So now we wait and see. Will Chancellor Darling’s remedy for Britain’s economic ills steer us safely through the rapids of recession? Or will we end up footing the bill hugely through crippling taxes and savage cuts in public services before the nation finally goes bankrupt?

No-one, it seems, has a clue. Not even Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown, who must have had all their fingers and toes crossed since they announced their massive gamble.

Some parts of the package I like, particularly the way the announced measures seem to mark a return to the Old Labour principle of the rich shouldering a greater burden than the poor when times get hard.

It took me back to an election meeting at St George’s Hall in the 1970s at which Ben Ford, the sitting Labour MP, told the old story of the Conservative bus. When it was struggling to get up a hill, it was the poor, the old and the ill who had to get out and push.

But when the Labour bus was struggling, everyone had to get out and push – except, of course, the poor, the old and the ill. How the audience roared their approval!

The measure I don’t much care for is the VAT cut, which seems like a bit of useless cosmetic tinkering. Will it make any real difference at all to your average Brit’s spending plans? I doubt it very much, and it’s a bit worrying that Darling and Brown couldn’t see that.

Biggest worry of all, though, is the question to which no-one seems to have any answer. If we’re borrowing billions, and most other countries are doing the same, who’s doing the lending? And what strings are attached? Scary.

l What an interesting situation we now face over the New Vic/Gaumont/Odeon. With one voice English Heritage says the building isn’t worth listing, and with another it says that its twin towers and frontage should be preserved. That latter view ties in with the Bradford voices who have been calling for that all along. The difference of opinion is that while English Heritage thinks that what’s behind the frontage should be demolished and redeveloped, the Bradford campaigners largely want the existing building restored.

Both agree, though, that the presently-proposed replacement, New Victoria Place, would be a poor swap and would be too big and bulky for its location alongside the Alhambra.

So let’s have that proposal turned down. Nothing is likely to be built in the foreseeable future anyway, given the present economic mess. In the meantime, mothball the Gaumont, make it structurally weatherproof, and then talk about what’s to be done with it beneath those domes when and if the good times roll again.

l Just a brief word of congratulations to those behind the restoration of Eastbrook Hall, now fully revealed in all its glory as a new jewel in Bradford’s crown. Let’s hope its apartments, offices and shops quickly find tenants and it become a resounding commercial success.