Cameron hits Rock bottom

Poor David Cameron.

Even when a big British business like Northern Rock hits some trouble and Foot and Mouth cases keep rearing their ugly hooves, the Tory leader remains unable to park the blame at Number 10.

And quite right too, no-one really thinks that Gordon Brown has caused this Northern Rock mayhem. It's really rather simple, even with BBC News 24 spelling it out to us every 15 minutes Cameron still hasn't cottoned on:

American banks took on too much risky debt, it was sold on to British banks and the resultant jitters has led to a lack of short-term funding available for the institutions who have been left holding the dodgy assets. Northern Rock may not have the money short term that they would like but they have stacks of assets propping them up so there isn't any risk of serious long-term problems, hence the Government's calmness in guaranteeing all of the bank's deposits.

And yes, despite all of this, Cameron tries his best to win some political points on the issue by claiming Gordon Brown presided over this rising debt so therefore, somehow, he is to blame.

I would always expect such cheap political tactics to backfire and Cameron only had to wait a few days for the negative effects of his finger-pointing to hit home. For Cameron is now less popular than Ming Campbell which really is remarkable given half the Lib Dems would fancy seeing the back of Ming. And through all of this Gordon Brown glides into the 40% polling zone. The clunking fists may not be ordering an election anytime soon, but I'm sure he's sleeping easier at nights than Cameron is.

Yes, it's safe to say, the Labour Government is solid as a Rock these days. Expect to see lots of smiling faces at Bournemouth next week.