大象传媒

Nick,

I wonder if you can give us your insightful analysis as to the following questions.

Why is it that whenever there is good news to announce, Gordon is the front man for the government, no matter the policy area concerned, yet when there are problems, lo and behold, a government minister that most of us don't know or recognise is shoved forward?

Why is it that you continue to give the benefit of the doubt to Gordon and/or the Government whatever the problem that has been identified with policy, etc?

When will you stop sitting within the Downing St bubble, and come and see and report upon the reality of life as an ordinary Brit?

A public not willing to do what the government wants I would argue in this case is very healthy. They were taking charge of their own lives.

Has the system worked?

No. The original banking protection scheme only covered 拢31,000 of deposits.

Despite plenty of assurances from our government on Friday, Saturday and Sunday the queues were larger on Monday.

Only an extraordinary statement issued yesterday seems to have stemmed the run on the bank.

The desired effect has been achieved but it required more safeguards offered to public and policy on the hoof.

That's smacks of government panic to me.

I would argue that the political impact has been that the ice the Chancellor is standing on has got a lot thinner over the last few days.

Also, the public are going to be a lot more suspicious of government economic claims.

They lost a lot credibility. To prove my point....

Where's Gordon?

Yes Nick, I think you might be right. If I can get your hint, this last NR saga smells very much like the pre election strikes/disruption by the petrol hot heads of 2000.
I am smelling a few rats here, the likes of scaremongering and rumours from the opposition to try and distabilise Brown even if at the same time they criple the UK economy.
One should always keep in mind Nick, that as we saw in the News (FINALLY) Cameron was the expert advisor to Lamont on Black Wednesday when we were on the verge of rendering the value of the pound to ZERO! I voted Tory then.
Have a nice day Nick.
Have a nice

The queues will disappear to-morrow, and be forgotten by the week-end. Northern Rock's profit will be down to a cool half billion - would the BofE be able to block a take-over?
The fact that people are very sensitive when it comes to their own money supports your hunch. No punches can land properly on Brown until the economy deteriorates. The latest facts - lower inflation, lower unemployment, lower earnings growth, plus the indication that interest rates have peaked and property prices cooled, suggest that medium term conditions are benign. The one blot on the landscape is inflation in China, at 6 %, which will lead to more expensive imports.
I'd still like to know the details on the UK's "sub-prime" exposure - what's the size of the self-cert market here, and what's the position regarding arrears. Are there any figures?

We humans do not deal well with uncertainty, we seem to be able to deal even less well with the apparent knowledge that somebody else knows more or seems more certain than we do; in this first simplistic sentence is the cause for the continued uncertainty with Northern Rock.

Reassurances from authority are disregarded as having their roots based in self interest; we seem to formulate the opinion that we are being fed information that is designed to deliver certainty for the messenger and not the recipients or targets for the message; rumour that supports the feelings that caused the original uncertainty is seen to be more credible than the official message because there is a need to prove that we were correct all the time.

The official side failed to recruit a convert of the people, this may have in some way have been achieved by recruiting Sir Bobby Robson, although this was eventually initiated better late than never.
Either way this could have been alleviated by a letter of surety from the Bank of England but the question that must be asked is should the Government鈥檚 surety via the Bank of England be used to indirectly support a company which seems to have been driven to the brink purely by corporate greed?

If the company is going to loose profitability in the future then they should tell people that not the scaremongering that's going on in the media. Besides how about commenting on the fact that Plaid have told Brown to pick up the phone in the case of a hung parliment? Fine it's Welsh politics and gets no interest or fair coverage in the media but this affects parliment and should therefore be reported.

My wife and I are certainly worried enough about this to be holding off buying our next house. We expect that lots of other people will feel the same.

It will be a silver lining for many if house price confidence is reduced; the losers will be those who borrowed beyond their means.

Any who will pay for the bailout? The tax payer of course!

Nick, your topic and many of the comments over the past few days is pretty sound. Some of the more opportunistic politicians, shrill media, and worried public might take note. Looking forward, there may be some reshaping of policy and attitude but that's going to happen anyway. If I were the government I'd be selling this episode as that and reinforce the need to continue developing better order and harmony in society.

As people have commented, Cameron did get his facts wrong, some of the media has been fanning the flames of panic, and many customers have reacted with alarm, but a mindful approach where people take check of their reasons and feelings and use it to drive more understanding of themselves and the bigger system looks like the smart thing to do. Law, society, proper conduct, and trust can all benefit from this.

