On the same day that my first snowdrops came into bud, a leading politician said that she could ‘see green shoots of recovery’ in the global financial situation. In the local newsagent’s shop a young child pleaded with her father for ‘just another 2p’ to buy a comic. The nearby daily papers had front page stories of banks ‘losing’ billions of pounds. Later there were two removal vans in the road. A family was moving out to a rented flat after redundancy meant they had to sell the family home for less than they had paid for it. A young couple were moving in, clearly excited and delighted at their ‘bargain basement’ opportunity to get on the housing ladder. Read More