4,242 companies went bust in the third quarter of 2011 – an increase of 6.7% over the same period last year. This isn’t particularly big news, but we should bear in mind that the effects of EU meltdown, slowdown, and lots of other things going down across the Channel would not have filtered through to those stats. What it does do is put yet more pressure on Draper Osborne to find a Plan B. As there isn’t one, Wee George will have to bluff his way through again.

Individuals declaring themselves bankrupt, however, are down by 11%. Bizarrely, this too is bad news for the Chancellor, as it shows that citizens are, in the face of falling living standards and great uncertainty, paying down debt rather than buying the latest NetpadIplug made in Korea. They are buying fewer imports (hurrah!) but the falling value of Sterling is already pushing retail prices up (Boo!). Which is of course bad news for Mervyn King, who is just about to waste the last of the Treasury’s small change on a QE-ette, allegedly.

The UK could snip this circle tomorrow by putting interest rates up, strengthening the Pound, cutting inflation, and cutting taxes…thereby kickstarting retail, and slowing down the rise in unemployment. They could add to the feelgood factor by saving the QE-ette, and instead using the money to offer interest-free loans to anyone partly to wholly engaged in the export sector in general, and exports to Asia in particular.

However, Camerlot and the MPCs prefer to stick to policies which, to date, have achieved the square root of fiddle-de-dee. They’ll get away with it because Labour hasn’t got any ideas either…apart from bazookas to leverage the debt until it’s even bigger….like they’re doing over there in the progressive European Bunion.

It’s very early days in the slump, so there’s no need to panic. There’s also no point in panicking, because the slump is inevitable.

Happy days….