The entire world is heading for recession not just the UK. There are 3 day weeks in South Africa and China in some areas as they have to divert fuel from power stations to agriculture as they just don't have the resources. Unemployment is rising, taxes are going up, fuel is going through the roof, house prices are falling...it's a cyclical thing. We saw it in the late 's and we'll see it now. We saw record prices of Aluminium overnight on the London metals exchange, oil keeps hitting highs, copper is going crazy as is it's by product manganese. China is driving a lot of this with her industria