Greece: The current crisis goes from bad to worse

It is the 1st of May, Labour Day, and news teams around the world are showing live coberage of riots in Athens, Greece.

As their financial crisis takes hold it has left governments around the world reeling. Who knows which country could find itself in such circumstances yet. The writing seems to be on the wall for Portugal and many pundits believe the UK could be not far behind.

How all of these countries got into such a mess is complex.

• A mixture of global economic problems.
• The failure of the banking system.
• Countries borrowing money that they will find it hard if not impossible to repay

And so much more.

At time of going to press it was only about 10.30 on this fine Saturday morning, the first in May 2010.

Live news coverage has a group of young people gathering in the streets of Athens. Facing them is a line of Greek police in riot gear. Currently the protesters seem to badly outnumber the police attending. Perhaps the police hoped to keep a low profile and that this protest would fizzle out.

If the is the case it would seem that they were sadly very wrong.

The protesters have already surged the police more than once. As the scene worsens the young people have also gone from throwing paint bombs to petrol bombs. Whether this was planned or part of the demonstration or simply a small element that is rent a mob, who knows. Anarchists around the globe must be rubbing their hands in glee at the mess that mainstream politicians have made.

It is obvious though that, as our mothers would tell all of this, will end in tears.

Watching the coverage brought back vivid memories of the Grosvenor Square demonstration in London back in the sixties. As a 16 year old back then I watched that footage with different feelings to those of today when I am so much older.

Of course the sixties was a time of hope and change, or so we thought. Demonstrations by the young of the day were evident throughout the western world. Perhaps our lack of political activity these days has been due to the financial good times, relatively speaking, that most of us have enjoyed.

With that looking set to change dramatically this may soon alter.

The young of the day are usually the ones prepared to do battle for what they few as the injustices of the world. They are sometimes joined by people form other generations but that depends upon the battle in hand.

It is sad to see Athens and the Greek people rocked by such trouble.

Politicians in other countries I guess need to take note. Such unrest could be on the doorstep of any government given similar circumstances

After the general election in UK on Thursday 6th May 2010 whichever party gets elected will have to make public service cuts. Where the axe will fall depends upon who is elected but trust me it will fall no matter who is in power. It will have to.

With less than four years till I retire I feel less settled than I had hoped. I hoped to retire in less than two years but already this has changed. If our government does not get it right Hubby and I could either have to work forever or live in poverty. Never prospect is appealing.

Young people may find that work is impossible to find, the divide between the haves and the have nots could widen even further, welfare and medical care could become underfunded and youngpeople could end up with a second class education.

There are so many other potential problems.

Cuts will have to be made but Draconian measures will not be lightly accepted.

Especially not when the rich carry on getting richer and the poor poorer.

 As the day progressed demonstrations were reported in other European countries. Portugal, Germany and Spain all saw protesters on their streets. With the economic downturn threatening jobs and people's livelihoods the Summer of 2010 looks set to be a fragile one.