The front page of The Guardian yesterday proclaimed that the recession is officially over, and hopefully it’s right. The proposed merger between T-Mobile and Orange has been seen by many as the return of the ‘big deal’ and importantly a return of confidence.

So long as the deal gets approved by the regulators it will create (including Virgin Mobile that used the network) the biggest operator in the UK.

Yesterday I was at the DSEi exhibition in London’s ExCel Centre and the mood there certainly felt positive. The defence sector has been one of the better performing markets in the last year but it was still good to see a big crowd at the show. People were crowding round the stands and the client I was there to visit reported a lot of interest in the products.

What’s more the sun is shining. Cause for optimism? After all the doom and gloom of the last year, why not.