Let them marry

It is 12 years since the Queen stood up at dinner and coined the expression annus horribilis to describe the miseries of 1992. She probably didn’t even have in mind the fact that her Chancellor of the Exchequer had just frittered away £5 billion of taxpayers’ money and caused thousands of homeowners to lose their homes in the futile cause of pegging the pound to the Deutschmark; it was more a way of describing her sadness at losing part of Windsor Castle to fire, having to endure pictures of the Duchess of York cavorting on a Mediterranean beach, and above all having to suffer the announcement that her eldest son and heir was to separate from his wife.

In some ways, the year of Our Lord 2005 promises little better than 1992. Once more, overborrowed consumers face higher interest rates and negative equity. A reluctant public seems determined, against all logic, to re-elect an unpopular government because they cannot conceive of any viable alternative.