Mandelson struggles to pull the media strings

There’s an air of desperation about Peter Mandelson’s article in the Wall Street Journal today.  The notion that the UK’s uniquely well-placed to deal with the downturn seems to have been jettisoned – Mandy gives the excuse that “the U.K. has taken an early hit from a credit crunch that began with a serious failure in financial markets – perhaps even more than most because of its large financial-services sector.” – but the essential message is still the same: creditors, please don’t worry, the UK will remain solvent.  This paragraph contains it in a nutshell:

“Just as importantly, when the government announced its borrowing plans last year, it made clear commitments to specified tax increases and a slowed rate of public-spending growth from 2011 onwards. This is a commitment that markets, in setting the cost of long-term British debt, have rightly taken very seriously. The pound has weakened, but there has been no sustained flight from sterling.”