Well, whoever wrote this rubbish certainly isn’t living in Hungary. I wonder whether they are in fact living on the same planet as the rest of us! Or maybe they are just scraping the barrel. I’d like to know what private saving they think ordinary Hungarians have to offset this.

The political consequences are likely to be amazing. At present the current government has around 20% popular support; this is before any of its austerity measures have taken effect. The major opposition party has something over 60% in the polls. One wonders whether the effect of all of this will be to make Hungary the first country in the history of democracy to elect a one party parliament! Whether that happens – and I’m exaggerating a bit for effect, thinking about the current state of public opinion I think the government that comes after this one will have very little alternative but to tell the IMF to get lost, even if that means outright Hungarian default.