Michael Henderson suggests

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Wednesday, 23rd January 2008

The Spectator on the economic troubles ahead

But such niceties are lost on ministers whose overwhelming priority is to avoid the embarrassment of having to nationalise Northern Rock because no one else will buy it at any price. Some Treasury officials have allegedly tried in vain to suggest to their masters that temporary nationalisation might in fact be the most practical (or least bad) way forward at this juncture, and one that could ultimately provide a better return for the taxpayer if Northern Rock’s business can be restored to health. But for a frightened, out-of-its-depth government, short-term political impact takes precedence over every other consideration. Whatever the outcome of the Northern Rock saga — and it may yet come to the last resort of full public ownership — it will now haunt Brown and Darling until their last day in office.

In the meantime, we must place our faith in Mr King and his Monetary Policy Committee to exercise a sensitive touch in interest rate decisions, and Vince Cable for the Liberal Democrats and George Osborne for the Conservatives to come up with sensible economic proposals for Labour to plagiarise. For the most painful of all the painful truths revealed this week is that the Brown government is utterly ill-equipped for the task of steering the British economy through the troubled waters ahead.

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