Pushing a piece of string

Per today's FT, UK homebuilders have thrown in the trowel*...

Persimmon ... yesterday became the first to admit publicly that it was shelving plans to develop new sites, raising the prospect of sites lying undeveloped for years ... Persimmon said sales in the past three weeks were down more than a third compared with last year

Our noble govenment's response?

Caroline Flint, [the very tasty] housing minister, appealed to housebuilders not to be driven by short-term problems. "It is essential - and in their own interest - for housebuilders to base decisions on the economic fundamentals and longer-term trends."

Er ... since when it committing commercial hari kiri in homebuilders' own interest? I suspect that they know just a leedle bit more about these things than you do.

Oh, and by the same logic, Alastair Darling, you moron, just because you lend the banks cheap money doesn't mean that they'll lend it on cheaply against rapidly depreciating assets. Twat.

* ^(TM) Edwin Greenwood.