zenon

A vote for no is surely the only way to vote. The fact is that the austerity of the last few years has been too severe and has choked the economy and the ordinary people are suffering and all to make sure the western banks do not lose out and get their money At least this government has fought back at the ridiculous demands that have been made regarding repayments. The previous governments agreed to every demand that was made. Of course there is bad business practice and cronyism and this has to be addressed but first the debt needs to be addressed by extending the repayment period it makes it more manageable it has been done before ironically for the benefit of the Germans. Britain only finished paying her debts to the Americans, incurred from the Second World War, a couple of years ago. Imagine if the U.S. Had demanded payment over a much shorter period. At least this government have have argued back fought their corner and emphasised that the current arrangement has not worked

You have shown that the only worthless person in this debate is you with your continuous abuse and downright people like you disgust me. You are incapable of any kind of reasoned debate. All you do is constantly abuse hiding behind your keyboard you silly child. Why don't you go and tell some of these "worthless" people what you think of them to their faces.

It is not a cop out. They won on a mandate to reduce austerity. They then entered the 'negotiations' which turned out to be nothing more then the euro group dictating what Greece must do. Faced with that he goes back to the people any says they refuse to agree to reducing the austerity they want to continue with this financial small minded and pigheaded cruelty do you want me to agree to more of this same crap or shall we together tell them where to go. He is reinforcing the countries views and in a way strengthening his hand. I'm not left wing by inclination but syriza and Tsipras is a w Come change to the usual two dynasties with their cronies who have ruled Greece badly for decades.

Tsipras had a mandate from the people to challenge the austerity measures implemented by the troika etc and meekly accepted by the previous governments in Greece. The fact is the measures were too severe and were strangling the country creating a great deal of poverty and suffering to mostly the sections of the population who did not cause the problem in the first place. Take away all the financial buzz words and other financial jargon and a trained monkey can see that pruning a tree too much kills it or at the very least makes it grow very slowly. The measures forced upon Greece are too severe and killing the patient. I don't think anyone can dispute that the Greek economy and tax collecting needs reforming but this will not be accomplished by destroying the country. It was not Tsipras or syriza who caused this situation it was the previous governments and the people of the middle class upwards who refused to pay their taxes. Tsipras has been negotiating for weeks now and to all intents and purposes has not received anything. He has finally been backed into a corner by the Europeans who have refused to budge so if he accepted the proposals he would have been going against the mandate given to him by the electorate. So he is going back to the people and saying I have not been able to reach an agreement which would reduce austerity so I need to speak with you again, ask your opinion. Don't forget he is in a coalition politics is a tinderbox there at the moment. Social cohesion must be maintained as much as possible. The Europeans want to continue kicking the tin can down the road instead of providing a plan which will allow Greece to grow and therefore better make the financial repayments. The country is not going to pay anything back if all the economy implodes, all the trained and young people go and work in other countries! As for Greeks being liars and crooks etc. they are no worse then anyone else. Unfortunately they are not as good as some in hiding it. Historically and in the present there are many examples of crooked and lying going on around the world. If fact there is so much that I do not think anyone needs to provide examples. We could all draw up a list of our own.

In addition the corruption would have been brushed over if England had been awarded the World Cup instead of Russia. England's got all the infrastructure required to host the World Cup but it's about letting other countries an opportunity all around the world. The OIC was always regarded as corrupt and yet London was awarded the 2012 games. So who was corrupted there? How did Atlanta get the games. The worse games in living memory incidentally. Australia have had the Melbourne Olympics and the Sidney Olympics hardly fair on countries who have never had the opportunity to host them. South Africa hosting the World Cup was a symbolic gesture. The fact that they were not as glitzy as other world cups should not detract from that.

The reality is that this corruption has been going on even before batters reign. It was only noticed or highlighted because of the choice of Qatar, which made no sense on any level. Also what is wrong with Russia hosting it they are more into football then the USA or Australia.

It's a disgrace and the people to blame are the various governments and the unions. What makes it worse is that there was car production in Greece in the past albeit on a small scale. Just imagine the jobs there would have been the tax payers. How can politicians and union barons not see this. It is not rocket science

I think he had three saves to make in the whole games. He misjudged one centre but was quite efficient otherwise. He is keeping a good Spanish keeper out of the first team so the manager must see something in him. There must be a reason he never made it to the better teams though.

You can only play one superpower off against the other from a position of strength. If you are weak and offer nothing but problems then you are disrespected and constantly humiliated. Unfortunately that is the reality for Greece. The economy and investment is the way to resolve this and the only way to do this is to be fully committed to the west. Every country looks after their own interests. Doesn't make them bad. It's just the reality. The world is just an oversized school playground. You have your big talking bullies, the kids that crawl around them and look to them for protection You also have the kids that keep themselves out of all that rubbish and concentrate on school work and improving themselves. They are always respected. They might get picked on occasionally but they deal with it. Greece at the moment is one of the kids crawling around the bullies. It is not nice to see.

It is a game of poker. Neither the EU or Greece hold a winning hand. They all know this. There will be a compromise in the end. The visit to Moscow and the demands for german reparation is all part of the bluffing process. Not sure if it will be successful but it will at the very least provide better terms then the last government agreed too.

I watched Shalke last night because watching Panathinaikos was to painful. Papadopoulos was pure quality. He deserves all the praise he gets. Ninis will be 30 and we will still be waiting for him to become a star.

Samaras is not lazy. He can be inconsistant but that is a totally different thing. The way he runs and moves about makes him look casual. None of these managers have ever allowed him a decent run in the sides he has played in. That doesnt help his development. His goal record speaks for itself. Dont forget he wasnt taking the penalties. Add those to Keanes total and that makes a lot of difference. He isnt the greatest forward I admit but the managers he has played under have all been second rate on the coaching front

Whoever they choose they need to give him at least two years

Maybe Samara is doing so well because he is being picked more often this season. Confidence is a big deal in sport.

I am not even prepered to disagree 100% with your argument about some of these sides. I am saying that you appear convinced that they are better then Greece. I am saying that apart from the top quality sides when you know they have the better players and you can form an opinion without necessarily watching them, the other second tier sides have to convince me that they are better then Greece. I also frequently go to Tottenham home games I dont just watch football on TV not that this should make a difference to my reasoning.