Will Brown benefit from stock market concerns?

Dear Daniel Finkelstein,

You certainly put together an interesting argument in today’s Times.  With the stock market looking decidely shaky, voters will probably have their attention deflected away from the Government, at least for a short while.   However, I don’t agree with your assessment of where this will all end.

In hard times, I agree that voters often prefer the devil they know - which in this case would mean sticking with Labour should the economy still be in a mess at the next election.  I suspect that voters won’t hold our Government responsible for the stock market wobbles, which is perfectly understandable.  However, the myth of Gordon Brown’s economic competence is starting to slowly disintegrate and people are genuinely wondering whether he can steady the rocky boat that is our economic outlook (let’s face it, Alistair Darling is an irrelevance and doesn’t control anything).  To this end,  I don’t agree with your prediction that David Cameron will abandon his optimistic approach to campaigning because he is starting to reap the rewards of his approach and the public are looking to him to provide an alternative to Labour (i.e. no sleaze, maybe some tax cuts, general competence, and sorting out the mess that this country is in).

I guess the fundamental point we disagree on is that you believe that Gordon Brown is seen as an authority figure in the minds of the public, whereas I think they look at him as a complete disaster.  He won’t get blamed for the stock market wobbles, but in my humble opinion he will never again be seen as the saviour of the British economy.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory