Daydream believer

The entire reign of Gordon Brown, first as chancellor and then as prime minister, has been based upon debt, and all of that debt has been based upon the daydream of ever-rising house prices, with people gouging out their own property equities to keep their noses above the ever-rising waters of Brown's stealth taxes.

Well, these cornerstone house prices were ever-rising, until today, when Halifax reported a 2%-5% drop in house prices, in March. And so now let us find out what happens when the tax man comes to the cupboard to this time find it bare; the ensuing carnage may be quite spectacular.

Ranged along one side will be the forces of the public sector demanding yet more pelf in their inflationary spiral of waste, their dreams precariously dangled over the rocks of avarice. Ranged along the other side will be the forces of the private sector finally giving up their cake-eating dreams of champagne socialism and rightfully demanding to keep what is theirs, with whatever weapons come to hand.

In the middle will be Gordon Brown clinging on by his chewed finger nails to the rapidly vanishing dream of a socialism that works in a world of scarce resources.

To paraphrase Hannibal Lecter, it's going to be quite a show.