One change I would like to see in general is a greater "investment in loss". Company employees and customers are at the bottom of the pile when a company goes bankrupt. The powerful always take their slice first. In many cases, bank have profited from both economic rise and fall. As with a two-tier health and education system, the top leave the bottom to carry the burden. Captains leaving the ship last inspire more confidence.

Polly Toynbee writes with great zeal on taxing the rich until it hurts. I understand her reasoning and sympathise with her position but it's habitual. Most of the cause of marriages going wrong and fighting during divorce is down to money. Where yang attacks yang you get trouble. Developing yin by creating an understandable and accountable system hinted at by Max Hastings, shifts attention and builds things up. Success follows naturally.

The City is a great concentrator of wealth. This allows it to strut the world stage but it can undermine business and community development in the regions. Success with "people banking" has been considerable in developing countries. If communities want a sound place to put their money without interference, wouldn't it be desirable for a more local and mutually owned banking system to make a comeback?

I sense a great opportunity. People make their mistakes and have their difficulties but when they have an opportunity to do well you can't hold them back. Developing a more investment, quality, and regional led economy seems to be at the heart of government thinking, and a banking system which is close to the local and international scene is complementary and likely to be more successful in the long-term.

In the 1960/70's banks had to retain as cash or equivalent (liquidity) 11% of their deposits and a further small amount was lodged with the Bank of England (the interest going to the BofE). This meant that if your uncle died in Canada and left you 拢100,000 which you deposited with your bank, then the bank could only lend out, say, a little over 拢85k. When that money was paid back in (only 4 High Street banks in those days) The same rules applied so only a little over 拢70k could be lent out next. These restrictions meant that there was a shortage of money to loan therefore only the best applicants received the loans and the loan conditions could be tight. Since the Big Bang and more recent relaxation of these requirements (I understand they have now been dropped)have led to the oversupply of money in the system and low quality loans being funded. A 拢100,000 deposit now can be lent and relent with almost no restriction. This oversupply of money has helped cause house price inflation in the UK, higher than in the rest of the world. Poor money management by the Banks is a result of a more hands-off role by the Bank of England and the interference of the politicians trying to create a 'feel good factor' amongst the electorate. So I blame the politicians and the banks. Some openness and honesty about how the relaxation of banking controls has led to this state of affairs would be appreciated.

And if the bank of England wants to support overextended banks that might otherwise fail the Governor should stand up and say so, not the Chancellor, Alastair Darling, who has a track record of spinning and lying whatever message he is told to put before the electorate. The public do not trust politicians as we are lied to repeatedly. I don't blame ordinary people for withdrawing their savings despite assurances from a politician.

The public response was rational. Other major banks wouldn't lend to NR,and were conspicuous by their silence, the FSA's compensation scheme assumed that investors would take a hit if NR collapsed.The Bank of England was charging a penal rate for providing its security and if the papers are to be believed stopping other banks from buying NR because they might then become vulnerable.
How the FSA could know for sure that NR was and is a going concern baffles me unless the FSA has been monitoring the situation for some time and yet again failed to act in time on its concerns. It clearly couldn't persuade the B of E sufficiently to allow an immeadiate takeover.

When things go wrong is always the
fault of foreigners, gnomes of Zurich,european central bankers, mid-west mortgage lenders etc etc. When the economy is going well the chancellor takes the credit!

