Humbug

‘What’s Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, and not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in ’em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will… every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!’

Scrooge’s memorable outburst to his nephew will strike a deeper chord than usual this year. As the recession bites, and its depth and probable duration become increasingly apparent, many will wonder if there is much at all to celebrate this festive season. It is a measure of the scale of this global downturn that it has eclipsed even the election of a black US President as the most significant event of 2008.