A few days ago I wondered about whether the Labour party understood why they were so unpopular and made light of some of the Fabians' ideas for putting things right.

Now, there's a new set of ideas being bandied about over at Liberal Conspiracy, which are, to say the least, no improvement on the last lot.

When your job, household income, housing costs are inherently unstable you then need active and interventionist government to counter-balance wider and unpredictable economic forces.

Richards argued the fact that Northern Rock has been nationalised without obvious political cost demonstrates how the mood has changed. He’s right and there is a discussion to be had about the appropriate level of regulation of financial markets and the need for consideration of how we can create more proactive financial watchmen.

As someone pointed out in the comments, the three hundred-odd councillors the Labour party lost the other day suggest strongly that there was, in fact, a ginormous political price paid for the Northern Rock fiasco. And more regulation? Get real man! How many major multinationals have hinted that they're going to leave the country in the last couple of weeks?

Aberdeen Asset Management, WPP, United Business Media, Shire?

You can lead a horse to water, and all that...