Ladies and gentlemen, the world as we live in - or at least how I currently see it - today, courtesy of George Monbiot.

Unfortunately there's a lot of truth in it, and the only way to tackle rampant market forces is on their own terms, by buying out of the "must work long hours to buy meaningless goods on credit" society we live in, start paying off our debts and learning to go without sometimes - thus starving these money grabbing corporations of their obscene profits. Which is why my naughty little plan to upgrade my iMac to a G5 is off the menu indefinitely - especially when I discovered just how much it'll cost to replace the fascia at the back of our house at the weekend...