It’s time to make a few commonsense observations about the crisis in Greece as the referendum nears. To begin with, the opposing sides – EU vs Greek government – are largely negotiating with threats rather than incentives. Anyway incentives, at this stage, would merely denote an easing of the threats for no-one has envisaged a gleaming horizon of hope. No one seems to have the slightest notion that this crisis won’t recur, that instead Greece will resurrect and transform into a new reality. I say this without prejudice against either side in the face-off. A transformed Greece would presuppose a thorough political and bureaucratic housecleaning which the populist new government of Alexis Tsipras is hardly offering. He finds the fault elsewhere than within Greece. He finds it among the creditors.