I was also surprised that ordinary Greeks had heard enough of David Cameron to hope that he would take the lead in busting this German racket, by reversing the onward rush to fiscal federation that seems to be the Giscard-Schmidt way of dealing with the crisis. In that I fear they will be further disappointed. 

Giscard and Schmidt fear a regression to "selfish national interests", apparently unaware that it is precisely the appearance of a latter-day bavarocracy that is outraging a people whose ancestors gave the world democracy. Meanwhile, German tourists crack jokes about paying for the railway connecting Athens to its new airport, not realising that it might be they, rather than the Greeks, who are Europe's problem.