Punctured souffles

The "second Edwardian summer of globalisation":

Here in the UK, the government boasts proudly about its stewardship of the economy, when all the evidence is that activity collapses like a punctured souffle as soon as action is taken to restrain property speculation. Britain's manufacturing sector is a hollowed-out shell, claimant-count unemployment has risen for six months in a row, the Bank of England is at war with itself over whether interest rates should be cut, and the only person who believes there is not a gaping black hole in the public finances is the chancellor of the exchequer, of whom very little has been seen or heard since the election.

A slight change in tune from "Brown is the first Chancellor to make Keynes work", but fair enough. Not quite sure if Larry Elliot's predicting a cataclysm on the scale of 1914, or if he's just getting a bit carried away by the French "no" vote.