Welcome move by Cameron

David Cameron's decision to apologise for the Tories not having done better in spotting what was going wrong in the run up to the current recession is a welcome move. Hopefully it will mean his party can accept what needs to be done (like Vince Cable has been advocating) rather than feel hidebound in any way to the existing system. Sometimes an apology is necessary and it allows political positions to be changed.

It contrasts sharply with Gordon Brown's complete inability to accept any responsibility for what has happened. It is clear to me that public wants the government and Brown in particular to show some contrition and that if he does not (as seems likely) then he has zero chance of recovery.

However, John Prescott's reaction to Cameron's apology on his blog shows the danger inherent if Brown were to offer an apology. Prescott straight away jumps on this and asks Cameron to also apologise for Black Wednesday. Unsurprisingly, my view is that this is a pathetic political ploy to distract attention from the current situation but just to address this briefly:

1) Black Wednesday was almost 17 years ago (virtually a political lifetime ago) and has no relevance to the problems of today.
2) As Prescott well knows, Cameron was in his early - mid twenties during this period and was a junior adviser to Norman Lamont. This is the equivalent of demanding that a branch manager of RBS apologise for the AMB Amro merger decision.
3) If Brown won't apologise for all the decisions he has taken over the last 12 years and that have in some cases directly led to or exacerbated the current crisis, why the hell should Cameron apologise for something like this given points 1 and 2 above?

Anyway, as I feel duty bound to point out I hold no candle for Cameron but I just get very annoyed when I see silly political games being played like this. I get the feeling that people like Prescott are so embedded in this sort of mindset that they cannot even see now ridiculous they look. No wonder people are put off politics.

Some more blog reaction here and here.