now she has publically said she does not trust the US and the UK

KG: Unbelievable post. NO words.

I am surprised that the G7 actually consists of the leaders of the 7 leading world economie AND no less than 2 of the Presidents of the EU - currently Juncker and Tusk. As Germany, UK, France and Italy are members of the G7 because of their economic status, I see no reason for the EU to have extra representation at the table. It just gives these individuals more belief in their self-importance on the world stage and skews the balance towards Germany which pulls the strings in Europe.

I feel that Germany has a great deal to answer for (and I'm not referring to starting two World Wars, introducing chemical warfare to the world, starting the indiscriminate bombing of civilian cities in order to demoralise citizens and industrialising ethnic cleansing into a fine art). Those things have quite rightly been put behind us, although forgiving but never forgetting.

die6,

I feel that Germany has a great deal to answer for (and I'm not referring to starting two World Wars, introducing chemical warfare to the world, starting the indiscriminate bombing of civilian cities in order to demoralise citizens and industrialising ethnic cleansing into a fine art). Those things have quite rightly been put behind us, although forgiving but never forgetting.

Germany is now a powerhouse and clearly the strongest economy in Europe. Why? Wasn't Germany economically bankrupt at the end of the war with most of its industry destroyed? Did they single handedly pull themselves out of the mess which they had created through extra hard work? Well, not exactly, Germany was a major beneficiary of US aid under the Marshall Plan (the same US which Merkel says is now an unreliable partner). More importantly, however, it was also forgiven it's debts by the rest of Europe in 1953 despite having stripped assets from those very countries during the war. Would we then not reasonably expect that a country which has been shown such magnanimity would reciprocate to poorer nations accordingly - especially from its rich abundance?

Greece was one of the countries which suffered most severely under German occupation - an already poor country stripped of all livestock, infrastructure and assets and no less than 8% of its population of 7 million killed (ten times the death rate of the UK during the war). During the last 20 years, German banks have been lending Greek citizens huge loans based on a false premise of their house and property values as members of the great EU experiment. These loans were given in order to buy what? Mercedes, BMWs, Bosch appliances etc. When the inevitable happened and those citizen's couldn't repay the substantial debts to German banks, what did Germany (and France) dream up? In order to save their commercial banks (which should have been allowed to collapse), the loans were transferred as Sovereign debt to the government of Greece which never was and is still not in a position to repay. No debt forgiveness, no thought of reciprocal magnanimity - just austerity and more austerity leading to 23% unemployment and 48% youth unemployment. Greece is now a country with crippling debts, extremely high unemployment and no hope for the foreseeable future.

What value to Greece was/is membership of the great EU experiment when treated like that by its great 'partner'?

As I started off saying - Germany has a lot to answer for.