The budget is done. Now it is time for the Government to exhibit real bravery.

It was the Stoic philosopher Epictetus who said that “people are disturbed not by the things that happen but by the views which they take of those things”

Now let’s try it by an American, Franklin D. Roosevelt, delivering his first inaugural address in 1933 against the backdrop of a nation wracked by the Great Depression: “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance”. A great definition of what is no longer nameless: the Tiger.

Our tendency to fear fear; our mysterious mental process of being disturbed by the view that we take of things; our need to defeat the collective Tigers – these are the reasons why we urgently need our politicians to stop spreading messages of doom. The medicine of the budget has been delivered, so there is no more need to set expectations in order to make it palatable. The election campaign is over, the opposition has become the Government and their rhetoric needs to evolve to meet that responsibility. The only people they can defeat with repeated “historic economic crisis” statements are the people of Britain.

Now we need politicians brave enough to follow FDR’s example instead of continuing to follow the media’s lead in using fear as the primary tool for survival. We need our leaders to be brave enough to speak of a bright future, if we all work for it, and to inspire the nation to strive to deliver that future. There is a risk inherent in speaking of a vision. The risk is that people desert you if you fail to create it. Community and business leaders face that risk daily. The Government’s servants and Northern Rock and RBS face that risk daily. It is now time for our politicians to be brave enough to face that risk also. It is now time for all politicians to put the risk of further harming the country above the risk of losing the next election.

It is now time for our politicians to demonstrate a selfless and courageous commitment to the nation’s future.