The UK government is in crisis, accused of betraying, endangering and ripping off the public. Just like old times again, ain’t it?  But this time the beleaguered New Labour government has done something more than misplacing the personal and banking details of 15m UK families on two discs. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has lost the CD-thin support of the media and the public that cheered him into Downing Street a few months ago amid optimistic talk of new beginnings and dramatic change, even a ‘revolution’.

His share price has collapsed almost as dramatically as that of Northern Rock, the troubled mortgage lender. Brown has gone from boom to bust in a matter of weeks. Now there is talk of Brown sinking into dark moods, bullying everybody, barricading himself within his inner circle, while younger guns like Ed Balls and David Miliband already begin jostling for position to succeed him as leader.

There have even been the first signs of a Blair-lash, as some serious observers start to appear almost nostalgic for the days of Tony. One anonymous Brownite cabinet minister has reportedly been wondering aloud whether Labour isn’t starting to look like the Tories in the doomed last days of John Major’s government, veering from one crisis to another.