When they pull things apart, you’ll notice only some of the wreckage

WE didn’t elect our Government to generate a crisis, did we? And we certainly didn’t elect them to start a whole series of crises, surely.

But in a year's time, I think we might be looking back at one crisis after another. 2003 is going to be a year of crises. And in a lot of cases, the prime cause will have been Government decisions. Not Government mistakes either. Calculated Government decisions, based on a particular premise.

And here's the extraordinary premise: "It doesn't matter what happens in 2003 and 2004. Even if the country falls apart, we can survive it. If we screw everything down for the next two years, even if it means chaos, even if it means hardship on an almost unprecedented scale, that doesn't matter. All that matters is that by screwing everything down now, we will be saving money for 2006 and 2007.