Even if you don't own a holiday home in Europe, I suggest you take a long, hard look at what's happening in Greece. Athens's latest wheeze to fill the gaping hole in its public finances is to levy a tax of up to 20 per cent on people who have had extensions built on their holiday villas. And it is hardly a coincidence that the foreigners most likely to suffer – aside from the British – will be the Germans.
Of all the European nations, it is Germany that has been by far the most resistant to bailing out the continent's perennial profligates. Despite the insistence of EU officials that they have finally clinched a deal to "rescue" Greece, the bail-out is still stuck in what Hollywood producers call "development hell": the documents are not signed, the money is not yet delivered, and there are even fears that the whole plan may be struck down by the German courts as unconstitutional.
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