Bleak news on "Blue Monday"
Another Monday morning, . This one is taking place, appropriately enough, on "Blue Monday', apparently the most depressing day of the year, as Christmas credit card bills roll in and New Year's resolutions are broken.
It certainly must be pretty blue over at the Royal Bank of Scotland, which has and has had to succumb to even more state ownership to stay afloat. But it's hardly alone: the government is launching a second huge life-raft for all the major banks in yet another effort to get lending going again. Having already pumped £37bn of taxpayers' money onto their balance sheets, this time we're being saddled with another £200bn of risk as the state offers to insure the banks' bad debts (of which they have a lot).
Ministers are worried that the public's patience with bank bailouts is wearing thin, even if opposition politicians are broadly going along with it. Certainly the so called "Brown Bounce" is showing signs of being a dead cat bounce, with recent polls now giving the Tories a clear lead of 10 points or more. We'll be looking at the economics and politics of today's announcement.
Also today, David Cameron shuffles his team, Ken Clarke to shadow Peter Mandelson's Business department. And veteran Liberal Democrat Shirley Williams will be here too. We'll be asking her why the Liberal Democrats are losing support under their young leader, Nick Clegg.
All that on Ö÷²¥´óÐã2 from noon today on the Daily Politics. It'll sweep Blue Monday from your furrowed brow!
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