The public declarations by the UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the past year that the financial meltdown is not his fault have long sounded hollow. But in the light of this week’s potential bailout for the UK banking system of £450bn (€485.3bn), they have become patently absurd.

Like most politicians, Gordon would like to have his cake and eat it. On the one hand, he is rightly proud of his record as Chancellor of the Exchequer in overseeing 63 quarters of economic growth - the longest period of uninterrupted economic growth in the UK since record began - while keeping inflation broadly under control. He had, famously, eliminated "boom and bust".