If You Start Your Own Business, We'll Be Right Behind You

As we await the healing injection of consumer confidence that will accompany Daveybloke's cuddly removal from employment of some hundreds of thousands of people whose benefits will then be cut, the banks are still doing their bit for the double-dip recession by refusing to lend money. It appears that large businesses are paying back their loans, which means that the banks have so little ready cash on hand that they are unable to lend to smaller businesses except at exorbitant rates of interest. Unfortunately, smaller businesses tend to lack the necessary uxoral resources to save money by keeping wives in Monaco; otherwise, of course, they would be large businesses too. A Liberal Democrat treasury spokesbeing made the usual noises about the undesirability of the situation, and the usual lack of noise about what might be done. Compulsion, it seems, is still strictly for the little people.