I can't think of a more gripping political drama than that of the EU/IMF/ECB/Greece Grexit discussions over the past few months. In fact, if anyone had pitched the scenarios we have witnessed to the programme commissioners of the world's media companies they would likely have been laughed out of their plush offices. However, for the political elites orchestrating the centrifugal forces of the EU who like to keep everything behind closed doors, these scenarios have been discomforting. As things have escalated with the anti-establishment Greek Syriza party and its leader Alexis Tsipras they have had to reveal more and more of their natural modus operandi for achieving the goals of the 'European project', Namely, bribery, coercion and bullying.
At first, I was drawn in by Mr Tsipras, a leader who seemed to be standing up to the mind numbing economic orthodoxy of the European Union and who was actually sticking to the platform he was elected upon. He seemed determined to face down the European elites who wanted to inflict even more austerity on an economy which has already shrunk by 30%. But how things have drastically changed in the last week, Mr Tsipras' image as an 'anti austerity hero' has been shattered as we witness him on his knees like every other Greek leader before him, accepting the toughest sanctions in the toughest bailout package we've ever seen in the Eurozone.
Monday's deal saw the EuroGroup of EU Finance Ministers come with a plan worse than all before it. They basically demanded that the European Union should run, directly, the Greek economy, thus overturning the democratically elected government of a sovereign state. Turning Greece into a mere satrapy of the technocrats in Brussels. Now, if they think they've seen the Greek people express themselves, just wait till they see the protests and chaos once the Greek people actually understand what they have to face in order to remain within the Eurozone. It won't be pretty.
Who could blame the Greeks for protesting? I for one would wholeheartedly support protests on the streets of Athens tonight when just over a week ago the people voted OKI to a shoddy bailout deal. And now they've got an even worse one! With a debt to GDP ratio rising from 100% to 179% and 10,000 suicides since 2008, Greece is in a bad way and continuing down the same path just won't work. This time, we thought Mr Tsipras would be a brave leader to shock all and say no to this deluded plan. After all, the financial situation he finds himself in was caused by both the EU and aided by former supplicant leaders of Greece. Perhaps we thought that this time we might see a strong leader with conviction that would be prepared to take Greece out of the Eurozone if needed. How wrong we were.
In fact, to give them credit, in the negotiations over the weekend the Germans gave Greece a way out - a so-called 'Time Out Grexit'. Where for five years the Greeks could sort out their own economy (and my goodness it needs sorting) outside of the Eurozone. Taking decisions and responsibility as a sovereign nation. But no, Tsipras followed in the footsteps of Greek leaders before him like George Papandreou who didn't last long enough to even hold his proposed referendum before the EU overthrew him to put in place their own bureaucrat who would nod his head along to whatever tune the EU played.
So we must ask ourselves are there any leaders left in Europe that won't deceive its electorate and, who like Mr Tsipras, buckle under that pressure to conform to rules that are just not suited to their nation's economies? Will the British people be bold enough to vote for Brexit from the EU when these EU forces turn their attention to us? Or are we all destined to be sucked into the emerging EU superstate?