Lord Mandelson urges 'steady nerve'
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is to admit that the Government is in an "uncomfortable place" politically as a result of measures to tackle the recession.
He said the UK and US were in a tough situation, having made the first moves to combat the banking crisis but still awaiting the first "signs of change" that the plans were working.
Lord Mandelson warned the recovery would be complex but said there was "no value in trying to create frenzy". He instead highlighted the need for a "steady nerve and cool judgment".
In a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he will say the global economic turmoil must put an end to "business as usual" in politics.
He says: "Handling the banking crisis is overlain with politics and that is inevitable.
"But just as we are facing the reinvention of economic orthodoxy, it cannot be business as usual in politics either.
"There are no manuals, no blueprints, no precedents to tell us what to do.
"Britain, deservedly, got credit for its first moves to recapitalise the banks last October, and further moves to deal with banks' toxic assets in January, as well as the national economic stimulus that others are following. But this is tough politics."
In his speech Lord Mandelson talks of the need to manage expectations as the crisis unfolds.
"The political dilemma for us is that we need high level meetings and action, which generate big expectations which, in turn, trigger disappointment and market reaction when immediate results are not produced."
