Thursday, May 15, 2008
Brown trying hard
BBC News: I can save economy again - Brown
"I think I can steer this economy through difficult times". Mr Brown - we want more conviction than THINK.
"The reason it's going wrong are international factors that we are going to deal with". Oh dear. If there 'international', therefore 'external', how are you going to 'deal with them'? And if they can be 'dealt with', why haven't you 'dealt with them' before?
I'm not party-political: I've voted both ways in previous elections. But poor Gordon really needs a spin-doctor to sort out his soundbites. Fast.
Posted by doom&gloom @ 10:56 AM (1300 views) Add Comment
30 Comments
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1. Bug16 said...
Save the economy again? When did he save it the first time round?
2. mark said...
straining for a brown...lol
3. wage slave said...
What does he mean 'again' ? He never had to save the economy in the first place. Correct me if I'm wrong but I got the impression that the economy wasn't in too bad shape when he became chancellor.
All he's ever done is sit on his behind while a housing bubble and it's related feel good factor have taken place, and then claimed that it's all down to him.
It's what he's failed to do, like instruct the BOE to use an inflation figure that includes mortgage payments, that's added to the problems we are facing.
4. jack c said...
.........He blamed "international factors" for rising oil and food prices and housing market problems and said he was taking the right action to deal with them.
Where does the "international factors" fit in with housing market problems - am I missing something here?
5. Btl Rules said...
@ jack c Where does the "international factors" fit in with housing market problems - am I missing something here?
Housing market is very much linked to the global problems started in USA by sub-prime, and the subsequest actions of banks globally. Think you will housing markets are suffering big time in Spain, Italy, France..not to mention the States. In isolation there are no problems with the UK housing market, as plenty of people are able to buy at the supposedly inflated prices.
6. icarus said...
That struck me too, wage slave - "we have had a good economy for the last eleven years" doesn't quite fit with "I have done it (steered the economy through difficult times) before and I can do it again".
7. dude said...
Hmm. Now which way will he go? Significantly lower house prices are much better for the economy -- they release many more funds in a sustainable way, rather than getting people to spend by MEWing -- a one-off process.
But the mentality of this country is that low house prices means failure. If 70% of the population own their own home, that's an awful lot of people to convince. We know that inflation is rising, and that the traditional way to deal with this is to increase the base rates. But too much pain now and a recession looms (everyone pulls in their horns and we have a downward spiral).
But he needs some pain now to give pleasure in two years time. But he's been the Chancellor for 10 years, so this should be a piece of p@ss for him!
I'm not worried... (well...)
8. inbreda said...
He was happy to take the kudos when the "international factors" were more positive.
I'm getting sick of discussing Brown - I'm sure nobody here needs reminding or further proof that he is incompetent and stupid and a typical "look at me!" egotistical politician.
9. hpwatcher said...
Finally we seeing Brown for what he is...an absolute failure.
10. layers said...
You're a COMPLETE JOKE Brown - or are you? You can't be this stupid, so it must be deliberate?!. Do the decent thing and fall on your sword – literally would be OK too.
11. C'mon Correction said...
The only thing Gordon Brown has really acheived is keeping all the plates spinning this long. When are left-wing governments and voters going to realise that you can't tax and spend, tax and spend right the way through an administratorship? The econmic problem the UK is in now is very, very dire. We have so much debt, it will take decades of paying off what New Labour have done over the last decade. And public services have only improved slightly, there has been wastage in the £billions.
I believe our country is/has been in a slow economic decline since the 1970's, the empire has long since faded, our oil and other natural resources are all but gone, our cost of living means that wages will always be higher than competing emerging nations, thus we can't compete in the global economy. Going forward, at best we'll be able to 'tread water' economically, our standard of living will continue to improve but maily due to technological advances rather than pure economical clout; and we'll watch as our nieghbours France, Germany etc maintain their place in the league of global living standards while we slip down and get over-taken by other countries.
Labour will make us the poor man of europe, like they did last time they were in power.
12. taffee said...
gordon brown just said crime has fallen 13% since 1997 but there are more people in prison because we are tougher on sentencing
is this a joke?
13. jack c said...
PM is currently giving a live press conference - the question of caroline Flint's photographed notes has just come up and his reply is that the treasury doesnt give forecasts on house prices they come from "outside body"
14. Orcusmaximus said...
inbreda @6 - we must keep reminding people of the truth about Brown, or there's a real risk of him getting elected in 2 years time. After all, would Labour have been elected 3 times in a row if everyone hadn't forgot that Labour was synonymous with Tax & Waste?
15. cornishman said...
I wonder if Gordon Brown, himself, posts as Young_mark...
16. Btl Rules said...
I wonder if Mervyn King is confused76 on HPC?
17. Malct said...
11. cornishman said...
"I wonder if Gordon Brown, himself, posts as Young_mark..."
lol - but - there is another side. This whole question of who we really are really demmands some thought.
