Friday's caption competition

With Gord and Nic now not speaking, it seems as good a time as any to look back on the past...

Depressed? Try being burguled.

An interesting, but nonetheless revealing, comment from our dear leader this week.

"We should agree as a world on a monetary and fiscal stimulus that will take the world out of r... depression".

Downing Street has tonight claimed this was a slip. Just like Gordon saving the world was a slip...




With ever more telling signs that the economic downturn is indeed heading towards that dreaded political term, depression, it seems apt for people to be concerned. It seems particularly pertinent that the Icelandic group behind several well-known high street brands has filed for bankruptcy - perhaps one of the most public examples of the downturn.

That, in itself, would not be the sensational story. But the government also used today, when union tensions again erupted, to announce their action-plan on crime.

The Home Secretary announced with her usual gusto that a rise in crime was not necessarily an outcome of the economic downturn. (This is the same Home Secretary that warned, only a few months ago in a leaked memo, that crime would rise in any recession). Perhaps tellingly this was announced on the breakfast bulletins and the phrase 'selling ice cream in the winter' springs to mind!

And yet, historically there is a correlation between crime statistics and economic performance - seeing peaks in 'acquisition crime' during the late 1980s and mid 1990s (both times of economic downturn). It also seems telling that for the first time in a decade burglary rates rose in late 2008.

With ever more telling signs that the economic downturn is likely to develop into a deeper and harder depression now is perhaps the time to invest in that padlock...