Today saw £90 billion wiped off the FTSE, the worst UK stockmarket crash in 20 years, a drop of 8%. We weren’t alone although our was the biggest drop. Germany fell 6%, Tokyo 4% and America’s Wall Street also took a dive.

The other feature of the day was evidence that – in spite of their finger-wagging grandstanding at Ireland and Greece during Saturday’s European finance summit, the European countries are all going their own way. Each is saving themselves by whatever method best suits their individual circumstances. Worse, as in the case of Germany, what they seem to have done does not always prove to be what they have actually done.

This confusion is profoundly damaging to market confidence – as today’s trading results showed so sharply.

In the UK, Parliament reconvened after the long – ridiculously long – summer recess. The House of Commons was addressed by Chancellor Alastair Darling on the global financial crisis and the situation in the UK.

Beyond Westminster the market waited to hear what he said, waiting for a plan of action to clarify direction – to lead direction. It didn’t come. Interestingly, while Mr Darling spoke the FTSE fell by 2%. After he’d finished, it bounced back up almost to where it had been before he started.

More bad news was that sales of new cars dropped by 20% in September – always a market sector whose behaviour is taken as a measure of consumer confidence.

A further and major current problem is the credit crunch within the banking world. Basically the situation is that at the moment banks do not trust each other so they’re not lending to each other as they normally do. Without this lubrication, the financial machine has virtually ground to a halt. The big question is what will it take to restore this confidence and get bank-to-bank credit flowing again?

Overall, it is clear that action is required in a situation business experts are describing as ‘ not looking good’. It’s still a case of ‘watch this space’.