Who do you think you are kidding . . .

I see our beloved leader is going to be calling for a touch of the old Dunkirk and Blitz spirit, standing shoulder to shoulder and all that, to battle the recession when he addresses the world, or the bit that is bothering to listen, in his New Year message to mankind.

It should generate a chorus of "Who do you think you are kidding" if nothing else when he pops up with the bit about looking back in a few years time at another great challenge met by Britain because we had "the right values, the right policies and the right character to meet it".

Whitehall and the City is full of right characters all right who all played their part in creating the financial mess we are in but the world is none too confident about the right values and policies to get us out of it.

Parity or worse with the Euro is just around the corner and despite claims that the sub-prime mortgage bubble was born in the USA and is essentially an American problem, it seems that the dollar is riding the storm much better than the pound which is plumbing new depths every day. Money making has no national loyalty so if the financiers are deserting us in droves we might just be in a spot of bother.

Have a happy New Year.