Gordon Brown has recalled the Cabinet and, literally, marshalled the troops (or at least the ships) to start bringing our people home.

It’s, er, convenient that this mini crisis is happening now. No denying that. And I think there was some glee in Gordon’s voice when he mentioned Ark Royal was on its way.

But ask yourself these questions:

• is the guy at the car rental desk in Malaga or Paris or Rome who smirks as he quotes you 3000 euros for a hire-car the kind of guy who, in the UK, would vote Labour, or the kind of guy who’d vote Tory?
• is the guy who texted Radio 5 Live this morning and said people who travel should be prepared for contingency – and if they’re stuck they have only themselves to blame – the kind of guy who’d vote Labour, or the kind of guy who’d vote Tory?
• is the prime minister who would marshall the resources of our country to bring home ordinary people likely to be a Labour PM or a Tory one?

Come on people, it’s not hard.

When governments intervene, they set themselves up for all kinds of criticism.  They make mistakes.  They waste money.  Doubtless they succumb to a little hubris from time to time.

But do we want someone to take action or not?  Do we want someone to take responsibility for the big stuff or not?  Do we want a society or not?

The Tories, cleverly, have hijacked the word ‘society’ with their ‘big idea’ of big society, small government.  It’s a mind-game.   Society and government are not two different things, in tension with each other.  Government is just the organisation of decision-making by a mature society.

The ‘modern Conservative party’ (again, very clever use of words) is as clueless about what society means as Thatcher.  She revelled in the notion that there was ‘no such thing.’  Now Cameron wants to repackage  ‘every man for himself’ (or, let’s say, every bunch of disgruntled parents for themselves) as society.

It is, I’m afraid, the opposite.