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In many ways it shows the dreadful state of British Politics generally and the very low esteem in which politicians are held, that it is difficult to decide whether the comments of Chancellor Alistair Darling are part of a Government change in tack or, signs that the wheels really are coming off the Brown wagon.

Right from when he got the job, many have said that Darling had been given a very poisoned chalice indeed plus, how much freedom would he have in the job between meddling by Brown, Balls and Cooper.

Passing the Buck

Whilst it would be wrong to blame the Government for the global rise in Fuel, Food and commodity prices which are clearly outside of the control of any single government, it is undeniably true that as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown was to say the least, totally reckless in managing the British Economy. A less personally ambitious and vindictive person who sought to serve the Nation rather than himself, would have done a far better job, indeed a blindfolded monkey with a pin could have done just as well.

The problem is that Brown is clearly a “meddling tinker” who will play with things until they are bust. When he became PM, he took Balls with him from the Treasury but left the wife of Balls, Cooper in there to act as his “inside person”. I’m not sure that if I were Darling, I would have accepted this because it was obvious even then that Darling was being set up as the Fall Guy if the economy faltered and under such circumstances, I would want to succeed or fail with my own team.

I read somewhere that of the Cabinet of 1997, only Brown, Straw and Darling were still there today, the rest having fallen by the wayside and all the others being ‘new’. Brown can both talk and write about “courage” but it is something he seems lacking in, dour, sour and mendacious seems more the case.

The Alternative Scenario

Even the thickest Labour MP and die-hard Labour supporter must see, know or have a fairly educated guess as to what will happen come May 2010 to the Parliamentary Labour Party, it is no longer a case of just losing, it is just how bad it will be. The optimists will hope for something approaching what happened to the Tories in 1997, the pessimists fear coming in third behind the LibDems.

I don’t think for the Labour Party there is anything to be gained by replacing Brown at this stage, yes he has been a spectacular disaster but there really isn’t the time or the benign economic circumstances to embed a new Leader at this time, better to await the inevitable election disaster and then dump Brown as part of a renewal programme.

The biggest problem with Brown and pretty much all of his Cabinet is that they have only to open their mouths for everyone to stop listening, the “Getting on with the job…” line no longer works at any level so what to do ?

Tell the Truth…

Because Brown made no provision for a rainy day convinced as he was with his boast of having “banished Boom & Bust from the UK economy”, any immediate actions by the Government will mean increasing borrowing and in effect printing money which will explode into wage driven inflation which Labour will bequeath to an incoming Conservative Government.

To just borrow without setting out a “story” would just lead to accusations of fiscal impropriety and poisoning the well for the Tories so Darling speaking out frankly allows Brown to talk about “Taking the tough decisions in order to protect the long term….” And of course, both as the Current Chancellor but also as probably the only person in Cabinet who retains any vestiges of some degree of integrity, he was the only one to set this Hare running.

Its Politics Not National Interest

The reality is that Labour should resign now and ask the Queen for a Dissolution of Parliament and a General Election but it won’t happen, Brown and his lackeys will cling on until the very last minute, if they can but in the end they may not be able, sometimes power just slips away.

One could ask the question as to whether a Conservative Government could do any better at this stage of the economic cycle ?

In practical terms the answer must be no in the sense that David Cameron cannot produce a rabbit out of a hat however there are two key things that are true:

Firstly the public are only too aware of the situation and will accept that it is not the fault of the new Government. As a consequence, they are listening once again and, to an extent prepared to back “sensible & fair” policies to rectify the situation even if that means job losses and tax rises.

Secondly with no money to play with, it encourages the Government to concentrate its energies on low cost initiatives that target well known abuses such as the EU Referendum that never was, the pay and perks of MPs, looking at devolving real power away from the centre and down to community level.

The problem for Labour is that they are boxed in by past policies and even if the public still trusted them, they could not make the sweeping changes to their policies that they need to do but it might be that the purpose of this “Darling Ploy” is trying to provide a fig leaf or wriggle room for some policy changes in the weeks ahead.