So, pretty good week. In particular strong feeling here and elsewhere that nationalising Northern Rock wasn't our Black Wednesday. It really wasn't. Didn't feel like that. Wasn't on a Wednesday and in a host of other ways really wasn't comparable to that. We really actually feel and believe this.

We do wonder, therefore, about the wisdom of Damian beginning his briefing on the matter with - "This is not our Black Wednesday." Can't help feeling that once we said "Black Wednesday" people were thinking "Black Wednesday" and forgetting the all-important "not Black Wednesday".

Tactically speaking, the problem with nationalisation is not the ideological issue. After all, polling suggests that at least a quarter of people already believe the government in some way "does" all our major companies. Another quarter believes that every commercial enterprise is a branch of McDonald's operating under a variety of different names. A quarter have a fairly sophisticated comprehension of corporate ownership - thinking everything belongs to "the Japanese or Americans". The other quarter works servicing the car/ computer/office/house/genitals of the 1 per cent who actually work in the City.

This sector of people - who work for people who work in the City - seems to have profited from a "trickle-down" understanding of how corporate ownership/shares/ derivatives work. We can tell this because their confidence in the international financial system is such that they overwhelmingly invest their own money in the international bank of the biscuit tin.

So - nationalisation itself is not the problem. It can't be, because people don't really know what it is. The problem, as so often, is one of perception. The term itself - "nationalisation" - is laden with Seventies connotations. And not in a groovy, Life on Mars way, but in a bad, the-unburied-dead-are-being-eaten-in-the-streets-by-public-sector-workers-type way.

What we suggest is, therefore, that we rename "nationalisation". We found that 68 per cent of people were in favour of the "people-isation" of a privately owned bank - dropping by only 6 per cent when we explained what it would entail. (Raising interesting questions about how much we should explain what our policies entail.)

"X Factor": On other matters, a couple of us here at the Unit have watched you enjoying The X Factor. It really is a delightful thing to see your face light up with joy as an "overconfident southern twonk" screws up a well-loved tune and is admonished in life-destroyingly harsh terms. However, we should be careful not to brief this aspect too hard. Damian's line should be that you love the stories of hope and achievement, rather than "PM not a joy-crushing pain-sponge".

Let us know your thoughts.