This alleged recession...

I know this is a peculiar time of year with festivals and present giving and rich food.  But today is New Year's Eve, and stores are closing early.

The supermarket had decent length queues of ordinary folk buying ordinary provisions.  Argos, which pretends to be a shop, but is a weird warehouse, had huge queues, even here in Bracknell.

The local TV store was doing a roaring trade.  Yes, a discount was available and we asked and got a sneeze under 10% off an already discounted price.  The guy who served us said it had been busy all day and showed no signs of slowing.

So the recession is all media hype, surely?

A few bankers did bad deals and got caught out with a bad loan book, and now we all have to suffer!

This alleged recession is the result of heavy media marketing.  I still blame Robert Peston and the BBC for doomtalking all the time.  Add the Idiot Shrub and that fool Gordon Brown to the mix (the words "Could not run a piss up in a brewery" come to mind) and you have the recipe for an "I'm all right, Jack" recession.

So is anyone actually running the world?