Vicky Pryce seeks rehab through the debt crisis The need for redemption was one of her key points. The Greek-born economist has always had sympathy for Athens" trials. But her time away, during which she's plotted a new book called Prisonomics on the futility of jail, has strengthened her conviction for debt forgiveness too. "There are self-defeating issues in any austerity package," she told the Lords. Likewise, the botched bail-out agreed in Cyprus in March was for Pryce another example of the weak being dealt a heavy punishment. "I watched all that with incredulity," she said, as we wondered what others in her TV room must have thought. Pryce didn't claim that the southern states were entirely blameless. But she argued that Germany, as the eurozone's strong and powerful partner, was certainly responsible for the current predicament. "We've seen reluctance to grapple with [the crisis] so far," she said, pointing in particular to Angela Merkel's focus on re-election in September rather than the crisis. We are stuck in a political problem waiting for the general elections. But later she warned: "Perhaps the Germans are not wanting to change their spots after the election." The way forward, Pryce argued, was for the authorities, particularly the European Central Bank, to use shake-off German influence and use its powers to restore the downtrodden. "For the end game the ECB must heavily intervene and be allowed by Germans to buy bonds in the market," she said. We need our own QE [quantitative easing] in Europe to see us through. Structural reforms take far too long. At the end, when Pryce was asked what all this meant for the UK, she was determinedly upbeat about a singular future. We shouldn't despair. We can be part of the single market without being in the eurozone," she said.