Article: Worrying echoes of John Major and Black Wednesday

The week in politics

"The irony is that if Gordon had called the election, he would have fought it on competence," the cabinet minister told me with a rueful smile. It might have worked on 1 November. But Gordon Brown would be laughed out of court if he tried to fight a "competence election" now.

How quickly things have changed. Confusion over the number of migrant workers. An admission that thousands of illegal immigrants were working in the security industry. The taxi drivers' vote lost, but not disastrous in the wider world.

Then growing fears that taxpayers might not get back all the Government's 24bn loan to Northern Rock. Getting serious.

And, to cap it all, the bombshell that ...

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