A point which is not always appreciated or accepted in debate is that the Government was elected not because it promised endless rosy times for the future, but because people recognised that there were more difficult times ahead. The question posed was which would be the best Government, or combination of parties, to take us through that period? It is always dangerous to extrapolate from the present to the future, particularly since we tend to lag a bit. In other words, bad flows internationally affect us with a time lag as, very often, does upward movement. We are not usually ahead in the case of upward or downward movement.