Gordon Brown was hailed 'the magician' by European leaders last week-end when he led the way with authority and certainty, restoring trust to the world-wide banking system. Averting crisis in global markets was to be debated behind closed doors by members of the Euro-zone premiers. Yet, so elegant and coherent is the British strategy that our Prime Minister was invited not as a reserve but the euro-team centre forward. American and European leaders once gave Gordon's 'lectures' on the need for better regulation and transparency a cold shoulder, now they're saying 'we're all really standing up and taking notice'. The German Chancellor agreed, "trust is the currency everybody wants to spend !"

Noting that all the major nations are following Brown's doctrine, Professor Paul Krugman the 2008 Nobel Economics Laureate admitted he is 'less terrified today than last Friday. Britain's Prime Minister has defined the character of the rescue effort which the rest of the world has followed'. Germany, France and Italy have already implemented emergency measures that put European banking rescue packages in line with Britain's. USA, G7 and G20 Finance ministers had previously agreed parallel interventions to pull the world back from the brink of economic depression. Principles now in place are underpinned by the united aim to avoid social consequenes similar to those following the 1930s crash which left lines of homeless unemployed people queuing for soup and charity in the streets

Mr Brown told a City audience that he wanted world leaders to gather for a new Bretton Woods - the conference held in 1944 which helped draw up the post-war financial order. He said there had to be "a new financial architecture for the years ahead", with global supervision to match a world where money flows across borders and firms operate multi-nationally. Speaking at Reuters in Canary Wharf, Mr. Brown said he had sought to bring in such changes since 1998, but there had always been something more pressing for other countries to worry about. He added: "Sometimes it does take a crisis for people to agree that what is obvious and should have been done years ago can no longer be postponed."

The Prime Minister said: "To let the chits fall where they may would be the height of irresponsibility. "It would be a failure of leadership at precisely the moment vigorous action is needed to protect people who need that help the most. "And if we pull together as a country, we can come through these times stronger and not weaker.'

Board members of the affected banks will not receive bonuses in the immediate future and there will be no dividends paid until government preference shares are repaid, the prime minister said.He added: "Our action is driven by our values. For this government, and I believe the whole country, the guiding idea is fair reward for hard work, effort and enterprise, not incentives for irresponsibility or excessive risk-taking for which the rest of us have paid.