Ambrose goes optimist

Some mistake, surely? Has Armageddon Evans-Pritchard been sniffing too many geyser gases on his trip to Iceland? He actually sees hope somewhere. The print version of his piece today is headlined "Iceland turns the corner, saved by its currency and unfettered by the EU".

As his report contains numbers it is naturally hidden away on page B5 of The Telegraph's business section. Of course a 50% devaluation against the euro doesn't come without pain - he gives only a few examples - but his central point is that the macro adjustment is happening fast.

It is those caught in a deflation trap with fixed exchange rates that face slow asphyxiation, and deeper social damage. Youth unemployment is already 34pc in Spain, 28pc in Latvia, 25pc in Italy, 24pc in Greece, and rising.

Ambrose's argument is that EU membership may look attractive to Icelanders now, with their economic pain still raw, but devaluation will allow their healing process to start far sooner than in the eurozone with its fixed rates.

In their angst, Icelanders look wistfully at the apparent safe port of EU membership. The Althingi has voted to start entry talks. But the storm will have blown over well before an EU referendum is held in two or three years. By then the delayed cluster bomb of Europe's unemployment will have detonated. Try selling EU protection then.