Brown still faces tough times

GORDON Brown's backing for the Star's Fightback campaign is a welcome boost as Suffolk seeks to help lead Britain out of recession.

But while it is good for us to have backing from the top, the Prime Minister needs to look at himself and his team to see how they can lead the country's fightback.

And firstly he has to recognise his responsibility for the mess we are in at the moment.

He was chancellor for 10 years while the banks played fast and loose with the nation's money, turning an industry from something which should have been safe and dependable into something that was exciting and risky.

Now those risks have come home to roost and Mr Brown's chancellor, Alastair Darling, has shied away from taking action that the nation wants to see.

The government effectively owns the Royal Bank of Scotland after it suffered terminal indigestion after it became over-ambitious - but still RBS managers are set to reap huge bonuses.

It is no good for Mr Darling to go on weekend breakfast television and tell the nation these are unacceptable - be should use the power the government now has over a bank it owns to stop them in their tracks.

People losing their jobs in other industries need to see that those who got us into this mess are sharing their suffering, not being rewarded.

And while there are positive things happening in Suffolk, developments we are happy to highlight as part of the fightback campaign, Mr Brown and his chancellor need to work very hard to put right the damage that has been caused to the economy over recent years.

And they know they don't have much time - with a general election having to take place by June next year they know that unless they have some spectacular successes over the next few months someone else will be living in Downing Street when Britain does finally emerge from the recession.