The sordid excesses indulged in by British holidaymakers in Faliraki on the Greek island of Rhodes have been well documented.

Young Brits behave appallingly and the local Greek owners of bars, cafes and night clubs deserve everything they get for pandering to them and profiteering from them.

They are all as reprehensible as each other.

Even so, it is odd that police picked on plump and sulky looking 18-year-old Jemma-Anne Gunning from Somerset who had just won the 'Miss Bottom 2003' title in some Faliraki club, and arrested her for exposing her breasts.

Given all the depraved, drunken activity that supports the town's economy, it was perverse of the authorities to pick out Ms Gunning merely for dropping her bra in a night club.

And given the 'anything for a quick buck' greed of local entrepreneurs, it was hypocrisy of the most brazen variety on the part of the Rhodes chief prosecutor to lecture her on respecting the morals of other people 'and especially the country that hosts you.'

But then the Greeks are quite strong on hypocrisy.

I appreciate it is a vast cultural leap but that hypocrisy stretches right through to Athens, Greek politics and the endless arguments about the Elgin Marbles.

For decades, the Greek government has demanded the return of the Marbles from the British Museum.

Remember Melina Mercouri? With a faded film career behind her, the actress went into politics as the Arts Minister for the Papandreou government.

With her showbusiness nous she could spot a publicity winner a mile away. She jumped on the Elgin Marbles bandwagon to win international headlines.

However, the simple facts about the Marbles remain.

The Parthenon had been turned into a ruin at the end of the 17th century by the explosion of a Venetian shell.

Lord Elgin, then the British ambassador to Constantinople, rescued the marble Parthenon sculptures and others from the Acropolis that were being destroyed.

He brought them to Britain and eventually sold them to the British government. They were safely installed in the British Museum.

They have become an integral part of British cultural heritage, central to all the exhibitions at the British Museum.

Now, the wily Greeks, with an eye to the publicity potential of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, are again demanding their return. They are building the Acropolis Museum, to house them.

And how about this for a ploy?

They are suggesting that Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, should lend the Marbles for a period. They are even offering a 'douceur', a sweetener.

They suggest the exhibition space might become a temporary annexe of the BM so technically, the Marbles would never leave Britain.

Oh, beware of Greeks bearing gifts!

What happens when, at the end of the loan period, the Greeks refuse to return the exhibition? I do not think Mr Blair would send in the SAS to retrieve them.