Dither ye not

Simon Carr in yesterday's Independent accused the government of embarking on an "aggressive programme of dithering" over the credit crisis.

With £50bn of Carr's - and our - money put down on Britain's wobbling banking system, dithering now seems like he last charge you'd level at this government. Recklessness, or a willingness to reward bad behaviour, perhaps, but not dithering. Deal agreed at 5am, announced at 7.30am, badda bing, badda boom.

Will it work? I don't know. My economist flat mate Favad knows about that kind of thing, but his comment that "I like what I'm seeing" augers well I suppose.

The more pertinent question for the politically-minded is: will it work for Gordon?

There is no doubt that this crisis has been good for Brown. It has chased away Labour's rebels, shown David Cameron up as a peripheral player and reminded us why we used to rate, if not actually like, Gordon.

But before No.10 starts breaking out the champagne they might want to look at the detail of the most recent opinion poll (Hat tip: UK Polling Report). The message here is that, despite hopes that a frightened populace might cling to Gordon, he is still behind Mr Cameron on just about every available measure.

Moreover, as Anthony Wells points out, the public still seem intent on changing the government when the opportunity arises; by a margin of 2 to 1 respondents agree that it is "time for a change".

One only has to think back to the nadir of the Brown premiership of a couple of months ago, with bungled relaunches following lost by-elections to realise that Gordo has come a long way in repariing his tattered repution. But, as this poll shows, he has an awful lot still to do.