Purple has been my favourite colour since I was a kid. So when I wear a tie – like today for meeting a City client - I select one of a selection of shades of purple. I always saw my liking for purple - ties, a jacket, the pinstripe of one of my suits, some socks, a shirt - as part of what Nicolas Cage in the movie "Wild at Heart" called "my eeendeevidualidy".

Then I realise everyone is wearing purple ties. Yesterday Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling wore them for their economic crisis press conferences. Nick Clegg was sporting one in the Chamber. I'm pretty sure David Cameron wore one this week. I saw lots of them on leading politicians in Manchester and Birmingham, I'm pretty sure Labour's conference stage backdrop was purple (the past few weeks have been a bit of a blur), and a couple of newsreaders were wearing yesterday as they reported this weeks banking crisis and the grim warnings of recession.

Purple has always been the colour of emperors and their ilk. It was the colour of the Roman empire's leaders because the dye came from a rare shellfish and symbolised the elite. Pope's wore it for the same reason.

Now it is the tie colour of choice of our political leaders. Labour used to be red. The Conservatives were blue. Today we are all purple, the perfect mix of red and blue on a colour pallete. Perhaps this is the true legacy of The Third Way.

Elsewhere, The Guardian reports that Sarah Palin's folksy, "you betcha" style is winning 'em over in grassroots America. I’m confused. Have we not had a folksy "you betcha" style US President for the last 8 years and everyone hates him?