AS unemployment in Britain soared past two million, the Finance Ministers of the world?s 20 biggest economies (G20), which make up 85% of the world economy between them, gathered in a plush Sussex hotel to ponder on the current crisis.
The meeting was in preparation for the summit of the leaders of the G20 countries in London in April, but anyone expecting the very people who got us all into this mess, to get us out of it, will have been disappointed by the outcome. All they could offer was just more of the same - increased global trade dictated by market forces - the very combination whose catastrophic failure is now dragging Britain into depression.
Next month, the G20 leaders will be posing for photographs and spinning the line that their Titanic isn?t sinking and that the lifeboat of protectionism isn?t needed.
It is as if they are in denial about the floundering of their global market economy. Their Titanic has hit the iceberg and is sinking fast yet they are calling for the passengers to stay calm, while they shovel on more coal to maintain their speed through the berg-infested waters.
The lifeboat of protectionism is there, ready and waiting to save us from the impending disaster, but the likes of Brown and Darling say we mustn?t use it.
They won?t allow Britain to protect our industries from cheap Third World imports which will give British manufacturers a breathing space to recover behind secure tariff walls.
They won?t allow us to protect our currency from the international speculators that have driven Sterling down to the level of the Euro.
They won?t allow us to protect of our workforce from cheap imported labour, protection which is the only way to make the slogan ?British Jobs for British Workers? become a reality.
But worst of all, the Government have wasted our money bailing out incompetent bankers when they should have just nationalised the banks.
Those billions could then have been invested in our national economy. Safeguarding jobs in order to keep the nation working to provide the goods and services that the British people need.