The lure of Gold: Hard money for hard times

quot;Britain in 1945. No supermarkets, no motorways, no teabags, no sliced bread, no frozen food, no flavoured crisps, no lager, no microwaves, no dishwashers, no Formica, no vinyl, no CDs, no computers, no mobiles, no duvets, no Pill, no trainers, no hoodies, no Starbucks. Heavy coins, heavy shoes, heavy suitcases, heavy tweed coats, heavy leather footballs, no unbearable lightness of being. Meat rationed, butter rationed, lard rationed, margarine rationed, sugar rationed, tea rationed, cheese rationed, jam rationed, eggs rationed, sweets rationed, soap rationed, clothes rationed. Make do and mend.quot;
‘Austerity Britain 1945-51’ by David Kynaston. Hat-tip JBP.
 
There was a strangely surreal sense of comedy to British politics this last week. Perhaps it was born out of relief that the socialist incumbents had finally been prised from office, like parasitic barnacles. Their legacy seems unlikely to be viewed favourably by posterity and that widespread air of good humour is unlikely to last. The Sunday Times reports the new government’s predictable complaints that Labour pursued a quot;scorched earthquot; policy in its final months of rushing through billions in extra spending commitments in a doomed attempt to buy votes. We can now rest assured that fiscal skeletons will be tumbling from closets for the…