How Labour might spin a second bail-out

A second bank bailout would, as Pete noted earlier, be a hinge moment in British politics. Anthony Wells has shown that Labour’s fortunes began to recover because people believed that Brown and Darling’s rescue plan for the banks would work. If the government have to go back and have a second crack at it that will surely undermine public confidence in its ability to handle the crisis and in its future pronouncements.

But I suspect that Labour think they have a way to spin it. Congressional Democrats plan to have a stimulus package, which looks like it will be worth between $675 and $850 billion over two years, ready for Obama to sign as soon as possible after the inauguration. I expect that Brown will try and roll out the second bank bail-out at the same time. The idea being to present it as part of a coordinated global move; Brown and Obama doing whatever it takes ‘to save the world economy’ in contrast to the ‘do-nothing Tories’.