Quite true, jake. But the theft of money from savers in the UK has been done in a more controlled fashion and whilst UK savers have probably taken a bigger hit than those in Cyprus they have had time to adjust to their plight.
Back to the issue, though, neither Cyprus nor Greece would have indulged in such debt had they not been encouraged to do so by the low interest rates extant in the eurozone. This obviously suited the likes of Germany for much of the borrowed cash was spent on German goods and services. (In 2008 there were more Porsche Cayennes sold in Greece than in Germany). Prior to their joining the EU and the euro Greece was largely a peasant farmer economy of farms and smallholdings, with a bit of tourism thrown in. Few people could afford to buy a Porsche. It is the cheap and available cash that provided Greece's fantastic "growth" and this was cash they had not a hope in hell's chance of ever repaying. If you believe they would have incurred such debt in Drachmas I suggest you are wrong.
As far as Cyprus goes much of their woe stems from the high exchange rate which was fixed at conversion from the Pound. There's plenty of info on this available. They were given too many euros for their pounds, incurred debt in euros that their economy cannot support and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
You are quite correct when you say that eurozone nations have less room to manoeuvre - and that's precisely the problem they face. They have economic problems the same as we have, but they cannot do what they need to do as we can.
Michael "#sadmanonatrain" Portillo made a very apposite remark on “This Week” last night. He said that the euro is an ideology and when people get hold of ideologies they are willing to do extreme things. And the latest extreme thing they are willing to do is to steal people’s money.”
How very true. By any objective measure the euro has been an abject failure. But more than that, it is a project which, if free of ideology, would never have been launched. The European politicians who embarked on this folly have a lot to answer for. But they will never be called to account.