I was watching some or other science fiction programme on television with my nine year old son.  You know, the classic story of a trusted and super intelligent machine for good becomes infected and turns to destructive evil ways, the world saved at the final moment by an unexpected act of heroism and cleverness.
It reminded me of the protestors outside St Pauls.  I can understand why their protest seems a little generic; it's because they are protesting against our overall economic system that seems to have done exactly what I've described above.  Our, just barely existing system, of finance and economics is dysfunctional, completely out of control and causing devastation and havoc.  And to say that we are all in this together is blatantly untrue.  Money is haemoraging out of the infrastructure of our society into the hands of very few.  The examples are many:
Last year directors saw their salaries increase by 49% and chief executives by 43%; ordinary workers saw their salaries rise by 2.6%.  With inflation at around 5%, income for everyone in real terms has fallen whilst for directors it has risen enormously.
Last year 37% of FTSE 100 companies paid no tax at all.  Tax evasion costs the Treasury £15bn in income whilst benefit fraud costs the Treasury £1.1bn.
Lending to SMEs (which account for almost 97% of all businesses in the UK) has fallen by 25% whilst the number seeking loans has risen by 7%.  In the last year alone, lending has shrunk by £5bn at the same time that banks in the UK paid out £7bn in bonuses out of revenues and not profits.
This is money that could be invested back directly into our economy both immediately and also in longer term initiatives such as apprenticeships and skills education.
In Social Enterprise UK's Fightback Britain released earlier this year, we see a different economic model emerging.  It has never been more important for those in social enterprise world to roll our sleeves up and get working.  We need to create something different; and quickly.  But please, this time, let's build something that we can own and control.