Opec won’t play along with the Brown narrative

Oh dear. After Brown’s grandiose claim that he was “trying to get the oil price down”, No.10 must have hoped that the pre-existing downwards trend in prices, and the petrol pump competitiveness by supermarkets, would continue for some time to come – so our Dear Leader could claim all the credit. A shame, then, that the Opec countries have just decided to cut oil production; with the expressed aim of increasing prices. The problem for the PM is that if tries claiming credit for positive developments he hasn’t influenced, then he risks looking like a failure when the trends turn against him.