Busted Tories

Question Time tonight: strange to see Melanie Phillips, however grudgingly, agreeing with Gordon Brown’s handling of the economic stramash.

It struck me, watching Tory frontbencher Phillip Hammond (no, I’m not sure who he is either) flounder, that the public are being more sophisticated than the Tories here.

Yes, we know Brown could have handled the economy better. No, we don’t believe that he, and he alone, was the architect of the global meltdown.

But the real issue is not how we got here but how we get out of here. As Cameron and Osbourne wade through treacle trying to find a coherent response Brown’s way looks ever more appealing.

Because, for all their bluster, it looks right now as if David and George were the only people in the country who actually believed the Prime Minister when he told us that he’d abolished boom and bust.