Economics

Too many business are closing down at the moment: well-known high street chains such as HMV and Blockbusters are heading towards administration, following the demise of Jessops and Comet in recent weeks. Perhaps January is a particularly sensitive time of the year, when the critical Christmas profits start to look a little thin, and creditors decide there is a limit to their patience. The companies that go under tend to be ones that have not kept up to speed with technological advances in the marketplace and changes in consumers' shopping habits: folk no longer go down to the shops to rent a DVD, or buy a camera, or a CD, or a book. Or pretty much anything else, it seems. The massive choice and bargains available on-line only serve, in the long run, to reduce our choice and narrow our horizons. And along the way, long-established brands disappear over night. It is, they say, a necessary pre-condition for economic recovery: the pruning of the deadwood to give some chance for new growth to make headway. But along the way we seem to be losing so much. We still mourn the disappearance of Woolworths, and not just for the pick-and-mix. Our high streets are the poorer: limited now to fashionable coffee shops and charity shops and not much else.

This is hardly a cheerful post, but there are times when you rightly despair of being in the economic doldrums, and the lack of inspiration demonstrated by our leaders for doing anything about it, or even acknowledging the reasons why we have ended up in this position. Perhaps it is time to try something different. I could start my own political party and challenge the ineffectual two/three-party system that has dragged us to these depths. I will have to think hard about this. Sound economic policies may be useful, but then, on reflection, other parties seem to do quite well without them. You can, I believe, to a large extent just make it up as you go along.