The magician of anglo-saxon social-liberalism

Two months ago, he was not expected to survive until Christmas. Now, the Clunking Fist becomes a European hero. Le Monde reports:

Triomphe à l'anglaise : c'est Gordon Brown, celui qui empêcha Tony Blair d'adopter l'euro, qui introduit l'Eurogroupe. C'est lui, le magicien du social-libéralisme anglo-saxon, qui donne des leçons d'interventionnisme aux continentaux. Pendant une demi-heure, il expose le plan de sauvetage britannique dont il a proposé, dès le 8 octobre, de généraliser à l'Europe une des mesures-clés : la garantie des prêts interbancaires.

The New York Times takes a similar line:

What we do know, however, is that Mr. Brown and Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer (equivalent to our Treasury secretary), have defined the character of the worldwide rescue effort, with other wealthy nations playing catch-up.
This is an unexpected turn of events. The British government is, after all, very much a junior partner when it comes to world economic affairs.
It’s true that London is one of the world’s great financial centers, but the British economy is far smaller than the U.S. economy, and the Bank of England doesn’t have anything like the influence either of the Federal Reserve or of the European Central Bank. So you don’t expect to see Britain playing a leadership role.
But the Brown government has shown itself willing to think clearly about the financial crisis, and act quickly on its conclusions. And this combination of clarity and decisiveness hasn’t been matched by any other Western government, least of all our own.

The damn plan better work after all this.