What's happening is not reduction in Government spending. It's reductions everywhere. They haven't just been firing civil servants that were doing a bad job (or

What's happening is not reduction in Government spending. It's reductions everywhere. They haven't just been firing civil servants that were doing a bad job (or no job at all), they have been cutting budgets of hospitals, they have been shutting down schools, they have been reducing health insurance coverage, etc etc. And that's where the current party came in and said "Okay, we HAVE TO make reforms because we have been spending wrongly, among other things, BUT we can't do whatever just so numbers look right - it has to make sense, both for the country to continue existing and for the creditors to see that they have a longterm trustworthy partner on the other side of the table." As for your last question, two things: a) Why does an EU-member country have to spend on military AT ALL? Shouldn't such costs be executed at a EU-wide level? b) Greece is neighbourhooding with Albania, FYROM, Bulgaria, Turkey. UK is surrounded by...the sea, Ireland and...France.