Daniel Finkelstein eloquently spells out the already eccentric view that the honest way to describe a Disaster is not to proclaim a Triumph:

There is room for plenty of argument about whether the crisis could have been averted by better management. But this is almost beside the point. What matters is not whether the bust was avoidable. It is that the preceding boom was illusory.

The idea that boom and bust had been abolished was not a small claim among many. It was the central claim of this Government. It was the boast of boasts – the boast upon which all other boasts were built. And now it has been revealed as totally empty. Not triumph, then. Disaster. Not victory. Total, utter, dreadful defeat.

On the other hand, in the great and glorious uplands of North Korea there is nothing but Triumph, as well as Validity and Inexhaustible Vitality, as we have just seen.

Which is where we are heading:

The orgy of borrowing over which Alistair Darling now presides and which some Tories wish to continue — such as the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who recklessly calls for continued spending on capital projects for the capital that, pending economic revival, cannot be afforded — must end.

If it does not, it will not merely be our children who have to pay it off, but their children.

That will mean high levels of taxation and the consequent suppression of an enterprise culture for decades to come.

Given that so much of this mess is Labour’s fault, I cannot see the problem in the Tory party’s saying so, and saying, too, that the tough remedies that they would have to implement in office would be Mr Brown’s fault …

Fundamentally, someone in politics has to make a case for capitalism: as I have written before, it is this or North Korea.

Oh well, they say that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

Good job – as in N Korea they are urged to eat it.