Would the pain of such a collapse be a price worth paying for the sunny uplands - if there are any - that might follow?

There was no promise of sunny uplands ahead - not even in the far distance - but merely talk of economic storms which the government would try its best to navigate the nation through.

Far from having reached the sunny uplands of history, as some have claimed, therefore, human beings will perhaps have to face, even in the present generation, new trials on a bleak and inhospitable mountainside.

Thanks to Dave's brave stance over the transaction tax we can expect the financial sector to lead us back to the sunny uplands of global economic dominance.

After steering Australia from grim recession into the sunny uplands of strong economic growth, a new cloud has appeared on Paul Keating's horizon - an opponent who is also a professional politician.

In that sense, there's no division - this isn't some sunny uplands from that, if you don't like walled gardens.

Throughout these long millennia of rain the Nile valley was a trough of dense and inhospitable swamp, a place of terror for the nomads of the sunny uplands.

According to Mr Cable, his staff said to him: "We can see the grey skies, where are the sunny uplands?"

The decade after 1997 was the sunny uplands for no-holds barred mortgage lending - we were drowning in the stuff.

The West Indian openers Cammie Smith and 'Shotgun' Williams were also men who believed that attack was the best form of defence - but sadly never reached the sunny uplands of consistent success.