When you start at the bottom of the ski jump, in a heap, the only way is up.

So, prediction… capitalism is the next big thing.

But, bigger still, is leadership. From the ashes, folks look for leaders. Cometh the hour, cometh the man and all that. So, beacon leadership is coming from Peter Mandelson. And, titan Ken Clarke is back on stage. We knew we loved them - but in the good times, we left the bit-part boys to have a go.

It’s interesting to see Wildcat strikes, too. These come on top of those strange fuel protests in Blair’s reign. They are disorganised, anarchic… They grow and morph with internet organisation - and don’t have any visible leaders to for the standard political establishment to have a pop at. This makes them all the more potent.

Interestingly, when I met some senior pollsters, they point to the tipping point of Blair’s popularity being the fuel protest - not engagement in the Iraq war - which turned the electorate against him. 

An interesting article on some of this in the FT - by Jonathan Guthrie - implicating the BNP.

Makes you think about the rise of Hitler - charismatic, tapping into the local, protectionist moods of fear. Maybe maybe in this new era, we can feel how that setting created a monster with more empathy than before? For me, it’s how Cameron and Clarke can monopolise on this by putting forward leadership and a good plan because I’m not advocating the dark side, but the positive re-engagement of capitalism as the tool for progress.

      

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