I have decided to be selective on what I read

I am on the board of the Council of Mortgage Lenders and yesterday was our bi-monthly Executive Committee meeting. The agenda as always was littered with a raft of issues for debate, concerning lending, customers, arrears and possessions and government schemes designed to boost the housing market and get things moving again.

As I listened to the debate I couldn't help but feel that both the industry and government were perhaps slightly arrogant to think that if mortgage lenders simply open up the credit flood gates again, everything will be OK. Actually markets are won and lost on confidence and right now we the general public have been repeatedly told not to have any, so it is little surprise that we are spending less and putting off major transactions like moving home.

On the train on my way out of London I was particularly drawn to 2 articles in the Times. The front page headline read The Deepest Recession, a story all about the International Monetary Fund forecasts of our shrinking economy during this year; and a story on page 24 entitled Trust Me The Experts Here Don't Know Either. This came from a survey of 2,000 captains of industry, economists and heads of government at a World Economic Forum in Davos.

I reflected on the headline and have to agree that I share the views of the writer that captains of industry, economists and heads of government are usually wrong about the future.

How should we be feeling while the country wallows in the mire of recession? What can we do? Well I don't know, we all have our own way of dealing with things, but what I do know is that none of us can change what is outside of our control - neither can we change what we have already done; all we can change is what we do from this second onwards.

As Chief Executive of Saffron, it’s my job to listen to all of the experts and make the best judgement calls that I can – looking at the financial macrocosm and steering the building society through the storms. As an individual, however, it comes down to being sensible. All any of us can do is our best and, when we do, we Brits have a funny way of sorting things out.

For me though one thing is certain - I will pick and choose what I read or listen to from the media and only take note when it is something I can change!