As Gordon Brown announces a £16 Billion Sale of public assets I can almost here the character from Dads Army shouting “Don’t panic”.

Any remnants of “prudence” has finally been expunged from his character with this one. The timing of this sell-off off public assets, in the midst of a recession has to be questionable proposal and one could almost lead to panic as to the true state of public finances. If indeed it was a simple case of being able to pick the timing in order to maximise interest and income, then this wouldn’t be happening now.

However, It could be that this sell off has nothing whatsoever to do with the state of our public finances and more to do with an impending General Election preceeded by a Budget. It could well be a cynical attempt to try and free up some resources – only time will tell.