Keep your enemies closer
And we all knew the Greeks would ignore the wishes of the very electorate they asked and do exactly as the banking cartel told them to, didn't we? Now, I'm a peaceful kind of seditionary, but if I took the time and effort to get on a bus, ferry or donkey to travel the forty miles to my nearest polling station to tell Merkel to get stuffed, I'd expect my elected representatives to honour my wishes, Godammit – this is the birthplace of democracy after all, but no, the Party machine triumphed and Greeks will now have to make do on €300 a month pension whilst paying 23% VAT on a coffee priced the same as in a trendy Eurocafe in downtown Berlin or Brussels. Because equality and solidarity.
I'm done now with Greece. Not the Greeks, but Greece – a cowardly left wing government devoted to spending money it doesn't have and enslaving the next generation into the tentacles of the IMF. Greece couldn't even default as the 40 tons of gold it still has isn't enough to base a new currency on and foreign reserves remain stuffed under the mattresses of taverna owners desperate to stay afloat. It won't last, it isn't a solution and sure as eggs, we'll all be back discussing a 4th bailout in the autumn as the cold hard fact that each and every Greek now owes the EU in excess of €27K. A solemn warning to us all that the EU really is Hotel California and no one can leave, despite the protestations of us mere citizens who end up paying for everything.
On the other hand, this week saw the beginnings of a new relationship with Iran. Now I know I'm not going to be popular when I say that this is the best thing that has happened in the Middle East for a decade but let me explain.
Iranians are not Arabs, they are Persians. They have a long and glorious history in knowledge, science, poetry and art. They also haven't started
a war with anyone for hundreds of years (the last one was when the West backed that stable dictator Saddam to invade them – that ended well, didn't it?) and yes, I appreciate they had an Islamic revolution after the CIA installed the brutal Shah but if we need a friend to tackle ISIS or the Wahabi Saudi regime, it makes perfect sense to start treating the Iranians like potential allies instead of pariahs. It won't be long before the house of Saud has a nuclear weapon and Iran could be the perfect bringer of much needed stability in the region. They detest ISIS and the Saudis and as long as they can resist turning Israel into a pile of dust, we could see a little mutually assured peace for a change. With the removal of sanctions, no one will flock to buy our decadent way of life more than the Iranians, where once mini skirts and flared trousers were de rigour. I welcome a new player in the region, one that isn't totally ensconced in millennia old tribal rivalries and has an academic seat of wisdom to fall back on before nuclear red buttons get pushed.
As an indication of how fast things might move in the right direction, McDonalds is already offering franchises in Iran and bank accounts are becoming unfrozen. If we can just nudge them gently towards fun and freedom and away from sharia law, we'll have stuck a valuable wedge between the warring factions and can start dragging at least a large part of the region out of the 7th century. More to the point – if we don't, Putin will. The West might have Saudi and Israel as unruly, petulant, autistic children in their crèche but Russia plays a long game and is quite happy to sit back and wait – and let's face it, that's what Russia does best.
As the expression goes in Moscow, keep your friends close and your enemies closer – ask a Ukrainian (quick, before they join the EU as debt slaves).