I know that in times of national and global crisis it's right to rally round our leaders and support them. But that assumes that we have some leadership in the first place. Did you see Gordon Brown on the news last night? He was like a stalled automaton, rigid-jawed, endlessly repeating the same reply, whatever the question: "The governor of the bank of England, the Chancellor and I will do whatever it takes to maintain stability...." - it was so bad that I thought the BBC were simply replaying the loop endlessly - that the needle was stuck. There is no trace of a vision for how we get out of this - no plan - it's purely reactive.
And in America, the bailout plan has failed. By the time we get to next week that may not seem so bad - it wasn't a good plan. We shouldn't swiftly dismiss the legitimate concerns of those who felt this was a blank cheque too far. There must be a limit to the number of banks that taxpayers can be asked to bailout - in this country as well as America. At the moment it feels like another week another bank, with no sense of how that might be stopped.
So we need some leadership. David Cameron spoke just now and set some markers down. In particular, he said that we mustn't get angry (and we mustn't panic); we must be clear-headed. He was absolutely right to do so. But, whilst we need to support our national "leadership", however inadequate it is, because now is not the time for an election, we mustn't be afraid of setting out our own vision for how we get out of this mess. At the moment Gordon Brown doesn't have one. It's a fatal vacuum. Our response to this crisis cannot be shaped in reactive response to a void. David Cameron will be using his speech tomorrow to address this; I am looking forward to what he has to say. Last year's speech was important for the Party. Tomorrow's is important for our country. No pressure there then!
