Gordon Brown is due to meet bank bosses today to discuss how to relieve pressure in the mortgage lending market. He will emerge later to say it was a “constructive” discussion and that the financial services industry acknowledged it had a “key role” to play in maintaining stability and restoring “normal functioning” of markets. Here’s what he really thinks:

“All right, let’s get straight down to business. As I see it, we’re in the same leaking boat. People accuse you of having fuelled the financial crisis by overplaying your hand during the good times and now they’re losing confidence in your ability to sort it out. Well, join the club. I mean, even the FT published a poll on Monday saying nearly 70 per cent of British people are ‘not confident at all’ in my government’s ability to deal with the crisis. Where you have investors, I have voters.