2008 the year of realisation - 2009 the year of taking responsibility

Going into 2008 many of us will probably claim to have had reservations about the amount of debt but in reality few will have had any idea of just what a threat it was to global financial wellbeing. Who’d have thought that the banking system would have required Government to bail them out or that one person could have made $50 billion disappear into thin air. As Jeff Randall observed in the Daily Telegraph “anyone can lose a few million but to lose $50 billion takes real talent”.

In truth I guess we all saw something that with a little thought we would have understood to be too good to be true but to be fair we were warning of problems ahead as early as February. In April we questioned the effectiveness of the Financial Services Authority and in May we warned that interest rates were too high. If we had done that in 2007 we could claim to have been really clever but, nonetheless, we still claim to have been ahead of those that left the decisions until the autumn.

Whoever is to blame the result is that the next few months are going to be tough but, as someone said, “when the going gets tough the tough get going”. One can simply despair or one can do something about it; and there is much to be done.

The financial crisis has not only had economic impact, it has also laid bare a number of other fault lines. The pursuit of numbers rather than relevance in relation to skills has cruelly exposed skills gaps as too often easy options have been taken. The unquestioning acceptance over a number of years that manufacturing is on the decline has “removed an important club from the bag”. Our complacent attitude to the prosperity we have built up over a number of years. I could go on.

Before I am accused of delivering a gospel of total despair I should like to say that the current position, although extremely uncomfortable, provides us with an opportunity to regroup and to rethink.

2009 must become the year when we all take responsibility. The year when we begin to question our political masters more carefully. The year when we all play our part in finding solutions.