Greekonomics.

So as we skim majestically between the islands of the golden blue Aegean Sea on our luxury yacht with Joanna Lumley, sipping raki and teeth-tearing meat from a spit-roast lamb, which by the way is also a Welsh custom apparently, I begin to understand the reasons for Greek government debt. Trying to extract income tax over 1,300 islands hundreds of miles away in all directions from a bazuki playing gyros seller will always be an impossible task; it’s not going to happen. The only people the government can reliably tax are its own employees and seeing as the government pays 100% of their salary and can only reclaim say 40% tax back the books are never going to add up. The Greek government will always be in deficit until they manage to build a roof over the Mediterranean and people have to pay for skylight. Even then they’re going to have to chip-and-pin every Greek wallet and make the basic rate 120%. And while I think about it the next time we go on a Thomas Cook holiday I’m going to forget flippers and snorkels and fill the case with camera gear, I’m sure I could pass as Ms Lumley by candlelight. Documentary filming tourism is definitely the way to go. No, taxing Germany, France and the UK is feasible but taxing a tourism economy, especially a Mediterranean one is not. Taxation needs simple geography and a cold climate to work. That’s economics.