By BAGEHOT
IN THE last post in this blog, dated June 28th 2012, one of my predecessors introduced his column on what he called „Britain’s cheering gloom“. Surveying a country just two years into its first coalition government since the war, still struggling out of recession and depressed about its economy, its government, its relationship with Europe and its immigration rate, he concluded on an optimistic note: „Britain is lost in this crisis. With luck and grown-up leadership, it will find a way out.“