I wouldn't be so smug in your assessment of the UK economy. The US is gonna suffer pretty badly here for a bit, but we are the precursor to Europe. We're all intertwined with our economies. Europe and the US are dependent upon each other and a huge market failure in one will induce large market failures in the other. The UK banking system in fact had already started to feel affects of the US collapse.
Unrealistic assessment.. The UK economy is imploding and much worse of than the US. Europe's recession is due to the depression in the US and some irresponsible banking. But not due to irresponsible banking, irresponsible financial gambling, irresponsible governance and so on, at the same level as the US and especially the UK.. In the long term, the US can carry the burden they have put on themselves, most likely, while the UK cannot.
My prediction for the UK economy is that Poland have caught up to them within 5 years as a bigger economy. The UK is a symbol of what we did wrong in the 20th century.
As for our unemployment, I'm not going to be surprised to see it breach 10%. Which is another reason why you're all gonna feel the pinch too. US consumerism was driving global economies. You relied on us to buy crap, but we're not going to be buying crap right now; not for awhile. All markets, including the EU, are going to go through a bit of a rough period. Nothing to the extend of the Great Depression, but still it's not gonna be the best times ever.
Crap is what China produces, Europe produce high quality stuff that will always be in demand. But yes, the downturn has affected us, and other economies collapses is the main reason we are seeing a setback. Industrial new orders in Europe is already down to 2003 levels, and within a year will be at the same level as they were in 2001, if the situation do not turn around.
Spain and the UK is by far worst hit, followed by Ireland. Best of are less speculative, more stable and solid economies like France who arent even in recession officially yet.
Germany is faring pretty well considering its an export driven economy. Their unemployment rate at 7.1% up from 7.0% a month ago is still 0.9% lower than it was 1 year ago, but the economy will shrink in 2009.
Ireland is a small economy which will recover, Spain will recover when all the rest recover, because its dependent on good times elsewhere, but the UK is unlikely to recover any time soon, if they do not start paying down their external 10 trillion $ debt, which is just 2 trillion behind the US. Its not a comfort either than average savings in the UK is 1% of GDP, while its above 12% on average in Europe. So they have nothing to spend to make things better, and with credit drying in, implosion is inevitable, especially considering cheap unrealistic credit times are over.. Which the UK is also a master at, private credit card and home loans which are the highest in Europe, making housing prices in the UK unrealistic compared to quality.
As I see it, the economic setback, is actually nothing but economic corrections on a global scale. In any such scenario, the UK is actually a very poor economy.