Another mistake by Brown

The proposals in the pre-Budget report were a desperate, knee-jerk response to the swing to the Tories in the polls. Rather than demonstrating Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling’s vision for the country, it revealed their commitment to blatant, vote-chasing expediency. Ultimately, this will make the country think less of them.

Martin Vander Weyer

There’s a new pair of eyebrows at the forefront of British public life. The Northern-rocked Governor of the Bank of England may have lost all traditional power of his once-splendid superciliary tufts – indeed, he might as well go the whole hog and have the damned things plucked, to discourage further comment – but the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alastair Darling, has a set to be reckoned with.

Beetle-black in contrast to his silver hair, distinctly livelier than his dull-silver tongue, they tell you everything you need to know about what’s really going on behind. During his speech to the Commons on Tuesday, we watched them struggle to hold the line dictated by the prime minister and his crew, rather than sag under the opposition barrage. During his interview with John Humphrys on Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday morning, you could almost hear them trying to knot themselves into the word ‘sensible’, chosen by his spin-doctors as the keynote for his defensive responses. And if eyebrows could sigh, that’s the background noise we’d all be puzzled by throughout the Chancellor’s media appearances this week. ‘How on earth did we get here?’ left-eyebrow whispers to right. ‘Why didn’t this fellow stick to being a slick Edinburgh lawyer, instead of coming down to Westminster and making fools of us.’ ‘I know’ replies right-eyebrow, sharply arched. ‘Frankly, I’d rather be dyed.’

It really was a self-revelatory performance on Tuesday, not so much in the Chancellor’s sober presentation as in the Downing Street group-think it allowed us to glimpse.