Britain is in a deep crisis, but not a 2008-style emergency. And it reveals much about the underlying forces in our politics.

Austerity only makes any sense at all if viewed as a strategy for sustaining the financial status quo; the zombie economy is premised on the notion that society itself is dependent on safeguarding its existing monetary architecture.

Wander into post-Olympics East London, lift your gaze, and what do you see? The awful warning of late-Soviet homogenisation.