Peter Hoskin

Fraser's right: the Tories' new poster campaign really is superb. Highlighting the damage that Gordon Brown's debt binge will wreak on future generations is an important - and resonant - cause.  And the emotive image and slogan that the Tories' ad men have paired together should tap successfully into the parental voting bloc. But therein also lies a problem.  Campaigns about debt are all too often geared at those with - or those with hope of having - children.  As I argued in the Telegraph a few weeks ago, this is a missed opportunity.

Jobs, jobs, jobs.  That's what you'll be hearing from the Government today, as Gordon Brown hosts a jobs summit in London and outlines his government's plans to get people back into work during the downturn.  From the details I've seen so far, those plans sound like an extension of existing New Deal practices - financial incentives (of up to £2,500) for companies which take on new workers; extra training places; and targeted help for those who have been unemployed for over six months.  According to the Times, it will all cost around £500 million. Another thing you'll hear is the "do nothing" chant repeated ad nauseam.

Simple fact is Ayn Rand's outnumbered. For all the force and topicality of her Atlas Shrugged - Fraser's recommendation of which I heartily agree with, although I think The Fountainhead is a more effective dose of Rand's objectivism - the artistic and literary worlds seem to have much more room for works that, on some level, can be used as counterweight to Rand's philosophy.  There's plenty of literature, cinema and music which almost solely deals in the dangers of enterprise, ambition, industry and the American Dream. Now, I'm not saying there shouldn't be - after all, no social or political system's perfect, and critique is always necessary.  Besides, much of this art is excellent.

Apologies, after my last post, for the opinion poll one-two punch, but this ComRes effort in today's Indpendent is well worth pointing out.  Only 28 percent of its business leader respondents say that they're confident in the Prime Minster's ability to manage the economy - down from 42 percent in October - and only 16 percent are confident in Alistair Darling.  The corresponding figures for Dave 'n' George are 46 and 29 percent respectively. Off the top of my head, it's the first time that the Tory pair have had a significant lead on economic credibility for a few months now.

Fraser's already raised the most important question hovering over today's rate cut: that is, what options are left once the rate-cutting route has been exhausted?  But there's another question in the air, touched on by Mike Smithson over at Political Betting: just how low can we go?  We're already at the lowest base rate in the Bank of England's 315 year history, and bookies are offering odds on rates hitting 0 percent by the end of the year (20/1 according to the Ladbrokes press release that hit my inbox earlier). Politically, I can't see the downwards trajectory of interest rates doing much to help Gordon Brown.

With speculation mounting that Ken Clarke's set to replace Alan Duncan in a dual shadow business secretary and shadow Mandelson role, it's well worth reading Ben Brogan's blog post on what Mandy makes of it all.  By the sounds of it, the Spinmaster General's already stirring up mischief; letting it be known that he'd welcome Clarke as an adversary.  As Brogan writes: "[Mandelson] particularly likes the idea of a fellow pro-European lending weight to the campaign to get Britain (eventually, when the time is right and all conditions have been met bla bla) into the single currency." The question is what Mandelson intends with all this.  Would he really welcome Clarke back, perhaps because of the red-rag-waving it enables him to do over Europe?