We live in a country where ‘even the bad times are good’ – now why do I say that? Because it’s true.

I was shopping in the supermarket on Saturday morning and families were bustling about picking up stuff, not bothering too much about the price.

They pushed stacked trolleys on to a full car park, and there was a long queue of cars waiting to fill up with petrol.

Everyone seemed OK. Now perhaps they weren’t, but were the great British public going to show it? Certainly not!

For we have an innate pride, an inner strength that allows us to take things in our stride.

We don’t weep and wail, we just get on with it, and that’s the way we will overcome this recession, credit crunch or whatever they want to call it.

Not that there is any doubt that they’ve really cocked it up, but as always, we the Joe Soaps of the world, will have to do the best we can. It’s not going to be easy, but then, was it ever?

But look at news from the Congo, mothers carrying starving children, families separated, fathers and brothers killed, sisters, daughters raped.

By those standards things aren’t so bad after all.