This weekend saw the entire business community uniting against the chancellor. The CBI, IoD and a surprisingly large number of small business and industry trade goups jointly urged Brown to get a grip on the pensions crisis. Brownites have few reasons to be cheerful. The wheels look like they are falling off the economy, unemployment has been rising month-on-month, growth is declining, government debt is rising and Blair is still hanging on.

Gordon may yet be left holding the economy baby. The Tories will be renewed by a new, next generation leader. So we are entering a period of potentially dynamic dis-equilibrium, the polls could swing dramatically. At the bookmakers the odds on Labour losing the next election have halved in the last month. Gordon seems increasingly at risk of being thwarted in his ambitions and Blair may yet have the last laugh…