The doom-mongers are out in force, it’s the end of the World as we know it with rising inflation and the end of Capitalism on the horizon. Of course, it won’t matter much because if rising inflation doesn’t get us then rising sea levels will.

It’s comforting, then, that some things never change like politicians being unable to tell fact from fiction or give a straight answer as demonstrated by Alistair Darling on Breakfast this morning. Asked by Bill Turnbull whether taxes would be raised to pay for increased public spending the Chancellor wriggled like a well-hooked fish. It was a simple question and deserved a simple answer, yes or no. Did we get that? No, what we got was jibber-jabber. It’s high time politics became a lot more transparent and our representatives a lot more accountable instead of acting, and looking, like a bunch of self-serving spivs.