A Greek tragedy - It’s time to take off the gloves

GREEK workers went on strike yesterday and brought the country’s transport system to a standstill over the government’s decision to intensify its austerity drive.

That government is trying to secure even more international aid — €8 billion this time — and save the debt-laden country from bankruptcy for another month or so and avert the social chaos that would ensue.

So spectacular are the cuts that it is hard not to have considerable sympathy for the workers even if we — most of us anyway — have had to accept a bruising fall in our own living and service standards.