Yesterday a post appeared by one 'nadeem walayat' linked to an article at Market Oracle by 'nadeem walayat'
here's the phc page: http://www.housepricecrash.co.uk/newsblog/2008/05/blog-caroline-flint-housing-market-briefing-notes-in-full-13248.php
Was this the 'real' nadeem? he didn't follow through on any comments, not even s2r1's direct question!
3. sold 2 rent 1 said...nadeem walayat, Was this picture a set-up?
If this was the real NW and had something worthwhile and additional to say on the subject surely he would have connected and addressed the critisism.
18. denzil said...
I listened to a very good interview of Brown by John Humphries this morning on Radio 4. I thought Brown came off really badly from the confrontation on all counts. It was a case of "same old, same old".
The thing that really summed up Brown incredibly accurately was during the lead up to the interview.
Humphries described Brown as being in the stocks at a medieval country fayre prone to being ridiculed and unable to do anything about it.
19. This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.
20. the haunted said...
"Mr Brown also rejected Conservative claims he had broken his own "sustainable investment" rule, which says debt must be kept below 40% of GDP.
He said the government had met both this rule and the "only borrow to invest" golden rule over the most recent economic cycle, which he said had lasted from 1997 to 2007.
"We are now in a new economic cycle," he added."
Oh, well if its a new cycle then that's OK....
21. denzil said...
The haunted said (referring to Brown):
"We are now in a new economic cycle"
Funny, whenever the figures don't add up he resorts to the "new economic cycle". When he again broke the Golden Rule some time back he retorted that he hadn't because he had changed the measurement period and thus the cycle. The tenure of this clown can surely not continue for too much longer, can it?
22. hpwatcher said...
After having just looked at the interview on the BBc website, looks like Gordon Brown is in real, real trouble.
In my view he has got around 8 weeks left.
23. cornishman said...
@ malct
I find it quite good fun trying to work out who might be who, what their real character is and what they might do for a living. I am forming a lovely mental image of one or two contributors.
Little things...
24. malct said...
23. cornishman said...
@ malct
I find it quite good fun trying to work out who might be who, what their real character is and what they might do for a living. I am forming a lovely mental image of one or two contributors.
Little things...
Quite so cornishman - on another of today's posts uncle chris claims to be :-
22. uncle chris said...
"Speaking as scientist (astrophysics) with a PhD, I can safely say that global warming has already gone way beyond the tipping point . . . "
now he may well, how would we know either way?
One problem though, he refers to global warming and even the VIs have changed their bleating to climate change. And on the warming front various scientific research projects around the world are reporting most solar system planets 'warming'
Who is uncle chris?
25. denzil said...
malct or maybe cornishman said:
>>" find it quite good fun trying to work out who might be who, what their real character is and what they might do for a living."
I often think that about Gordon Brown, especially the what he does for a living bit.
26. Rob said...
Brown and his stooges on the Bank of England's interest rate committee got the UK into this mess.
If he thought he was "prudently" building the UK economy by allowing the money the expand exponentially what is his magic formula going to be? The reverse?
27. Bored@work said...
@ malct
24. malct said...(Excusing the editing)
"Speaking as scientist (astrophysics) with a PhD, I can safely say that global warming has already gone way beyond the tipping point . . . "
now he may well, how would we know either way?
One problem though, he refers to global warming and even the VIs have changed their bleating to climate change. And on the warming front various scientific research projects around the world are reporting most solar system planets 'warming'
Who is uncle chris?
Very Interesting, I hadn't noticed this. I have a theory which I would be happy to share.
What has been said started bells ringing. Dr James Lovelock (the man behind Gaia theory) recently went on record (here) stating that the earth had gone beyond a vital tipping point. A quick trip onto Google reveals recent papers, one of which was jointly authored by an eminent Astrophysicist, who also used to work for the BAS and the IGBP. Not wishing to second guess, but if they are one and the same person they would probably be amongst the few highly qualified enough to pass comment on the subject.
Mind you, what do I know? I could just be some nutter in a tin hat.
28. Neo-serf said...
Young_mark.. has been flushed out - I love it.
It was Broooon and Balls all along
29. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
Basically he can borrow as much money as he likes as long as he can say he is 'investing' .... then it doesn't break his golden rule !
what in though ? Staying on as Prime Minister?
30. malct said...
27. Bored@work said...
@ malct
24. malct said...(Excusing the editing)
"Speaking as scientist (astrophysics) with a PhD, I can safely say that global warming has already gone way beyond the tipping point . . . "
now he may well, how would we know either way? - Very Interesting, I hadn't noticed this. I have a theory which I would be happy to share.
Bored@work - for me, you have the right attitude, you are asking questions. Wether you agree with me or somebody else is not important as far as I am concerned. What matters is that none of us should blindly accept what VIs want us to believe and impose this upon our friends and family. Asking questions undermines VIs and gives ordinary people strength, and slows down the flow of wealth from us to them. If you are genuinely Bored@work then you are living a life someone else has created for you. This is normal but not good. Escaping from this is not easy. Finding an alternative is not easy, but whatever you can do within reason to make a stand is worthwhile imho. bo££ocks what do eye know? do what you wanna do, live how you wanna live - now who sang that? uh ho!