MAIL COMMENT: One year on... and it's still getting worse

If Chancellor Alistair Darling had set out to paralyse the housing market, he couldn't have done a more effective job.

What was he thinking of, when he hinted this week at the possibility of suspending stamp duty... but not yet?

Alistair Darling: 'A more forceful Chancellor might have unveiled a bolder tax package to restore confidence'

By making it clear that nothing will be decided until Autumn, he has depressed the housing market even further.

Countless would-be home buyers are deciding to wait and see. Why rush to buy, when a delay might save thousands of pounds?

The impact on an economy so heavily dependent on a buoyant housing market, can hardly be exaggerated.

Prices are already in free fall. Countless owners are in negative equity. More than 150,000 families are in mortgage arrears. Repossessions have soared. And now we face months of market stagnation.

A sorry story, indeed. But then, all too typical of the unimpressive way the Government has mismanaged the credit crunch, which began a year ago today.

In contrast with the U.S. Fed and the European Central Bank, we were painfully slow to react. We took months to sort out Northern Rock, when the Americans pulled off far bigger bank rescues in days.

Mr Darling's Budget made matters worse, with the fiasco over the 10p tax rate, ludicrously optimistic growth forecasts and the filching of Tory clothes on inheritance tax. It was a wretched performance.

So an opportunity was lost. A more forceful Chancellor might have unveiled a bolder tax package to restore confidence. He might have trumpeted the end of Mr Brown's golden rules as an imaginative move to stimulate the economy.

Instead, he appeared out of his depth. The confusion over stamp duty seems to confirm that impression. So what now?

Prices are up. Jobs are under threat. Homes are at risk. On mortgages, credit cards and other loans, families are £600 a year worse off than last year  -  and that's not counting the increased cost of fuel, council tax and all the rest.

Sadly, there is probably worse to come. Don't we deserve a Chancellor who at least looks as though he knows what he's doing?

War in the Caucasus

Russian artillery, Georgian tanks, civilians dead... though the battle raging in South Ossetia may seem impossibly remote, this is a corner of Europe where the interests of Moscow and the West are dangerously in conflict.

This confrontation has been just waiting to happen since the collapse of the Soviet empire. Georgia seceded from the USSR and now wants to join Nato. A furious Moscow is desperate to prevent it.

But what makes this confrontation so toxic is that two Georgian border areas, South Ossetia and Abkhazia are in revolt and seek protection from Moscow. So when the Georgian army tried to crush the rebellion, Russia had its excuse to respond.

This has the seeds of an all-out crisis. Russia is determined to roll back Western influence. The U.S. is firmly on Georgia's side.

The region contains key oil and gas pipelines, on which Europe depends. The stakes couldn't be higher.

What public service?

For once, the Mail almost feels sorry for ITV chief Michael Grade, who warns that commercial television is losing so much money that cuts in services are necessary.

No such problems bother the BBC, which even in these hard-up times wouldn't dream of economising or cutting the £2.8billion subsidy paid by the rest of us.

So it sends 437 staff to the Beijing Olympics. It hands gold-plated pensions to its top brass.

Oh, and the £18million it pays Jonathan Ross enables him to buy a £40,000 bathtub.

Was this what Lord Reith meant by public service broadcasting?