Dan Sumption’s Reviews > Syriza in Power: Reflections of an Accidental Politician > Status Update

The European Union has unilaterally declared itself closed to outsiders against international and European law. … The survival of the idea of Europe depends upon the Union's response to the greatest humanitarian crisis since its inception. If Fortress Europe continues, with its violation of international law and basic principles of humanity, the EU does not deserve to survive.

In September 2015, an EU council reluctantly agreed a relocation plan for 160,000 refugees from Italy and Greece. The were to be distributed to the twenty-eight EU states, according to size and population. At the time of writing, only four thousand refugees have been reolcated to the rest of Europe.

"the sale of the port of Piraeus to the Chinese company Cosco ‘had the interesting postmodern twist of a left-wing government in a capitalist society imposing labour standards on a right-wing company from a communist country’"

"I retreated to writing the journal in an attempt first to understand the scene around me and then to uncover the deeper meanings behind the often offensive words exchanged. It soon became clear to me that my professional deformation was turning me into an ethnographer of a strange and powerful tribe."