vampire Squid Goldman-Sachs
Rears Its Ugly Head in the Greek Crisis

Commentary by Evans Liberal Politics owner Paul Evans: Ah the tentacles of the infamous vampire squid sucking any prosperity out of ordinary people, and now apparently the smaller, southern European countries: (Even though the source is the official Iranian Press TV, watch Goldman Sachs cooked Greece books.) Apparently the Greek economy runs in the vicinity of $400 – $500 billion a year (although this is sinking fast), but Goldman Sachs has apparently bought large chunks of $600 to $700 billion of hedge funds which are betting on Greece to tank. Why is it I’m not surprised? When ultracapitalism runs rampant, anywhere in the world, ordinary people suffer, sometimes badly. This is the side of unfettered, unregulated capitalism which conservatives need to be made aware of.

A last note: Because of the extreme poverty now in Greece, which the terms of the austerity “bailout” of Greece will only make much worse, the Communist Party and other left wing parties in Greece are now polling at 40 percent. Far right parties are also on the march. But the governing party is now polling at about 8 percent. So if the EU thinks Greece will stand for this sort of a.) interference in a country’s sovereign affairs and b.) impoverishment beyond what is reasonably tolerable for a civilized country, they had better think again. Chaos and bloody revolution may await.

Watch a slideshow of 36 photos, from The Atlantic, February 13, 2012, “Athens in Flames.”

Now, if anyone is still with me, here are four videos highlighting the situation in Greece. Despite the fact that I have used some shady sources for two of the videos here (such as the video referenced above from Press TV, and the last video from Russia Today), I believe they all speak the truth, in more or less strident tones. AlJazeera (source for the second video, below), is actually fairly reliable. Pay special attention to the first one featuring British Labour MP Mr. Farage:

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