All across northern Europe, the great moral argument of our straitened times is being fought. Should we book our holidays in Greece now, or should we wait until the end of the week when the country defaults, brings back the drachma and military dictatorship?
Clearly this is a complex subject, so let's try to put to one side whether all this would be a good thing for Greece, and look at how this might impact on your holiday.
Firstly, we must summon up our inner Adam Smith. According to the credit ratings agencies, Greece is a worse economic bet than either Pakistan or Ecuador. Therefore, logically, we should expect the same value for money in Corfu as we get in Lahore. And then some. But as an average family holiday in Greece costs upwards of £3,000 – or four times the average annual wage in Pakistan – it should not be unreasonable to demand that each Cretan apartment now comes with its own laundryman and tea boy. I wish you luck arguing that one with the locals.
It's true, however, that there are bargains to be had, but the crisis has not made it that much cheaper, in fact the price of some basic foodstuffs has been going up – for Greeks at least.
As for the riots – it's unlikely they would affect tourists unless they deliberately head to Syntagma square. The cafes and bars are still open, they just don't have customers.
However, are you likely to be stuck in strike-bound Athens in hellish August heat? The possibility cannot be ruled out, but Greeks, being the people who invented logic, don't usually strike during their own holidays. And Greek tourism is actually not doing as badly as you might think, thanks to all those freedom-loving Europeans, who have shown their solidarity with newly democratic Tunisia and Egypt by staying away from those beaches in their millions.
As a Hellenophile, I beseech you to go. Greece needs you, or more accurately it needs your money – and lots of it, in cash, because, as we now know, it won't be paying tax on most of it.
