Mervyn's visit to Manchester

I went to a lunch in Manchester last week. The Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, spoke to around 200 business professionals about the state of the economy; how we had got ourselves into this situation, and what he thought the Bank and the Government should be (and is) doing about it. We were all reminded that the content of Mr King's speech was not to be divulged to the press.
In the event, we were not the recipients of some radical financial thinking which was going to change the world overnight. Much of what I heard had already been documented in the national press in the past few months.
However, what came across was probably more significant than the theories and proposed actions. There seems to be a contrast between how the Bank thinks the economy can be turned around, and how Mr Brown intends addressing the situation. After last week's presentation I am firmly of the opinion that Mr King and his staff have the right philosophy to drive us along the road to improvement.
Mervyn King is an excellent speaker, and he has this ability to convince listeners that his 'boring' (his words) approach and persona are actually what the economy needs to recover.
I'll be following developments in both camps with great interest over the next few months. There's no great prediction of immediate recovery, and there could still be rough times ahead. We are of course not the only nation facing this crisis. But I came away thinking that Britain has a good chance if we follow the path advocated by the Bank of England.
Roger