Greek test

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally had enough and let it be known she will let Greece, the most intractable of the Club Med banana republics, leave the euro.

The bailout funds are in place; the banks that lent money to Greece have been repaid and are stronger than in 2010; and the EU has a large fund in place to support other states.

The past six years have seen a deeper depression in Greece than 1929 to 1935, with its output down 25 per cent and a quarter of all Greeks – and half of its youth – unemployed.

It is difficult to see how things could be worse, and with a slimmed-down bureaucracy plus other improved fundamentals, at least a default and devaluation would offer a fresh start.

Euro-austerity has resulted in improved tax collection so that, if debt repayments were removed, the budget would be in balance. In fact, the europhiles’ real fear is that it will leave and prosper 
because a competitive Greek economy, exporting its way back to growth, may tempt Spain and Italy to follow.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews

Dr John Cameron (Letters, 26 January) is seriously misguided and being grossly unfair describing Gordon Brown as “infamously incompetent”.

What selective memories we have when making assessments of a politician’s contribution to anticipating and solving difficult issues.

Doesn’t the current crisis in Greece and the eurozone over the euro jog Dr Cameron’s memory? It isn’t hyperbole to say Gordon Brown almost singlehandedly kept the UK from adopting the euro.

If Greece had applied Gordon Brown’s “five tests”, the Greek people wouldn’t be in the eurozone.

He knows if you want to get your politics right you have got to get the economics right.

Arguably, it is this methodology eurozone leaders and advisers should embrace and follow to solve political problems.

Ellis Thorpe

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie