The big talk amongst London's foreign journalist community today is this remarkable article in Der Spiegel, on the PBR, entitled "Britain shrinks to a mini-power".
Our disastrous Prime Minister is now used to receiving withering incoming fire from German governments of all stripes. But the piece by Carsten Volkery in Der Spiegel breaks new ground, and is actually the best read article on their whole site. The word "Mini-Markt" is a German pun, meaning both a "mini-power" and something like a "corner shop". Volkery writes that Britain has moved from being a "model economy" to being "in ruins". The "public finances are disastrous", "the economic decay is alarming" and that "it seems unavoidable that the next Government will have to make drastic savings in places where it will hurt".
Der Spiegel draws special reference to the fact that the motherland will soon be overtaken by the economes of its former colonies, India and Canada.
Brown's people, doubtless cowering in the corner this morning, must be pleased that, as the article is only available in German, at least their boss can't actually read about our national humiliation.
