'Yes we cheated, but you should have noticed'

Greek PM George Papandreou made quite an astonishing comment over the weekend regarding the charge that Greece had cooked the books in order to gain entry to the euro.

Papandreou insisted, in an interview with El Pais, that letting Greece into the euro was not a mistake, saying, “the Commission was provided with incorrect figures for six years. Indeed, part of the responsibility was on Greece, but the Eurozone also lacked the tools to notice that”.

You must have sympathy for Papandreou - he inherited an impossible situation from his predecessor. And no national leader is going to take accusations of fiddling figures or collective dishonesty lightly but in this case it might have been more sensible for Papandreou to bite his tongue. His reasoning is similar to a benefit fraudster saying ‘yes, I lied to the authorities to get money but it’s your fault because you didn’t discover it”. Neither are Papandreou’s comments likely to go down well in the member states picking up the €110bn bill for the Greek bailout.