I am very unhappy about what has happened recently. I have spent years working and saving and have lived a relatively frugal lifestyle for many years. I have always spent within my means and have never missed a single credit payment - loan or mortgage. It took me years to save enough to buy a house, and I have only recently stopped driving old bangers around as my form of transport. I feel guilty even now that I am wasting money on a car, but I have worked for 18 years and feel at this stage in my life I can finally afford to be a little extravagant. Over the same period of time I have seen many others, friends and colleagues, spending money irresponsibly and living the high life, going on expensive holidays, round the world trips, buying flash cars and expensive clothes. A lot of people, people I know, have built up huge debts, often with no intention or certainly no apparent means of repaying them, and in some cases they have declared bankruptcy or entered into IVAs. To cap it all a lot of these people have then had the cheek to go and ask for mortgages and over recent years many lenders have seen fit to lend to these people. Of course none of this affects me directly until I am told that the government now plans to back the institutions that have perpetuated this situation. The government have had to step in because it now seems that this irresponsible borrowing and lending is coming apart at the seems - i.e. surprise surprise, the uncreditworthy borrowers have stopped making payments. The government may well be required to fund these 'liars loans' and if so it will obviously be at the expense of the tax payer. Effectively I will be paying additional tax to pay off other peoples debts. I think this is an absolute disgrace and gives me yet another reason to ask what is the point of being financially responsible. I am absolutely sick of paying tax to look after lay-abouts and other peoples children, now I am expected to pay for their holidays and homes. It's a bloody disgrace and yet another reason to despair in this country's' political system and those that run England plc. As far as I am concerned Northern Rock should be allowed to go to the wall if it has lent too much money to thieves. Another interesting point is that the government is apparently trying to re-assure savers that their money is safe. This is very odd, because a completely unrelated event on a vastly smaller scale last year cost thousands of savers their annual savings. Last year the government seemed quite happy to sit there and watch Sir Clive Thompson run off to Brazil with several million pounds of Farepak customers money. Compared to the level of liability the government faces with Northern Rock this was insignificant. Why then did the government not step in and say it would refund these poor people, people that had apparently nothing to do with irresponsible lenders? A cynic might well observe that in the case of the Farepak victims, no-one 'important' stood to lose. I am quite sure that virtually everyone that lost money in that scam was far from wealthy. The collapse of a giant financial institution on the other hand, like Northern Rock, would likely as not take a lot of influential people with it and I think this is a little too close to home for the government. So it seems if those in power, or the friends of those in power, stand to lose it is the taxpayer yet again that is expected to foot the bill. But if you are a Knight and you rob all the peasants, it's ok with the government.

the people dont trust the government. I wonder why? 10 years of New Labour lies would be my guess.

The reasons people started pulling their money out of Northern Rock have not gone away. This company has taken on a fantastic amount of risk, their board and management have been compensated for making a lot of money for their shareholders, but market turmoil is threatening the solvency of bank.

Now the government is promising to subsidise this behaviour. If this bank does fail, how long will people have to wait for the government to make good on this extraordinary promise?

"They have been baffled by the public's unwillingness to accept the Bank of England's guarantee that all would be well."

You mean they're concerned we're not all sheep, blindly believing everything we're told.

Good point about the gap between regulators and the general public. Much like European Monetary Union, the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea what's going on and zero faith in shallow explanations. Because of prior experience of one way traffic, people are less likely to support their banks in any way. On a point of personal humour - those buy to let investments might have been better made in the Cayman Islands, eh?

So who鈥檚 going to be the fall guy? It looks as though Merv is in line!

The BoE/MPC is supposed to be politically independent but the government has forced them to create liquidity in the money markets to reassure the public that all is well. After years of the M3/M4 supply figures being multiples of the GDP; of central banks unloading cheap money on to the lenders to pass on to just about anybody who could make it through the door; of borrowers being encouraged to self-certify and lift their income and thereby get 6/7/8 times their actual salary; of endless invitations to obtain more unsecured debt; of never-ending new deals on Credit Cards with 0% interest for 6 months on balance transfers; of ridding yourself of debt via an IVA; we now live on a debt mountain that exceeds the country鈥檚 GDP. And when this house of cards threatens to collapse the solution is of course to supply yet more money to prop it up and cut interest rates! 鈥淗air of the dog that bit you..鈥�. If you鈥檝e over indulged the best cure is to indulge some more. Let it be on somebody else鈥檚 watch that the whole thing implodes. So the monetary binge party will go on 鈥� now underwritten by the Government - for that read the taxpayer - the 鈥渇eel good factor鈥� will be retained and Gordon of the 鈥減rudent fiscal policy鈥� will continue to be the hero of the strong UK economy. The creative entrepreneurs in the City will continue to dream up yet new ways of selling bad debt and the bonuses will continue to flow.

Then there are the inflation figures put out by the ONC who should have been the authors of 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥�. For those of us in the real world and particularly those who have retired and now live on the meagre handout from the Government laughingly referred to as a 鈥渟tate pension鈥� the reality is somewhat different? Forget 1.8% CPI and 4.1% RPI and try 6%-7%. Note that part of the August fall in the CPI was down to the mortgage lenders being forced to reduce their 鈥渆xit fees鈥�. It鈥檚 amazingly creative economics to remove Mortgage costs, House prices and Council Tax from the CPI and then include 鈥渆xit fees鈥�, especially when you鈥檝e recently brought in legislation forcing a reduction in such. Let鈥檚 ignore economic history which clearly shows that excessive money supply ultimately results in inflation. Short term the inflation figures can be fudged 鈥� a housing collapse cannot.

