Skipper

I originally had Darling down as a very sharp cookie, very well presented and intellectually disciplined. Then as he occupied a succession of jobs at Social Security, Work and Pensions, Transport, without visibly disturbing the surface of politics, I began to think he was a mere cypher, an empty vessel. This impression was confiormed when he was made Chancellor- Gordon was always going to have a 'yes' man in charge of his Treasury fiefdom. But Darling has been quite impressive during the crisis I reckon.

Firstly for keeping incredibly cool. To stay still and calm at the centre of the seething cauldron of the banking catastrophe and credit crunch has taken extraordinary sang froid. Secondly, he has stood up to Brown's attempt to borrow yet more money to add to the mountain already borrowed and throw into what may yet prove to be a black hole.

Faced with the budget today I just hope he has the metal to deny Trident its £60 billion replacement. A permanent nuclear sub on patrol has always been a bit of 'great power' hubristic nonsense and, indeed, one wonders whom it is intended to act as a deterrent? Against a great power we would never use it and to deal with smaller powers we surely do not need such an expensive virility symbol as a delivery system, especially when we're virtually broke?