Time and money are running out for disobedient Greece

The country has behaved fecklessly since it joined the European Union, which is finally content to let it leave, says John Lloyd

THERE is no excuse for Greece. Since it joined the European Union in 1981, successive governments of left and right have treated the EU like a witless sugar daddy. They trusted their fellow members to be so hopelessly infatuated with this sun-drenched cradle of democracy that the wallet would always be open, the numerous peccadilloes would always be winked at, and the answer would always be yes.

The civil service was packed with political clients, newspapers with tiny circulations were kept going through state advertising — as long as they supported the government in power — and workers in the public sector could retire at 50 on reasonably good pensions, sometimes even earlier.