Any other business | 13 August 2011

The hard-working bloke in his burned-out shop is the true symbol for our times

What horrors. As I write, the FTSE 100 index has dived below 5,000 for the first time since last July, the mood of the London investment community darkened by the sense that civilisation is breaking down. There’s no glimmer of goodness or optimism in the morning’s news: everything — not only the economic outlook but also human nature itself — looks nastier and more incorrigible than it did a fortnight ago.

But the combination of mass criminal damage with the destruction of many months’ gains in investment values (unless you’re a gold bug or a holder of Swiss franc bonds) at least reminds us who it is that deserves a proper portion of sympathy. The shopkeeper picking disconsolately through the charred remains of a family business built up over decades of hard work and prudence is the true symbol of our times.

He stands for everyone who is a non-­rioter and non-thief; for the citizen who pays his taxes on time and complies with every regulation; for the borrower who is not maxed out on his credit cards and never fails to meet his repayments; for the saver who thought he had put enough aside for a modestly comfortable old age; for the parent who aspires to pass on a steady business or a decent nest-egg to his offspring.

He’s not a greedy banker or an opportunist offshore investor. He doesn’t exploit the benefits system or abuse the police. He’s not a self-serving, truth-denying politician or an incompetent, overpaid public servant. He’s just a law-abiding middle-class bloke. He’s self-employed or owns a small business that provides half a dozen steady jobs — or he’s a middle manager in a larger business, in which case he hasn’t had a real pay rise for three years, his pension rights have shrunk and he’ll probably be redundant by Christmas.