Greece – Madness upon madness – you could not make it up

I am grateful to a blog reader Chris who sends me a link to a website that I do not normally visit. Fear not, I do not refer to anything naughty but Autosport.com – for some reason I have never really been into fast cars. Indeed I find the whole F1 circus a bit of an ego-fuelled bore. But this report is just unbelievable. I start with the premise that Greece is bust, double bust and utterly broke. And so I am surprised to read:

“Greece has unblocked nearly 30 million euros for the construction of a circuit capable of hosting a Formula 1 grand prix. According to the ministry of development, the circuit will be built in Xalandritsa, near Patras, Greece’s third largest urban area in the hope the country can host a Formula 1 event in the future.

Greece, which hosts a round of the World Rally Championship, has never had a Formula 1 driver.”

So let’s get this right, the Government is ponying up a third of the cost of building a racetrack, subsidising the private sector so that Greece might just get a F1 race. Not even Ed Balls would be that bonkers. Well okay he might be.

Greece is spending money borrowed from taxpayers in other European countries when it cannot even afford to service its existing debts on this folly. Given how most of the Stadia from the Athens Olympics now lie in ruins you might have thought that the Greeks would have learned a lesson or two. But it seems not. I sense that any sympathy one might have had for Greece disappears with this news.