Europe puts Greece back on the naughty step

Crisis News: Europe grabbed Greek PM Georges Papandreou firmly by the wrist today and plonked him back on the naughty step for being so jolly ungrateful.

“Referendum? REFERENDUM?” Angela Merkel shouted, before getting a hold of herself and remembering that raising one’s voice is ultimately counter-productive. Papandreou, however, continued to look at his feet and mumble about how ‘he just wanted to do what he wanted’ and how Europe getting cross ‘wasn’t fair at all’.

“Honestly,” huffed Merkel, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately. I mean where on earth have you picked up language like that? Have you been hanging round with some of those bigger countries again?”

“Your IMF and I have given you chance after chance – and what do you do? You throw it back in our faces. Now you are going to sit here and think about what you’ve done. You’ve been a very naughty little country.”

“What do you think would happen if we all ran around announcing referendums whenever we wanted?”

Papandreou just shrugged and continued to look at the floor, but as Merkel, Sarkozy and a group of finance ministers were leaving, the Greek leader was heard to say quietly, “It’s my country”.

“What was that?” shrieked Merkel.

“Nothing,” said Greece’s elected leader. “I didn’t say anything.”

Story: Jasper Gibson+Matt Court

Image: Simon Swatman