Falling Down

Well, as if we did not know, it is now official: the UK recedes. New figures show that Britain is in recession for the first time since 1991 after its economy shrank during the final two quarters of last year. The Office for National Statistics said that British GDP declined 1.5% in the fourth quarter of 2008 from the previous three-month period, when it also contracted (the technical definition of a recession BTW is two quarters of negative economic growth). Q4 was the worst performance in more than 28 years. On the positive side, retailers registered (ar-ar) a 1.6% rise during the holiday season. Must be the foreigners taking advantage of the Pound's crash against the dollar to 1.39 - 1.39! -only last year it was over 2. Departing Terminal 5 the only people shopping the mall are from oil owning countries. Seriously. And not paying VAT, God D--- them. Not surprisingly this has demoralised the country and even brings comparisons to those nit-wits in Iceland who for a brief moment in time thought they were better then sliced bread and borrowed to own the loaf. Their currency, now worth nothing, may never recover meaning there are a whole lot of people... going no where. They can't afford the plane ticket. Ireland is also tits up (I have come to like this expression) as their banks nationalised last week and we, dear reader, are the next island before Europe. Britain, unlike Germany or France, discarded its manufacturing base for finance and finds itself greatly exposed. While the pound has made British goods cheap again we simply don't make them like we used to. No more cars. No more machines or furniture. As a consolation, I now own my bank - 70% of Royal Bank of Scotland, for instance. I feel so good about this I'm going over to the high street to make a deposit.

The Slip Horse Falling Off A Cliff by Sidney Nolan, pictured.