The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee has stood firm in the face of intense pressure to continue with its hopelessly ineffective policy of quantitative easing by doing precisely nothing.

Never mind the recession, the shockingly poor retail sales figures can be explained away by the weather, and maybe the price of petrol will mean inflation will not fall as fast as expected. And when we are all eating grass, wearing goat skins and speaking Mandarin we can at least all be grateful the MPC kept inflation expectations anchored at two per cent.

The battered mid-term Coalition government sees the Prime Minister and his Deputy bleating that Labour had left the economy in an even bigger mess than they had realised, and that we have no option but to keep swallowing the austerity cod liver oil.

This would have a modicum more credibility if the government were actually being austere.

So to Europe. It should be no surprise that the electorates of France and Greece have grown weary of transferring their national wealth to Germany.

It has been our view throughout this year that Greece will not make it to Christmas as a member of the single currency.

Indeed, with the notable exception of the Germans, we do not see many other countries that would not jump at the chance of dumping the euro if it can be done without too much upset to markets or the banks.