Will Cyprus pay the price to save banks?

This weekend, as we relax between two bank holiday weekends, maybe we should for a fleeting moment — anything longer would be too frightening — imagine ourselves Cypriot.

We might try to imagine what we could do if our entire banking system was tottering on the brink of collapse and the only way we could save it would be to allow — though that word probably infers too much power, tolerate might be better — a raid on our hard-won, after-tax bank deposits.

We might try to imagine how we would sleep if the prospect of losing all of our personal or business capital, if our Government could not pay employees, pensioners or social welfare dependents, was as real as it is in Nicosia this morning if a bailout deal is not agreed.