It鈥檚 a sad day when in order to rescue the prudent savers you have to also rescue the reckless and greedy banks/mortgage lenders; the property speculators and the people who, encouraged by Government and Banks, spend their lives indulging every whim and fancy and becoming ever deeper in debt.

This is a problem created by Government and Central Bankers 鈥� a problem they could have controlled years ago by controlling the money supply. Self-serving as ever they refuse to stand up and be counted and let us not forget that this not really a UK problem but one created by our cousins across the pond.

Merv, who has had to contend with Brown鈥檚 poodles on the MPC for ever clamouring for rate cuts when rate rises were required, will be burnt at the stake as a sacrificial offering to self-serving political expediency.

I think we should stop pointing fingers at the Prime Minister or the government. The reason why people have reacted as they did was because of the way the media (and 大象传媒 has to take a lot of the blame) presented the "emergency" funds story last week. The handling and willingness of the media to make a scandal out of this event led directly to why people panicked, believing this meant the bank was going to go bust. Whilst in reality the logistics and complications of global money markets are way beyond the understanding of most of the people we say queuing. Instead of laying blame at the government, instead reflect on your own responsibilities.

Arrogant chancers have turned a respected Northern instituition into a cowboy outfit. You don't take risks with people's life savings. Such people have no place running a bank, and should be sacked.

"Whitehall insiders have described the scenes of the past few days as illogical and irrational and called it a psychological or social problem"

Sums up the blatant arrogance of this Labour government. To those still stuck in the 90s we have had ten years of Labour. I think it's time they were held accountable for their actions.

The system works? What system is that?
Policy will clearly have to change? The point is, the public do not believe a thing the government says. You might think that this is just a short term knock, both for the ecenomy and G Brown. Lets wait and see. Unfortunately the current problems are far from being resolved. Inflation at 1.8%, but the retail price index shows a different picture. The government will manipulate the figures but they will be unable to make my money go further when I go and turn on my tap, fill up my car, pay my council tax, buy my food, and all the everyday things that are unavoidable to survive. We have had cheap credit and that has made people feel wealthier. But that is not real money, until you have to pay it back, and that is getting more expensive too.

Well Nick it is strange the FSA is now deciding to look at the banking protection scheme(拢31,700 max. in case of default) Surely I can't have been the only one trying for years to get it raised to a realistic level. Same old FSA I'm afraid, wait until things go wrong then react, so what exactly do they do? or is this the "light touch" regulation getting so light it isn't there at all as happened with Equitable Life.

irresponsible journalism by the bbc has i feel not helped this crisis. Much of your coverage has been hysterical as you have searched for the sensational. This was clearly shown when reporters were obviously searching queus for the most heart rendering stories. I wonder how many investors were influenced by the SUN style reporting of the 大象传媒?

I just have to ask the poster called Albert why he feels the need to still hold a grudge over something that happend 20 something years ago and to say that I whish Politicions would be judged on the here and now not whatever happend two decades ago!

In Churchill's words, this is not the end, this is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning. The US Federal Reserve panicked and cut interest rates, but market interest rates keep going in the opposite direction and the US Congress is trying to implement desperate measures to save hundreds of thousands of households threatened by higher interest rates. Alistair Darling might as well discover that the imbalances of the US market will leave him wanting and that the Bank of England cannot possibly bail out every single failing financial organization. The Conservatives were extremely measured regarding their support to the measures implemented by the government, but at the same time they wanted the Chancellor to offer details about the amount of money involved and how the money would be paid. They also said very clearly that they wanted clarification. Would the government be prepared to bail out every single failing financial organization?

Nick,
Whilst I have been impressed by your your questioning of foreign politicians, I do tend to agree with the first post by Stephen. Please bear in mind only about 25% of us voted for this government and it is 'New Labour' which has brought the country to its knees in more ways than one by a whole series of daft policy failures.

I think (apart from the mayhem) that this is a really interesting turn of events.

