As councillor John Tanner has hardly surprisingly of late come in for considerable ridicule, including from me, I shall strive to restrict myself to fact when responding to his letter published on February 23.

He asserts that every European country should be doing more to help the people of Greece, although most – some, such as Spain, even more than us – have quite enough problems of their own, though admittedly not quite of the deplorable magnitude of our Hellenic cousins.

He further states that the country needs grants and more investment but, although no economist, I should have thought it was not an attractive prospect at present.

As for promoting more tourism, send us a postcard, John (sorry!).

Greece – specifically Athens, I presume he means – is not the birthplace of democracy, unless he considers it valid to exclude women and slaves – therefore easily most of the adult population – nor, being right in the south-eastern “corner”, does it belong to the heart of Europe, even metaphorically, for the past millennium or two.

Mr Tanner adds: “Who knows when it will be Britain’s turn for trouble?” Well, most of us do, because this is the current state of affairs, though it could deteriorate somewhat.

An attack on one may well be an attack on all, but who is actually under attack, and from whom?

Does he seriously believe that the Greeks have in no way brought this upon themselves, together with the remainder of the EU and Eurozone?

Finally, Merkel and Sarkozy may not be everyone’s concept of human perfection but protesters’ referring to them as “freaks” (Oxford Mail, February 20, to which he apparently alludes) is not all that conducive to furthering their cause.

DAVID DIMENT, Riverside Court, Oxford