But now, the sovereign state itself has been superceded by the less visible financial powers that reach into every corner of the globe. This is far more dangerous. We don't even know who is calling the tune, but we have to dance.

What happens to our politicians when they come into power? Are they hooked up to some huge machine that sucks out their brains and replaces them with traitorous, servile morons?

If I loaned my feckless, jobless brother $1000, knowing with some degree of certainty that he would be unable to pay me back, could I go to his responsible neighbours and friends and demand that they repay his debts to me (plus interest)?

They would laugh at me, call me a madman and rightly run me off their property. And yet that is what the Irish people are being asked to do by the moron servants of the all-powerful, and darkly opaque, financial powers that sucked out our politicians brains.

NEWSFLASH – LENDERS HAVE RESPONSIBILITIES TOO.

This all sounds like a grotesque fairytale with an unhappy ever after ending. Well, the Brother's Grim are alive and well and playing the fiddle in Dublin tonight. Sadly it's not in O'Donohue's Pub, where they'd be ran from the premises by the locals, but in Merrion St. where our leaders tug their forelocks to them.

Great work Golem, thank you.

That's about the only non-tragic comment I can make. Seeing what comes next, as Ireland is pushed to the brink, can either set a precedent (we will crush & enslave you, & you, & you) or set other debtor nations scrambling for more creative solutions. Not sure where the political will would come from for the latter. We need a Euro country to be having elections soon so an anti-austerity party can attempt a takeover & stand up to the bullies.

Fat chance.