Greece
The EU has treated Greece outrageously
Yannis Palaiologos invited me to speak at the launch of his excellent new book, The Thirteenth Labour of Hercules: Inside the Greek Crisis, at LSE. I spoke about how EU institutions have locked Greece in a debtor’s prison and imposed unnecessary misery in outrageous ways. My intervention starts around the 42nd minute and lasts 9 minutes.
Interviewed in To Vima
I was interviewed by Panagiotis Vlachos in Greek magazine To Vima ahead of the Athens launch of European Spring. 
«Οι Έλληνες έχετε πέσει θύματα εκφοβισμού και εκβιασμού»
I was interviewed by Stefania Kasimi for Real News. The interview is reprinted in Greek here and in English here.
Greeks and Irish are emigrating again. Might Brits do so too?
Once-poor countries such as Greece and Ireland were long countries of emigration. Then came the long economic boom, and they became countries of immigration – spectacularly so in Ireland’s case. But now boom has turned to bust, and people are increasingly emigrating again, as a recent BBC documentary highlighted.
As Emmet Oliver pointed out in Ireland’s Independent, emigration has long been a safety valve for Ireland’s economy.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said [on 12 April] that 100,000 people would leave Ireland this year and next, keeping a lid on already high unemployment and helping to relieve some of the budgetary pressures on the Government.
It is desperately sad that Ireland’s economy is in such a mess. Thanks to the EU, though, Irish people who cannot find jobs at home are free to look for them elsewhere in Europe.
That is a huge benefit – and one that many British people may also come to appreciate.
Britain too has long been a country of emigration, as well as immigration: not just to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, but also to Spanish beach resorts or building sites in the Gulf.
If unemployment remains high and economic prospects do not improve, many more may seek work abroad.