Photo by andrewmalone, Some Rights Reserved.
David Cameron and George Osborne faced tough decisions today upon waking to learn that the eurozone sovereign debt crisis was threatening to plunge the world economy into a great depression – potentially wiping out savings, bringing down global banking networks and bankrupting entire countries, writes Hard Jackson.
Cameron awoke on what is already being dubbed Black Friday II to find a servant in his Tuscan villa demanding vital answers to whether The Prime Minister would like his eggs fried or scrambled.
A flustered Cameron is said to have been locked in discussions all morning with close advisers before plumping for fried.
But that decision only brought another testing question, relating to whether the eggs would be served over easy or sunny-side up.
Cameron is said to have wrestled with the dilemma for some time, unable to reach Deputy PM Nick Clegg or George Osborne for advice and paralysed by indecision in the face of the knife-edge choice.
But if Cameron thought his day was going from bad to worse, the Lib Dem leader was struggling with an epoch-making decision of his own; whether to spend the day by the pool with his family at their holiday apartment in France or go on a day trip to a medieval fort in rural Burgundy.
Sources close to Clegg say the Deputy PM is looking drawn and haggard in the face of the strain of making constant split-second decisions that could affect the enjoyment of his entire family’s luxurious holiday.
Meanwhile Chancellor George Osborne has flown to the United States of America, itself facing a crippling credit agency downgrade that could lead the cost of government borrowing rising considerably, potentially bankrupting the country and plunging the world into an economic dark age.
Osborne could be seen grappling with what an insider dubbed “the defining moment of his Chancellorship” and is understood to have been locked in talks with US President Barack Obama and current Chair of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke in a three-way mobile telecommunications hook-up that spanned time zones and political cleavages.
Declaring himself “between a rock and a hard place” and with options limited, Osborne threw his weight behind a trip to Six Flags Magic Mountain where he spent time on BATMAN: The Ride, Viper and SUPERMAN: Escape From Krypton.
Insiders say the strain of repeatedly taking tough decisions with potentially enormous ramifications has shown in recent days; Cameron is believed to have particularly anguished over his decision between an Irish coffee and a premium aged armagnac earlier this week before bed.
