My second column for the New Statesman site

The second of my fortnightly columns can be found on the New Statesman site:

Westminster insiders told me last week that Darling was determined on two points.

The first was that he was not going to take Northern Rock into public ownership and give Vince Cable the chance to say “I told you so”. Well, that one has gone by the board.

The second was that he is determined to scotch Tory attempts to portray him as a ditherer. Those insiders also told me he has not made up his mind how he is going to do it yet.

The people at the Statesman has hit upon the title Calder's Comfort Farm for the column.

It is a tribute to Stella Gibbons' novel, which happens to be a great favourite me. And Calder's Comfort Farm also sounds like a lost concept album from the early 1970s, which fits well with this blog's current preoccupations.