It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

As 2008 heads towards a its doom-laden close, it is tempting to interpret the final line of what will surely be the Christmas number one as a distillation of current national sentiment. Leonard Cohen's original version ended more upbeat:

"And even though it all went wrong

I'll stand right here before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah."

The year when "bonds of bonds" broke the world economy will be played out to a "cover version of a cover version", edited down to satisfy the national attention span which doesn't quite manage 4 minutes.

My own thought as 2008 draws to a close and I struggle to shake off the flu is that pretty much any old rubbish can look pretty in the right light, so it is best to look at the current "downturn" as a painful return to sustainable reality. And whenever you can save a thousand words, you should.