Sharply rising personal debt levels have dented consumer confidence.One of the most remarkable turnarounds in Ireland's electoral politics and the greatest comeback in Fianna Fail's election history will have repercussions for Irish politics too.
Mr Cameron also used his speech to call for a turnaround in the Tories' Scottish electoral fortunes, telling supporters to end the hand-wringing and timidity and "come back stronger".
That electoral map belies some of the optimism for a fast turnaround that gun control supporters expressed after Wednesday's vote.
Aided by the first-past-the-post electoral system as used in Britain and the United States the voters four years ago produced the biggest turnaround in parliamentary history.
This is a spectacular turnaround for a candidate who did not even have a party a year ago, when the electoral court ruled that she had failed to collect enough signatures to mount a campaign.
It is a remarkable turnaround for a party that has had a long period in the doldrums of electoral irrelevance in Scotland, the butt of tedious jokes about being in a country with more pandas than Tory MPs.
