I was intrigued to hear Gordon Brown declare this morning that the Government would continue to take the tough decisions needed on finance and the economy since the waters were still choppy, even though the worst was now over.   What tough decisions, I wondered, was he referring to?    Yes, the Government did take the bold decision at the outset to preempt a total fiancial collapse by bolstering the banking system and bailing out the worst-hit banks.

But ever since then every hard decision has been dodged:

*  the banks were propped up by the ruinously expensive Asset Protection Scheme (with taxpayer exposure to the tune of £570bn) in order at all costs to avoid (temporarily) nationalising the banks which was the far far cheaper and better option,

*  the condition explicitly stated for bailing out the banks was that they should continue to lend to businesses and homeowners at 2007 levels, and when the banks did the exact opposite, they were allowed to get away with it with impunity and not forced to meet their obligations,

*  none of the tough decisions to prevent a recurrence of the 2008 collapse have been taken: toxic derivatives have not been prohibited or regulated, casino investment banks have not been separated off from normal High Street commercial banking, and the City of London has not been shrunk to a level which fits the size of the British economy and allows a revival of the manufacturing sector on which the future of the economy depends,

*  none of the gigantic bonuses which drove the recklessness in the trading rooms have been bridled in, nor has the unaccountable power and wealth of the City been tackled – meaning that nothing has been done to prevent another (and bigger, and perhaps fatal) collapse ten years down the line.

Talking about tough decisions isn’t enough; they actually have to be delivered.

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