Until recently, 'retro' was all about fashion and music as flares and disco made unlikely comebacks. But now we’re all looking back to the future...

With daily warnings of recession, lengthening dole queues, the cost of living going through the roof and banks starting to look more and more like the intimidating places of old (without the high street presence mind you), there’s more than a whiff of ‘the old days’ about Britain. We might all be staring down the barrel of the 1970s once again, but that is having a rather unexpected side-effect as people start to look even further back in time to find solutions.

Who knows there might even be some positives to take from all this. Could we all be forced to return to the ‘community’ living of the post-War years and actually start talking to our neighbours again – surely some mistake? Well, that does seem to be exactly what many people are doing as they strive to cut household bills and survive the credit crunch. For instance, collective bulk buying is becoming popular as a means of cutting food and essentials bills, with neighbours clubbing together to realise the cost benefits of buying in larger quantities.

Equally, wood-burning stoves and open fires are making a comeback, because they are cheaper to run than central heating (or any other modern heating for that matter). You have to wonder how long it will be before neighbours start to huddle together round a single open fire if we get the insult to injury of a cold winter this year. All that would be required then would be for someone to switch off the TV, fire up the radio and listen in for news of the war on credit and we’d really be living the retro lifestyle.

OK, it might sound inconvenient, and this might make me sound like a hopeless idealist, but maybe, just maybe, a return to the community-minded outlook of the past might just be a good thing in the long run.

The idea of community-living isn’t the only thing making a come-back. The days of debt fuelled spending are almost certainly at an end, to be replaced by the good old ‘nest egg’, as saving for a rainy day becomes far more important (belatedly) than owning the latest gadget. In fact, a lot of those shiny gadgets we all bought with impunity over recent years are likely to fuel the re-emergence of another staple of the past, the car boot sale, as raising a bit of extra cash becomes more important than those ‘use once and discover they’re not very good’ gadgets like bread machines and ‘low-fat grills’.

Perhaps most symbolically of all, Christmas – that shining beacon of consumerism gone mad - will almost certainly be another casualty of the credit crunch. Santa will be tightening his belt this year as most people plan to spend less on presents. Is that a bad thing? I’m not so sure, though the kids will undoubtedly disagree. Maybe even Christmas will go back to being a family and community event, rather than just an excuse to spend, spend, spend.

Of course, there’s always an exception. Also on the rise is the practice of cutting bills by pinching toilet paper and using a neighbour’s wireless broadband without permission, whilst some people, rather than finding strength and security in numbers, would prefer to save money by retreating into the splendid isolation of a hotel room.

Each to their own I suppose, but I know which I would prefer. That’s the caring sharing approach that might just see us all emerge from this mess into a better, fairer and friendlier place. I live in hope.