Gordon Brown is on the bounce but crisis suits 'dull' Darling best

YESTERDAY was make or break time for Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling. And once again the Prime Minister was looking gloomy while the Chancellor was looking increasingly chipper.

The opinion polls are showing a somewhat unexpected "Brown Bounce" against the Tories and Scottish Nationalists, but it is the Edinburgh South-West MP Mr Darling who is looking the happier of the two around Westminster.

Former Tory Chancellor Ken Clarke admitted to me that he would relish being back in charge of the Treasury right now. "I used to enjoy the crises," he says.

And, in an odd sort of way, Mr Darling seems to as well. He's been managing just a few hours sleep a night – at the height of negotiations last week he was up till nearly 4am drawing up the Government's rescue package and back in the Treasury just after 5am to sign off the final deal.

Nevertheless he was on top form when I spoke to him yesterday before he made a string of Commons statements on his plans to tackle the effects of the credit crunch. He was quick to turn on the Nationalists, pointing to the Union as a source of strength in these troubled times for Edinburgh and the Scottish economy as a whole.

"It is certainly an extremely serious problem for everybody across the country. The steps we are taking are essential and very necessary to deal with this," he said.

"They are just as vital for Scotland as the rest of the UK, especially as Edinburgh is the nation's second financial centre. Simply, if we do not act, there are major problems ahead for the country and the Scottish capital. It has shown that while Alex Salmond calls for independence, only a UK and global solution can deal with this. A small country just could not tackle this scale of crisis."

Mr Darling has denied to friends that getting the job of Chancellor from his pal Mr Brown was a poisoned chalice. The Prime Minister himself – despite his downbeat demeanour – today seems like a man in charge of a crisis again, as he did in his first few months when he tackled flooding, terrorism and foot and mouth.

With the opinion polls starting suddenly to move in his direction as the stock market dives, he should be looking like a man on the way back rather than the manager of the Scottish football team.

Certainly the other main parties in Scotland and the UK are looking a bit lost.

With First Minister Alex Salmond – a former Royal Bank of Scotland oil economist, of course – and his Finance Minister John Swinney looking for their own massive bail-out from Westminster, they look powerless in the face of a global economic crisis that would have left an independent Scotland facing a disaster of Icelandic propostions.

Tory leader David Cameron has failed to produce his own plan for how to get out of the stew, and while Mr Darling has always been seen as dull, his Tory Shadow "Boy George" Osborne has just seemed out of his depth.

Even the Liberal Democrats have been unable to take on the problem, as their leader at Westminster, Nick Clegg, is just too fresh faced and inexperienced to make an impression.

Only his deputy and Treasury spokesman Vincent Cable – who after Sir Menzies Campbell's forced retirement from the top post decided against running for the party leadership, believing he was too old for the job – has made any dent in the Prime Minister and Chancellor's dealing with the economic crisis.

And indeed Mr "Dull" Darling seems to be revelling in his new crisis-laden job in a way his Tory predecessor Mr Clarke would approve of.

He was, of course, initially ridiculed after describing the current crisis as the biggest economic disaster for 60 years a few weeks ago – but who would disagree with him now? Whether he and Mr Brown's management of it will save Labour's political bacon in the Glenrothes by-election is yet to be seen. But they have acted decisively to protect Edinburgh and Scotland's financial sector and that may yet help if too many people have not already deserted Labour for the SNP.

Mr Brown, having spent so long trying to become Prime Minister, now appears to be suffering agonies over how long he can last. He is anxious to at least emulate John Major by winning a General Election rather than becoming one of a handful of UK leaders who never managed even that. Mr Darling, however, seems to have taken the opposite view.

While the latest crisis may cost him his Cabinet job, Labour's power in government and even his marginal city seat, there is no point in acting like Corporal Jones or Private Fraser from Dad's Army, running round shouting "Don't panic" or "We're all doomed, doomed".

He is instead simply getting on with his job, having decided that if it all works out then he will still be Chancellor after the next General Election, and if it does not then he will – like another senior Edinburgh Cabinet Minister, Sir Malcolm Rifkind in 1997 – be looking for alternative employment.

Perhaps that's the best attitude in current catastrophic global economic circumstances – and one that may yet save him everything...or not.