Bit of a game of two halves tonight sports fans. First Half: unnoticed dimensions of Greek contagion. Second Half: unimaginable dimensions of the Universe. I hope to show that the second has perspectives for the first.

The one truly laughable thing about these “discussions” between Troika2 on the one hand, and Syriza on the other, is the repeated mantra about “we can handle Grexit” from the Brussels-Frankfurt-Berlin axis of fantasy. They can’t handle a Grexit (with or without default) because:

1. It’s not about default, it’s about revolutionary contagion in ClubMed

2. Beyond contagion in ClubMed, it is increasingly about what Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Greece might do in terms of veering towards Putinesque Russia in particular, and the Antidollar in general

3. It is also about the farce of hugely indebted euro nations themselves being asked to contribute to the salvation of a currency they no longer want – and can’t afford

4. Not on the EU radar just yet – but it will emerge during the UK’s elections this year – and French ones not too long afterwards – is the emergence of those Parties who have it in not just for the euro, but also for the direction the EU has taken since it morphed into unelected federalism from having been the European Community prior to emu.

It is this last consideration I’d like to expand upon briefly this evening.

Events in Greece are way past the stage where they might have an indirect effect on Britain’s General Election – an election now just eleven weeks away. The behaviour of Troika2 cannot fail to have a disastrous effect on anti-EU opinion in the UK: with every devious trap laid for Greece – and bullying financial tactic from Draghi’s ECB – more and more British voters are being dragged into the UKip camp.

That’s not good for social democracy in England: but more to the point, additional votes for Nigel Farage can only lead to a Tory Eurosceptic/UKip/SNP/Minorities alliance where the SNP cynically supports British withdrawal from the EU in return for own secession from the UK. In such a political cacophony, the only thing for certain is that Troika2 would find itself fighting a war on five fronts. At such a point, my commonsense belief is that the Germans would hasten back to the Mark.

Similar things apply here in France, where cheap East European labour and Islamic unpopularity are combining to ensure that Marine Le Pen is no longer a fringe politician: she is a Presidential candidate with huge working class support behind her. And lest anyone feel the need to write me off as an Islamophobe, let me make it clear that it was CPAM – the French Health/welfare system – that issued 2014 annualised figures in January showing that Muslim immigrants are 9% of the population, but represent 23% of all social welfare claims.

How one interprets such numbers remains a fully justified subject for intelligent debate. But on the whole, most elections are not characterised by such discussion: more often, it is the kneejerk tabloid reader reaction that wins the day.

So much for Planet Earth nonsense.

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Now let’s turn (if we may) to what I find an endlessly fascinating subject: the BUT (Big Unimaginable Thing) that is our universe.

In recent decades, I think it would be fair to say that we’ve seen an increasingly measurable confluence between ancient inspiration on the one hand, and contemporary science on the other. 3000 year-old assertions that separation is an illusion, all things are connected – and Time is not just relative but can be banished by a focus on Now – have all been to one extent or another borne out by empirical observation suggesting that, in the sub-atomic zone, nothing is “real” in the sense of our superficial understanding of that word.

From all of this it seems to me that – if such observations are correct – then the one simple equation we can rely upon is The Universe = 1. That is to say, if everything is connected and the separation provided by space is a myth, our Universe is 1 (one) thing. It was, after all, Einstein who posited that identical electrons spinning identically at a distance were no coincidence: they were the same electron in two places at once. This was, he suggested, the ultimate proof of spacial separation being an illusion.

As for the ‘thing’ that might allow us to bridge that illusional gap, Einstein remained convinced that it would be solved by discovering some sort of electro-magnetic cord which we cannot see….because our five senses don’t run to that.

Doing so would of course make physical travel around the Universe in space ships a silly dream of yesteryear….but spiritual travel an instantaneous thing: one can only hypothesise that – as in ‘Beam me up Scottie’ – we would travel along the cord in a different state…and hopefully be reinstated at the other end.

But what continues to intrigue me is, if the Universe = 1, then what is it? A leaf, a grain of sand, a baguette or a nail? Who decided to make it go bang? And what happens when the expansion caused by bang stops, and it ever so slowly starts to reverse?

We’ve an amazingly clear, black sky down here tonight. I stare up at it and keep wondering. I’m sure it’s pointless, but that won’t stop me doing it.

All I can say is this: if we continue along the EU line of seeing broken trees in Greece, we will never notice the wood that can be used to repair Greece.

Earlier at The Slog: Sir Edward of the Balls and his cunning new Plan