Papandreou playing a very dangerous game

THERE are very few certainties in life — death and taxes being the two most talked about.

However, a third certainty has to be that a politician, when having to take hard decisions, will always look to himself, to his own vote and to the impact for his party, with anything else being simply chance.

So, in retrospect, it is no surprise that the Greek premier George Papandreou pulled the proverbial rabbit out of his hat when he announced that he intended to hold a referendum and ask the Greek people to agree with the package of measures to save the Greek economy that he agreed only the previous week with the rest of his EU partners, the ECB and a coterie of banks — all of whom were to take the hit of Greek profligacy.