Latest news with #muddlingthrough

Times

The UK can't keep muddling through a massive increase in debt

I t may not always come across, but I am of an optimistic disposition. I want to see this country doing well, whoever is in charge. When it is not, though it gives me plenty to write about, it casts a pall. After all, I once wrote a book called Something Will Turn Up, the title channelling Dickens's Mr Micawber. That is not a plug; it was published a decade ago and is no longer available in all good bookshops. The thesis was that the UK is good at muddling through, over many decades, even in adversity. I say this because although there is much we are good at, as I discussed a couple of weeks ago in the context of a new book by former chancellor Jeremy Hunt , in key respects, we have become hopeless at dealing with adversity. It makes me nostalgic for the days of muddling through.