How is that Lloyds, a seemingly well run and conservatively managed bank, has in the space of few weeks gone from being solid and unexposed to the U.S. mortgage market to being nationalised by the government? One wonders if the chairman now regrets meeting Jonah Brown at that party…

Trevor Kavanagh this morning points out that the collapse of Britain’s banks was not inevitable, “it hasn’t happened in Canada, Australia or Sweden”. So much for Britain being uniquely placed to weather the financial storm. Gordon designed the regulatory system, Gordon allowed the property bubble to inflate. Gordon’s bubble has now popped.

Gordon is spinning that he is leading the world, either he is delusional or deliberately lying, in Europe they are calling the EU-wide rescue plan the “Sarkozy solution”. If any country can honestly claim leadership, it is actually Sweden, the EU plan being based on a nineties solution to a Swedish banking crisis. Gordon, for some reason, needs us to believe he is saving the world.