Syriza is asking Greece’s voters to endorse its own failure | Daniel Howden

The Greek government's success was built on the lie that it could avert austerity - in the upcoming referendum, it seeks to evade all responsibility

There is a punchy but elegant Greek phrase that summarises the moment when delusion and deception are exposed: telos pia ta psemmata, the end of lies. You might have thought that point would have arrived on Sunday when it was announced that banks would not be opening the next morning. It did not. It will not arrive with the queues for petrol; or when Greek merchants refuse card payments; or even when supermarkets begin to run out of imported basics.

As I drove through the streets of Athens watching worried lines form at every cashpoint, radio bulletins were interrupted by commercial breaks offering cheerful suggestions on how to spend your summer euros. It felt like listening to a voicemail message from a dead relative.

Bankruptcy, rupture and isolation will be welcomed with unfathomably foolish pride

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