Storm in a coffee cup

It is a sign of the times that nearly eighty years ago, as depression swept the western world, the British Empire or what remained of it sat down, brewed a nice cup of tea then tried to figure what went wrong.

Today as the greatest minds in Europe plus our own Prime Minister prepare for the April G20 summit, the true state of the British economy is brought home, not by an infusion of leaves from Ceylon, but by that standard bearer of globalisation, Starbucks.