Dwindling confidence fuelled by indecision

ALL governments make policy announcements to suit their own agenda. So it is pointless to be surprised at Alistair Darling for announcing – a week before the strategic Glasgow East by-election – that the 2p rise in petrol duty scheduled for October has been postponed.

But more importantly, the Chancellor made his decision on the same day that hundreds of thousands of public-sector workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were on strike for an inflation- busting, 6 per cent wage increase.

If the government...