Darling arrives at the table with no cards left to play

"NO MORE fiscal stimulus" is the firm message in Chancellor Alistair Darling's interview in The Scotsman today. It follows a year of unprecedented interventions to save the economy from a severe depression. VAT was cut, a car-scrappage scheme introduced, capital spending plans accelerated and special measures announced to stimulate house purchase for first-time buyers.

These, together with record low interest rates and extraordinary resort to £200 billion of "quantitative easing" to boost bank lending to business, have helped staunch the rate of decline, but have not pulled the UK out of its longest recession since...