Greece

Alexis Tsipras may be one of the few PMs in Europe who knows what he's doing and he is under far more pressure than most. Contemptible little creatures like Junker are blowing their top (and revealing their terror of the consequences of Grexit despite all the ballyhoo about ring fencing, which fools nobody) but Tsipras appears to be a remarkably calm character. He clearly has a Plan A and a Plan B.

I don't know if Grexit is Plan A or B but assuming the referendum goes ahead and is carried he will be able to keep Greece in the euro, if that is Plan A. If the vote is "no" he can pull Greece out of the euro. Syriza is very like Sinn Fein in that it is not prepared to compromise, which is why he can't do a deal with the troika or pull Greece out of the euro without a referendum. Syriza can, however, be outflanked and would be by a "yes" vote. A "no" vote would be even better and would silence the idiots in his party who won't let Tsipras do a deal but want to stay in the euro.

I suspect Tsipras has been working since his election to force a situation where if Syriza and the Greek people really want to stay in the euro the changes that they are going to have to make to their economy and society will require a referendum. The Greek Government will have to bring in experts wholesale from Germany and the like to restructure their public administration. Changing Greek culture will be much more difficult. Tsipras and his colleagues will have to focus on that. Tsipras must know that changing Greek society isn't on, which is one of the many reasons, I suspect, he privately favours Grexit.

Tsipras must be appalled having to deal with tenth raters like Junker and Kenny. It is fascinating to listen to them berating a PM who is attempting to pursue his country's national interests. They expected him to behave the way most EU PMs behave nowadays - they put the "project" before their national interests and responsibilities.

In addition to the collapse of leadership at PM level in the EU, there is the added problem of the decline of political parties. The reason political parties, particularly those of the "left" (as opposed to the left) like SF and Syriza, won't compromise is that modern government is driven largely by globalization. PMs have bought into that and political parties have too but they have to find a way to justify their continued existence. To do that, they have to give the appearance of fighting the good fight and to avoid been outflanked by other groupings, who likewise have little or no integrity and no wish to achieve anything in government. We have seen that sort of behaviour here with bin charges, the property tax and now water charges. All are reasonable elements of what will eventually be a new rates system or a local income tax system. Bin charges and the property tax have settled down (though only after Revenue was given the power to take the money out of people's bank accounts) and water charges will to, and for the same reason. The various "anti" campaigns have been useful for the parties of the "left" in keeping their votes up but have achieved nothing and are not consistent with what left wing parties believe anyway.

Labour remains the only party of the left here but they have (perhaps) permanently dirtied their bib by going into government with FG. In Greece, the Socialists are utterly compromised by cronyism and corruption. Hence, the arrival of the headbangers, here and there.