Cameron cast asunder by Gord Almighty's bail-out.

Byline: Paul Routledge

GORDON Brown came down from Dithering Heights like an Old Testament prophet.

He brought tablets of stone engraved with a rescue programme for the nation, and lo, the people ceased to panic. Sort of. Generally speaking.

A mighty sigh of relief breathed through the country, mixed with questions like: "The bankers got us into this. Why the hell should we pay to get them out of it?"

A natural reaction, but there's no point complaining because the government has been and gone and done it.

This isn't the USA, where the President has to seek approval of Congress. Prime Minister Brown and Chancellor Darling didn't have to ask Parliament to endorse the gigantic pounds 500billion bail-out of the banks. The deal was done in secret over a balti in Downing Street.

Some Labour MPs are already calling it "Gordon's Falklands moment", implying that his war against recession could win a general election just as Maggie's war against General Galtieri gave her victory in 1983.

Whoa! It's not over yet by a long chalk.

We're on Tumbledown Mountain, not staging a glorious entry into Port Stanley.

But to use Churchill's famous phrase after the battle of Alamein, this is not the end, not even the beginning of the end, but perhaps it is the end of the beginning. After more than a year of faffing about, Brown has finally shown what he is capable of.

Decisive action. And it is awesome.

By contrast, the Tories looked like fourth-form kids trying to follow a particularly difficult O-level lesson in economics.

First, they said nothing. Then they said they would support the government.

Then they tried to pick holes in the package, posing as ultra-Left enemies of obscene bonuses. This sham fooled nobody, because these are the very same City bandits who fund the Conservative Party.

Last week, Dave Cameron said he was "a man with a plan". Where was the plan? It doesn't exist. More like a man with a flan.

And his sidekick George Osborne squeaked backing for Labour through gritted milk teeth.

Their performance is pathetic. If this is a government in waiting, I'm the Queen's Lady in Waiting.

Before we celebrate, however, just think what this means for Mr and Mrs Briton. Brown and Darling are spending pounds 1,600 of every taxpayer's money on this rescue programme.

Eventually, that almost certainly means lower government spending or higher taxes. Or both.

The alternative was worse - not a recession lasting a year, but a slump lasting a decade.

And anyone with knowledge of the Great Depression of the 1930s will tell you just how dreadful that would be.

It puts into perspective the hooha over the return of Lord Snooty, aka Peter Mandelson, doesn't it?