Alexi, tell the Brits to learn from Yani

Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief "Brexit" negotiator, visited Athens last Friday to give the government an update on progress. This can't have taken him very long - the divergences in the positions of the United Kingdom and the EU-27 remain wide.

We can only hope Barnier used his time more wisely and implored Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to press upon his British counterpart Theresa May and her colleagues to learn the lessons of Greece's mistakes in early 2015.

For the parallels between how his government approached negotiations with the European Union then and how London has faced up to Brussels since the Brexit referendum in 2016 are close and disturbing. As Mark Twain is reported to have said, "History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes."

Consider the phraseology: "Believe me, they will back down"; this will be "the easiest deal...