So the big European timebomb ticks down once again, and the battered people of Greece await news of their fate.

Again.

We've seen this many times before over the last five years, but this time it's serious. Really serious. There is a good chance Greece will be forced out of the Euro this weekend, since it is entirely possible that its creditors will reject pretty much any plan its left-wing government puts forward and continue to refuse debt relief. Germany, it seems, has run out of patience, with many of its politicians - though not Frau Merkel - openly hoping that no deal can be done.

No matter which way it goes, however, the endgame that looms is only the end of the beginning - the Greek people are still screwed.

Scenes of families and the elderly queuing up at banks to lift out their allotted €60 a day, of hospitals running out of staff and drugs, have sent a chill through many of us. Particularly those of us who are cheerleaders for the UK staying in the EU.

It's getting harder and harder to defend the great Europe dream I have always fundamentally believed in, the social, cultural and economic ties that bind us, when those with all the power are acting like a band of Dickensian debt collectors.

And it brings up another key question. What effect will these hideous scenes have on voters in the UK who are undecided on how to vote in our own forthcoming EU referendum? It can't be good for the Yes side. You only have to take a look at Nigel Farage's Twitter feed, which is currently basking in the opportunism of righteous EU-bashing. Much as it pains me to say it, I can't argue with the content of many of those tweets.

And, as the severity of the crisis ramps up day by day, David Cameron's efforts to reform the EU - which are less to do with fiscal responsibility and more to do with immigration - unsurprisingly slip further and further down the agenda. The Euro-sceptic element of his party are rubbing their hands together with glee, as failure to reform makes a Brexit easier to sell.

Also, you can't help but think that if Greek prime minister Alex Tsipras blinks, if he is seen to sign his country up to endless years of austerity and pain, this will be viewed by the people who gave him power and voted No in last week's referendum as a massive betrayal.

It would also, I fear, transform Euro-scepticism from a movement predominantly of the right to a movement of the left AND the right. For those of us who still believe in the European dream, as fragile as it has been revealed to be recently, this would be a catastrophe.

The only possible way to avert this catastrophe in the short-term is for the EU machine and the Germans to heed the warnings of the majority of economists on both wings of the political divide that heaping more austerity on an already ruined economy does not work.

French economy minister Emmanuel Macron was spot on earlier this week when he said: "There must not be a new Treaty of Versailles in the Eurozone." In other words, punishment for punishment's sake is dangerous. The Germans, of all people, should know this.