Scarborough – a good place to break bad news

A meeting with Charles Bean, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, provided the Scarborough Evening News business reporter Laura Crothers with an unexpected scoop yesterday.

In a curious interview, he spoke first of his childhood visits to the town to see his grandparents, before delivering the most startling official prediction yet on the impending recession: "This is a once in a lifetime crisis, and possibly the largest financial crisis of its kind in human history."

Mr Bean added: "We have had banks crises in the past but what is unique about this event is its sheer scale. It is global. It originated in the United States but its tentacles have spread across the world ... particularly in the last six weeks when financial markets really ground to a halt, and trust in the financial positions of a whole range of institutions has come into question."

There was hope, he said, that the country was better equipped to face a recession now than the last one in 1992.

"We are in a better position in that we are free to set monetary policy to try to stabilise the economy." But he added: "No one can escape from the fact that we are facing a recession as it now seems to be everywhere we look."

He urged readers: "What I would say is be sensible with your money."

The comments made waves on trading floors, in front rooms and through Whitehall – but not in Scarborough, where the Evening News's front page instead carried a story about a trial for theft and deception.