Despite Government assurances people continued to remove their money from NR. The people I have seen interviewed about this seem to to be very sensible hard working guys ... Why would they want to risk their life savings? when apart from queuing for a long while there would generally be no cost to them.

On a wider level it shows the Government is generally not to be believed, all the years of Spin have come home to bite, I would imagine that in the back offices in London there are some perplexed and worried faces right now.

It also shows the financial market at it's worse and best ... people can easly go to the bank and withdraw their funds and put it somewhere else. There is a general lesson here ... if you have a problem change banks, it's not hard.

Where will it finish ... I am not sure but I feel this saga has a while to run yet and the results will probably be the ones we least expect.

Once again Gordon produces the rabbit from the hat,much to the annoyance of all the gloom and doom and housing market crash forecasters.
Why did the bank itself not pledge it's profits apparently 1/2 a billion or more back to the bank to assure its customers it puts its money where it matters?
being only a ley person this propably does not sit well with investment instituitions but then again neither does falling share price's.

This is a win win situation for the government. In one swoop they remind everybody of black Wednesday (remember electorate don't vote Tory) they appear to be angels to their Northern voting base and they have appeased the city fat cats who were probably looking at sliding share prices and worrying about their billion pound Christmas bonuses this year.
And as usual Gordon Brown is in hiding whilst the s*** was hitting the fan and miraculously appears when the solution is found. He is the one who has put the country in this precarious position. He has made us like that family everyone knows down the road. They have appeared to be prosperous and doing well these last few years, lots of holidays, new phones, cars, pcs etc lots of bling. But now they can't pay off their credit cards and mortgage interest increases mean they can't pay their monthly payment because of that second loan to get that oh so wonderful conservatory. They have been forced to declare themselves bankrupt but unfortunately for them they don't have access to taxpayers money to bail them out.
Gordon Brown's financial stability has been built on straw as we are now finding out.

Far more worrying for the Government are the reasons people were giving for why they were panicking: that they longer trust ANYTHING the Government or its quangos say, regardless of how sensible it is.

And the politicians and civil servants just dont get it: you say

"Whitehall insiders have described the scenes of the past few days as illogical and irrational and called it a psychological or social problem. They have been baffled by the public's unwillingness to accept the Bank of England's guarantee that all would be well."

That just shows how out of touch they are. Do they never go down to the local pub and talk to real people?

Gordon Brown has a big task on his hands to restore faith in the credibility of government and its public authorities.

What price an early election now?

Why does Brown need to come out all the time thats why he has a chancellor
remember brown is not blair or cameron who needs to be on tv ever two minutes.The problem is sorted move on or is it the same old british way to keep moaning about things,mind you the tories have gone quiet.

We have an economy built on debt and greed. Reliant on financial services, which is populated by insatiably greedy, reckless and unscrupulous people, and consumer spending that is bolstered by the public's hugely unfortunate flagrant lack of respect for what debt actually means and how serious a problem it can be, the country is heading for a fall. How this pans out is still uncertain. However, credit to Mervyn King, who has, by not flooding the market and bailing out the financial houses, making them feel some pain - pain that they fully deserve for taking risks they have no right to take, sent out a strong message that the industry needs to change its ways. No credit whatsoever to Ben Bernanke for the kind of sickening cronyism to politicians and the big guns of Wall Street that puts the affluence of the few ahead of the pockets of the majority of the American people. Inflation there will surge, commodities prices will go through the roof, the dollar bills in their wallets will be worth next to nothing and, as per usual, the average joe pays the penalty for the fat cats' behaviour. The world is a slave to financial services and it is an unbelievably sad and depressing position to be in.

".. you might point to the dramatic policy U-turn which produced a guarantee that every penny in every account in every single solvent bank would be underwritten by the government"

Nick, this might sound like a big commitment on the government's part, apart from the word 'solvent'. That one word means the government is committing absolutley ZERO tax-payer pounds to bailing out banks. By definition if they are solvent they can pay up every penny of savers deposits from their own assets, no need for the guarantee, except to provide confidence to savers when they've been paniced by the media.
Hardly a major policy u-turn but a sensible response to remove unwarranted panic.

Nick, I am flabbergasted. The present Government of which Brown had been Chancellor for 10 years before he became PM, has been a watchword for chaos, dislocation and broken promises. We have had chaos in the Home Office, immigration out of control, foot and mouth, the NHS in disarray, a huge fiscal deficit and now this. Makes Black Wednesday look like a picnic.

