PETER OBORNE: Gordon's fibs, Keynes and the myth about the depression

The British economy is facing one of its gravest crises, and Gordon Brown's economic framework has been shown up as a sham. It worked well during the good times, but imploded when put to the test. It says a great deal for the Prime Minister's muscular resilience that he has not been totally destroyed - morally, intellectually, emotionally and politically - by this utter disaster and humiliation. 

Brown has used three tricks to ensure his survival:

• First, he has turned to the oldest and cheapest gambit in the political lexicon: he has blamed Johnny Foreigner.

• The Prime Minister's second tactic is deception. In a stroke that must have brought a gasp of admiration even from his notoriously untruthful predecessor Tony Blair, the Prime Minister now denies that he ever claimed to bring an end of 'boom and bust'.

• But it is his third response to the economic collapse that is truly remarkable. Gordon Brown has abandoned prudence and seeks credibility by associating himself instead with the ideas of the great 20th-century economist John Maynard Keynes.

Oborne is as insightful as ever. I just wish he wasn't writing for The Mail.