Many of us are half-aware that such figures - these almost pantomime like caricatures of sloth and wretchedness - exist as a tiny minority, but the need to find a visible and sinister repository in which to place our fears is both seductive and satisfying

Brussels have decided the unravelling of the Euro and the wider European Project is unthinkable; in order to save the post-World War II consensus, principles and agreements are now void. The euro must be saved at all costs. Merkel has resigned to accepting the end will justify the means; a banking and political union must occur, regardless of the path of misery that awaits the periphery.

As I write, an MoD plane carrying one million Euros is being airlifted to Cyprus for UK military personnel. It must be a new and very literal definition of 'helicopter money'. And that's the problem. As long as policymakers continue to opt for radically different solutions in every case - then fear and loathing will never be far away from markets and now, once again, from savers.

What happens when the mood of a whole nation can be characterised by hopelessness and despair? In Greece, where people have been on the receiving end of severe austerity measures and lived through six years of recession, it's a question that politics, as we know it, seems incapable of addressing.

Whilst those harmed by Greece's actions must have some channel of recompense, by refusing to accept a denizen's right to determine their own governance the European community are engaging in a form of authoritarian economic imperialism.

As concerns rise over the eurozone fiscal treaty, Stefan Kaszubowski and Peter Kellner consider the results from YouGov's latest poll of 68 finance professionals including Hedge Fund Managers, Investment Bank Traders, Analysts, Investment Bankers and Investment Fund Managers.

Eurozone ministers are meeting in Brussels to try and agree a second bailout deal for Greece, as the troubled country teeters on the brink of bankrupt...

The government has announced a £1.5bn bailout for NHS trusts suffering serious financial problems. Seven hospital trusts have been identified as t...

So now Papandreou is stuck between accepting the crippling demands of the EU and IMF in order to guarantee the bailout - losing his political career in the process; or refuse the demands and risk economic pressure that would force Greece to utilise Article 50.

In the last week there have been a number of news stories circulating that have once again cast an utterly predictable and equally depressing light on the realities of the current state of play between our government, financial institutions and big businesses who operate on British shores.