What is happening is that people the world over are being (rather too suddenly for it to be painless) forced to consume what they can afford to consume without the benefit of the never never. The age of fairy money suited politicians because of the bloated (if phony) tax revenues and that crucial feelgood factor of consumed-out voters.
If you MUST have a car to get somewhere, then you will still have one. It may not be as new as the marketing folks wanted it to be, and there may be a lot more work for repairers, but you will still have a car. The problem is more acute with the slow down in the economies of the raw material providers and manufacturers - and TMP suspects this might have been in Broon's mind when he said the UK was "best placed".
Of course we were - we have no raw commodities, and we make nothing! However, he overlooked the knock-on effect of our dependence on global "financial services" - which he left entirely up to his much-admired and beknighted chums - the Scottish Bankers in his Caledonian fiefdom - to manage. Oops.
90% of the (almost entirely) imported tat decorating most homes is unnecessary. The Sunday Supplement "limited edition" nonsense is no sad loss. You don't actually have to have Sky+ and HD to still reach more TV than you could watch in 100 lifetimes. You don't actually have to fly to Prague for lunch.
The main problem all politicians now face is failure to manage expectations because they haven't been telling the truth (that they MUST have known) about banking for a long time. Honest politicians (if there any) should be worrying about people who saved prudently and now in absolute shock at having been left high dry as they read endless stories about the feckless in benefits, and the unbothered client state.
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