Gordon Brown, the poor man's Winston

I have a horrible feeling Gordon Brown thinks he’s Winston Churchill. Cometh the hour, he seems to believe, cometh the man.

He may be partly responsible for the global financial freefall but that won’t dissuade him from the view that his entire life has been leading up to this moment, when he, and he alone, is equipped to lead us out of the cash desert.

Mr Brown doesn’t promise nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat. Instead he promises “work, effort, responsible risk-taking and enterprise”.

Despite – or maybe because of – the crashing markets and imploding banks, our Prime Minister looks as if he’s enjoying himself.

He breezed into Birmingham on Thursday for a one-hour encounter with “business leaders”. He was warmly received.

His audience seemed grateful that at long last the Government was getting to grips with a financial crisis which seems to be beyond the comprehension of most people.

Mr Brown’s audience at the offices of accountants KPMG were mainly businessmen struggling to cope with the downturn.

Yet David Smith, chief executive of Jaguar Land-Rover, called Mr Brown’s rescue package for the banks “a bold and imaginative plan”. Others were equally fulsome.

Nobody criticised the multi-billion pound bank bail-out. They just sought reassurances and generally that’s what they got.

We'd been summoned by e-mail only the night before. But the chance to see the Prime Minister first hand in the eye of the storm is irresistible. Most people dropped everything and rushed over.

Mr Brown was relaxed. A month ago, it looked as if his time as Prime Minister was about to come to a shuddering halt.

Now he is positioning himself as the world leader of the concerted economic rescue plan – taking credit for this week’s co-ordinated, worldwide set of interest-rate cuts.

Of course he still breathes strangely, he looks like he hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep for ages and his teeth are disconcertingly white. But he acts as if he thinks he’s the right man for a crisis.

He said his rescue package was aimed at restoring normality to the banking system.

But the massive sums of money involved would not mean public spending cuts, he said. He even went on to claim that, in the long run, the taxpayer could make a profit.

That’s because he is lending money to the banks at commercial rates, and buying their shares when the price is low.

In a masterful under-statement, he announced: “I think people round the country are surprised at what’s happened.

“They go about their ordinary business working hard, being responsible, making the effort. They find there are these problems they were never told were happening.

“We have to be able to explain to them the basic fundamentals of an economy based on work, effort, responsible risk-taking and enterprise are intact.”

Surprised? Gob-smacked, appalled, incredulous maybe. But surprised?

The Prime Minister got an easy ride. The meeting was chaired by Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, who said he would not accept questions about who was to blame for the whole fiasco nor would he entertain “political statements”.

Difficult questions like one about whether he would abandon the imposition of rates on empty properties were declared by Mr Brown to be matters for someone else – in that case Chancellor Alistair Darling.

The 150 or so “business leaders” included a fair number working in the public sector. They were worried about their funding. Mr Brown assured him there wouldn’t be any spending cuts.

Meanwhile he had a go at the Government of Iceland, whose UK assets had been “frozen”.

He revealed that one of the banks he’s rescued had been committed to buying more toxic sub-prime mortgages for the next three years. Mr Brown did not say which bank nor did he actually comment on the sanity of its directors.

Having guaranteed depositors, promised to do everything he could to revive the economy and said he would fight for global solutions, Mr Brown added that if his rescue package failed, he had more weapons in his armoury.

Nobody asked where all this money is coming from or what happens to the taxpayer if it all goes wrong. Nobody asked why the banks had not been regulated properly.

Nobody asked why banks get bailed out but not real industry or why banks should be free to carry on repossessing homes and shutting businesses even now.

Instead, Mr Brown and his entourage departed with applause ringing in their ears, for all the world as if the business leaders of the West Midlands really did think he was their saviour.

It may be they were clapping to keep their spirits up. It’s a different story when the unreality of bandying about taxpayers’ billions meets the cold hard reality of job-losses, repossessed homes and disappearing businesses.