Or is he acting out a dirty socialist plot – as George Osborne seems to think – to saddle the Tories with a wrecked economy, knowing that he won't have to sort it out from 2010?

Suffice it to say that his reckless spending (and stealthy taxing) has long reminded me of dear old Wedgie Benn's 1970s' aim of achieving an "irreversible shift in the power of working people". In other words, make it as difficult as possible when you have the chance for the forces of darkness to unravel your good works.

In Stalin's day, it was called a "scorched earth policy".

Which brings me to the likely inheritors of that blasted heath
called Britain – namely, David Cameron's Conservatives. For all
their impact on the crisis so far, they might have been waiting for the certain day when Brown is carried off to the funny farm.

There is, of course, a lot to be said in Opposition for letting the Government make its inevitable mistakes. Brown can certainly be relied upon to create an instant dog's breakfast out of anything outside his narrow Treasury focus. Witness his crass Commons handling of the awful case of Baby P.

But there is nothing to be said for allowing, without demur, the Government to damage the nation for years to come. That calls for a tremendous fuss.

This is where the Tories are in a fix. It was always nonsense for Cameron to commit his party to Labour's wasteful spending in the vain hope of stopping Brown portraying them as bold, uncaring slashers of public services. There is no virtue in blowing billions of taxpayers' money to little effect, as Brown has done.

From that ill-considered commitment stemmed the Tories' inhibitions about tax cutting, even after Osborne had galvanised politics last year by promising (inadequate) cuts in inheritance tax. If there is waste – and every day the Press chronicles it – there is pointless spending and scope for tax reductions.

Brown is not intending to cut his coat according to his cloth. Instead, he intends to continue to spend and borrow with gay abandon, saddle the nation with long-term debt, and prolong the pain.

So what should the Tories do? Well, it would help if they first pitilessly exposed who is to blame for the present mess. As Sir John Major has pointed out, the record is heaving with condemnation of Brown's tenure for failing to see the crash coming – as the Queen, in her own way, has noted – believing that he had abolished boom and bust, and wrecking banking supervision.

He is there to be nailed, not for triggering the crisis, but for leaving Britain less able to cope with it because of a profligacy that makes the foolish virgins look positively wise.

But in their desperation to be seen as nice, not nasty, the Tories have made themselves look ineffective. The time is long overdue for them to proclaim why Brown's way is wrong and why we need to return to the fundamental Thatcherite principle – live within your means.

It is a step in the right direction that they have drafted in Oliver Letwin to help Osborne come up with spending cuts. That shows they
have grasped the essential point that waste should be eliminated to make room for anti-recessionary measures.

So, yes, ease monetary policy by cutting interest rates, though recognise it does not encourage saving. But sweat off the gross public-sector fat and cover any additional spending and tax reductions by reducing existing outlay.

I would immediately freeze public-sector recruitment and pay, take an axe to quangos such as Yorkshire Forward – a mere 10 per cent cut would save a cool £16bn – slash red tape and shame MPs into a 10 per cent pay cut. That might persuade people feeling the pinch that you mean business.

After all, they aren't daft. They know that the route to salvation for the debtor is not more debt. They know that you can't protect them by building up an Everest of long-term borrowing.

Let boldness – and sanity – be your friend, Mr Cameron. Recovering the Tories' reputation for economic competence is there for the taking.
It is also what the country desperately needs. Otherwise, the megalomaniac Brown will make a basket case of us all.