Simple steps to regain trust

Gordon Brown, bruised after two weeks in which David Cameron's Tories came off the back foot with a captivating conference and followed through with parliamentary panache, faces an even tougher week ahead. A weekend poll giving the Conservatives a 7% lead over Labour and their best showing since before Black Wednesday merely illustrates what we already knew: that the floating voters of the English marginals want to be reassured that their expensive homes are as impregnable against the tax collector as any castle.