How significant was King’s intervention?

Looking at this morning’s papers, it’s hard not to see Mervyn King’s intervention yesterday (footage from Sky, above) as a major turning point. It makes the covers of the FT, the Telegraph, the Guardian, the Mail and the Times, and the headlines cut right into Gordon Brown’s “everything it takes” bravado (The Times: “Bank to Brown: stop spending”).

The Tories will be delighted, particularly as King’s warning more or less reflects what they’ve been saying over the past few months. Suddenly, if indirectly, the case against Brown the Headless Chicken looks a whole lot stronger, while the PM’s “do-nothing” retort looks a whole lot weaker. Indeed, you wonder whether the blow that’s been delivered to Brown’s strategy will prompt a change of tack from Downing St. An apology, perhaps? Or a softer, less bombastic rhetoric? Either way, it could all be too little, too late. We shall see.