It has been another week of apocalyptic warnings and high drama. “Time is running out,” said Sir Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, even as Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, warned that talks aimed at dousing the eurozone flames had broken down. G20 leaders have given Europe until next Sunday to “act decisively to restore confidence, financial stability and growth”. Four days to save the world; even Flash Gordon would struggle, and the eurozone, lamentably, is not filled with superheroes.
Rarely in post-war history have the storms blowing in from Europe seemed quite so threatening, or Britain’s position so powerless before the flood. To prosper anew, we need a strong and growing Europe, yet we are faced with a continent careering, apparently helplessly, towards the economics of the Great Depression.
