Editorial

When we wrote our 2008 editorial, Britain was in a period ofpolitical flux, namely the wavering popularity of Gordon Brown,the newly installed Prime Minister. Inspired by Brown's dramaticfall from grace during the autumn of 2007, we reflected on thefraught relationship between politicians and the media, onefrom which the former rarely comes out well. As this first issueof 2009 goes to press, the Western world is in the tighteninggrip of a profound economic crisis, one that threatens to developinto a slump on a scale unprecedented since the 1930s. This,at least, is how journalists on both sides of the Atlantic areexcitedly reporting the ‘credit crunch’ and itsaftermath. Most who seek to explain this crisis cite as its root the irresponsible