How’s this version going to go down at Number 10?

There’s a must-read column by Julian Glover in the Guardian this morning in which he tries to unpack those critical few weeks last autumn when the banking system seemed on the point of collapse.

The following gives a sense of it:-

“….The turning point came on Friday 10 October, a day of market panic. Over the next few days the Treasury engineered its emergency part nationalisation. Few would can deny that Darling and his new city minister, Paul Myners, handled it with determination.

But who was leading? It is not clear that it was Brown, whose earlier apparent decisiveness over Lloyds/HBOS, and later the fiscal stimulus, has become associated in many minds with the bank bailout. Nonetheless, he was feted in Brussels and America, giving him the confidence to enter the happiest and most energetic part of his premiership. Paul Krugman asked his famous question: “Has Gordon Brown … saved the world financial system?”

A more realistic assessment might suggest that Darling and the Treasury saved two giant British banks, with Brown’s personal contribution still unquantifiable.”

Ouch.

I’m just winding up my holidays and will be back to my normal pattern doing almost all the weekday posts from tomorrow night. Thanks to Morus, Double Carpet and David Herdson for all they’ve done in the past three weeks.

Mike Smithson