What do the Tories do today?

Four weeks ago, the Tories came in for quite a lot of flak for their handling of the nationalisation of Northern Rock. Twice, George Osborne (all but) called for Alistair Darling to go. He said:

The question for our dithering Prime Minister is how long can he keep someone at the Treasury who is clearly not up to the job.

So will Tories repeat this trick and call for the Chancellor's head again today? Or will they change tactics and blame Gordon Brown for the state of the economy (a tacit admission, therefore, their earlier strategy was wrong).

And, beyond that, what do they do? As Peter Riddell says this morning, "talking up" a recession is not always a good idea. And proving the Tories are greener than Gordon wont be easy either.

Yesterday's Times Populus poll put them the Tories just three points ahead of Labour. As John Rentoul reports, David Cameron has told aides he earns his whole year's salary on Budget day. It'll be a tightrope...