When Germany - sorry the EU - 'gave' Greece €billions in 'free' money so they could all buy BMWs on the never never, they knew that Greeks retire at age 51, work a four-hour day with two hours for lunch and hadn't a hope of paying back the money.
And also that Greece had never met the Maastricht criteria on debt and public finances for joining the EU. Never. Not once.
And they were right. Greece effectively defaulted in 2010. It could not pay back the largess provided by German banks - sorry the EU. So what did they do? They gave Greece more money to piss up the wall but they used most of this new money to bail out the banks that were exposed to Greek debt.
So instead of trying to solve the problem, the EU made Greece even more dependent on the Troika whilst taking back the initial 'loan', and stacking up even more debt on Greece. It (Greece) now has not the remotest hope of paying back what it owes and it will default in the coming months.
It has effectively been lured in to this position and is now almost entirely dependent on the EU for its existence. By which I mean paying its police, it's civil service, its healthcare and education systems.
Very similar practises have been enacted in Eire, Portugal, Spain and Italy who are now also highly dependent on the EU for their existence.
Effectively these countries started with the rich desert, Brandies and cigars of EU membership without having to eat and digest the savoury courses. The EU created a 'boom' in their economies which was based not on their economic performance or their reality, but on 'free' money from the EU in order to suck them in to EU dependency. The 'Celtic Tiger' economy of Ireland, founded on ridiculously inflated property prices was underpinned by the money and myth of the EU community.
And now these countries are entirely dependent on the EU. Staying 'in' for them is not at issue. Because they cannot stand on their own two feet outside the Eurozone. And meanwhile their people suffer the consequences. Unemployment amongst young people in southern Europe is now above 50%.
And they cannot devalue their currencies in order to make themselves more competitive on the world stage because they are now tied into the Euro. There is no prospect of a solution. And German companies - having enjoyed an exchange rate advantage because they have been tied into the Eurozone rather than trading on the real strength of the Deutschmark - are buying up companies in southern Europe at an unprecedented rate.
It is essentially an economic take-over of Europe. By Germany. They couldn't do it by force even though they tried to do so twice in the last century. But they are now doing it via financial mechanisms and with the EU as a smokescreen as described above.
And it's not all about southern Europe. France too has become almost entirely dependent on the EU. Its economy is a basket case and one of the main reasons why France became an architect of the original EEC project was so that it could spread the cost of maintaining it's feudal, subsistence-based agricultural system amongst other countries. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is still, to this day 47% of the EU budget.
And whilst the CAP does make efficient agri-businesses in Germany (and the UK) very rich indeed, it is really about keeping France's rural economy subsidised in a way which it couldn't possibly afford to do on its own.
The UK has a chance of standing up to this EU tyranny by virtue of the fact that we have remained economically strong and independent in relative terms. We can still control our own destiny because we didn't join the Eurozone. Because we have kept our own currency and because we are relatively independent-minded compared to the rest of Europe who just want a quick buck and don't really care how it happens or what the long-term consequences might be.
Essentially we have retained our strength because we are competitive as a nation. We like being able to stand on our own two feet and we are (rightly) suspicious of the offer of a free lunch.
I lambasted the UK political parties during the election campaign when they were offering 'jam today' - a penny off a pint etc - because it was a cynical approach. I think we rejected that as a concept, but it will no doubt be resurrected at future elections.
The difference is that most of the rest of Europe falls for this bullshit every time. Not the Swiss. Not the Scandinavians generally speaking because they are more 'grown up' than the rest of Europe and actually understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
The thing is that if the EU succeeds in creating a single federal Europe it will effectively be Germany. From the Baltic to the Med. In the very long term that might actually be a good thing in terms of efficiency, standards of living work ethic etc. But that will take generations, probably centuries.
And along the way people will suffer massively. And we'll lose what makes Europe a great place - diversity, culture, local cuisine, idiosyncrasies.
We'll all become a single Teutonic state. It'll be like America, but cleaner and much less interesting. Much less fun. Every junction of major EU roads will have a gas station, a nail bar, a crap fast-food restaurant, a self-storage facility and a local 'Mall' where one can buy GAP clothing so that fat people can look OK. And everyone working in these places will eat and shop there and we'll all become automatons and 'epsilon semi morons'. We're close to that now.
It'll be a fucking disaster.
The coming referendum is probably the last chance we have to save Europe. It's not really about what's good for the UK but about what's good for the future of Europe and its people. The threat we faced in 1938 - a German take-over of Europe - is here again now. It's real and the consequences of a single Federal EU state - essentially 'Germany' - is at our doorstep. Again.
It's a bit more civilised this time but millions in Europe are suffering nonetheless. Not being slaughtered this time, but being reduced to living without purpose and without hope. Which is probably the same thing in the end.
We have the chance at this coming referendum to once more rescue Europe from tyranny. If we vote to leave, the EU fails. It doesn't 'soldier on' it fails.
We need to make sure that this happens not for our parochial selfish reasons, but for the people of Europe. Who are being subjugated into being German by this EU project.
If we squander this chance we will not be judged kindly by history. Except we will, because Germany will be writing the history.
We need to leave the EU not just for ourselves but for the whole of Europe. The real people not the governing classes. The coming referendum may be our - and their - last chance.
Thanks for reading.
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