A war on two fronts

摘要

Gordon Brown is having a good autumn, if a hyperactive one. A strong speech at the Labour Party conference in September staved off internal challenges to his leadership. His government's vigorous response to the financial system's woes in the form of a ￡400 billion ($693 billion) bank bail-out this week is likely to boost his reputation outside his party too. As economic times get tougher, more people seem persuaded that they would do well to hang on to the skipper they've got. Not that Mr Brown has escaped the familiar charge of dithering-uncertainty over what kind of intervention, if any, wasrnplanned by Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the exchequer, contributed to huge falls in share prices. That the struggling Treasury will be burdened with still more borrowing to pay for the bail-out is also a concern. But whatever the caveats, the rescue was supported by the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats-a spectacle that recalled Mr Brown's moment in the sun as bipartisan "father of the nation" in his early months in office. Though only time will tell whether the plan actually works, coping with crisis has given the government the sense of mission it lacked.