The electorate and New Labour are now symbiotic in that one cannot do without the other.

In effect we now have a one party state with no reliable alternative. Why? Because New Labour's economy is based upon borrowing and the electorate needs to borrow.

The relationship can only deepen.

Would like to say well doen to those who have opened up an account at the northern rock due to its involvement in local charities. Perhaps this is a lesson for all "big" companies.

What is disturbing is that a bank is on the verge of colapse. It happened with the christmas hamper scheme where companies are using money which they have/don't have to speculate on the market. In the case of bank taking on so much credit and with the hamper company assigning peoples savings to money making schemes which ultimately failed. How about a consumer fund for when companies go bad?

鈥淲hitehall insiders鈥affled by the public鈥檚 unwillingness to accept the BoE guarantee鈥�

Or to put in another way, these Whitehall insiders have forgotten than the public is not as subservient as they!

No, we will not jump every time they click their fingers. Nice try guys, but we called your bluff this time鈥�

Why did the public panic ? It seems to be self evident that the public have already seen their pension savings flushed down the toilet by the city and ambushed by the govt, so why would they believe a word from these dis-credited institutions? Once bitten, twice shy...Gordon Brown is implicated in both the pension and NR debacles

Every time I read the comments on Nick's blog I become more and more convinced that I share this island with the most ridiculous people on earth.

Don't forget the old adage "he who thinks he knows it all knows very little at all".

This doesn't just remind me of the fuel protests but also the collapse of Rover prior to the last election.

How long before this is blamed on changes made by the previous Tory government? We listened to governments regarding pensions and people lost out.

In reality the government promised nothing at all. They would only refund savers money if NR went based. However they made it clear that NR was financially sound and would not collapse. Therefore there was no government support needed or provided.

The statement was what the customers needed 4 days earlier.

Dick Turpin, currently residing in no 10 having robbed us of our income over the last ten years, now seeks to use some of it to pay for an insurance policy so that we don't lose the rest of it.

This is the inevitable consequent of building an economy on the sand of debt. Fiscally and morally imprudent, not to say incompetant.

Are me mad to put up with this?

Nick ,
Next time you are questioning Gordon Brown,ask him if he can spell "PRUDENCE".
With Alistair Darling ,ask him where he learnt his "ECONOMICS".
Their recent pronouncements on the NR troubles now guarantees for the future that any bank getting into trouble will have no worries because they have effectively guaranteed every savers last penny in a Bank

... Whitehall insiders have described the scenes of the past few days as illogical and irrational and called it a psychological or social problem. They have been baffled by the public's unwillingness to accept ...

if this government told me the sky was blue I'd seek a second opinion and verify for myself - they didtched the main storyteller a few weeks ago but he was never working alone and we all know that.

Elections are being talked up by the media in their usual frenzied way.
Just leave it alone and get to policy. Everyone knew that Tony was going to go and that Gorden would take over.... except, it seems, the media. They have had their heads in their own scrum too long and it heightens their feelings of importance. They should remember they are reporters not makers of knews.

"They have been baffled by the public's unwillingness to accept the Bank of England's guarantee that all would be well. POLICY will clearly have to CHANGE."

Sorry, Nick, policy will not matter s jot. The PUBLIC do NOT trust any of the major bodies and institutions. An announced policy will be treated as just more cover-up and spin, it is a change in attitude that is needed.

This includes Government, Banks, Hospitals, Police, as well as the old favoutites Estate Agents and others.

All have proven to be more economic with the truth than with the quality of service to their clients.

It is a long weay back for all of them and many will never again be as trusting as before.

Northern Rock adopted lending policies which led to difficulties within the rules set for banks.

No one who lent the bank lost money, the taxpayer lost no money.

Shareholders should eb aware that shares can go down as well as up.

It is no surprise whatsover that some who had deposited money with the bank kept right on panicking, they probably read this column or some like it elsewhere which constantly denigrate HMG, the Labour Party and the UK.

The moral: ignore the Tories.

And as I have repeatedly pointed out: there is no need for an election.

Such a a poll just might conceivably emulate Mr Heath's result in the first poll in 1974.

"Who Governs?" he asked.

"Obviously not you matey" was the answer.

And 57% of those polled now say no election now thank you!

I would not be surprised if most want one after 4 years or so have elapsed since the last . . .