Friday, June 11, 2010
Gordon Brown – A man in national disgrace
Gordon Brown's henchmen are rewriting history as we sink into the red
''...With the repudiation of Gordon Brown's locust years by his erstwhile henchmen gathering pace, it can be only a matter of time before one of the candidates to replace him calls for a truth and reconciliation commission. This is what happens when tyranny crumbles. ...Having cloaked themselves in the theatrical robes of Keynesianism, Mr Brown's little helpers must endure the humiliation of being stripped naked by events. As any serious student of Keynes will tell you, the great man believed that governments could help smooth the peaks and troughs of cyclical capitalism. He did not advocate management by profligacy or the indulgence of budget deficits at the peak of a boom....''
Posted by hpwatcher @ 09:34 PM (1708 views)
21 thoughts on “Gordon Brown – A man in national disgrace”
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hpwatcher says:
Great quote:-
The irony will be that the hardest hit areas will be in the Labour heartlands, where a State dependency culture has been ingrained. What the Coalition needs to make very clear over the implementation of the cuts are that they are Labours debts being repaid. The henchmen realise this and are deserting the NuLabour ship before public anger is ignited over the level of cuts required to balance the books.
bluebeach says:
I kinda liked the man………… didn’t you?
“be creamier”
nubbers says:
Whilst I agree that Labour has p***** away the economy, no one seems to be picking up on the blatent racism in this article, not that I have any problems with racism as such, but its the blaming of everything on immigration I don’t get. You brits steal young foreigners from other countries to avoid paying for training up your doctors and nurses, IT professionals etc. and then you get all upset when you can’t get paid more than you are worth for doing sweet F.A.
rumble says:
Nubbers, I’m going to suggest some sort of connection to the grand empire, and an inability to let go of the past, which is history, and realise we’re living in the present, where the UK really doesn’t seem to me to have half the substance of the image. Sports, the F1 guys are doing well, but the cyclists, men and women, are the only ones worthy of great praise, world champions, consistently. But David Buckwheat gets all the attention, for what? What on earth does the English football team ever achieve? I’m not opposed to support, but it seems to be confused with actual performance and achievement. I don’t like nationalism, and the st georges cross everywhere one looks, home and abroad, frankly rings quite hollow. Pride? For what? ‘Arrods? A ferris wheel? A great financial centre which has proven to be little more than last fool holding the rotten parcel? A figurehead? Blackpool? Or is it just the drunken herd brainwashed by media marketing? I’m not saying the place is a dump, I just think there is quite a large disconnect between the image and product and I don’t get it.
“sulfate really”
Positivo says:
Bluebeach, was that comment sarcasm or have you been in a coma for the last decade?
Nubbers, I dont think when the subject of immigration is brought up, that the skilled workers eg: IT, doctor etc are the issue, its the non skilled workers piling through the doors and pretending to have a skill in many cases.
Britain is becoming a nation of ghettos.
britishblue says:
The writer of this article is also attempting to rewrite history.
The problem with the UK has not been its National Debt over the past ten years, it has been the rapid explosion in National Debt as a corollary to the banking crisis since 2008. (two years).
See http://www.economicshelp.org/blog/economics/list-of-national-debt-by-country/ . Prior to 2008 we had a lower national debt than the great economies of France and Germany. As the UK has been heavily dependent on the finance sector this has had a much worse effect and much greater accelleration of the national debt than in other countries in the last two years. It is the acceleratin of debt and how this is forecasted to increase that has caused the concern that is being shown by the rating agencies. I am no lover of Gordon Brown: But now he has gone, I think it is pathetic to continue to blame everything on him, rather than focus on what needs to be done for the future, and whine how hard it is for the incoming government. Going back before 2008 I do not see anyone from the Tory party complaining about the actions of the banks and do not see how if they were in power that the first stage of the crisis would have been different. Almost whatever policy any government had adopted (whether Tory of Labour) would have seen an accelleration in the debt because of the nature of our economy. It was like a person having an accident and having to be put on life support. The question should have been when has the patient stabalised enough to be taken of life support, which is where the parties difffered before the election.
Secondly, my wife is Polish. I have just returned a few minutes ago from the Polish Saturday school our daughter attends for 3 1/2 hours every Saturday. We know many Polish families, but we don’t know any that don’t pay for Saturday or Sunday eduction for their children. So one could look at how immmigrants take on all sorts of work, work longer hours and try and educate their childrn and compare this against general UK society. One then may draw diffferent conclusions and the blame may not be so much on the immigrants or the EC policies on immigration that we signed up too.. When I was must younger and at school they taught how to present a a balanced arguments and then draw a conclusion. This seems sadly lacking in many of our media who pounce on an opinion and then just create a one sided view on it.. I would welcome to see more balanced articles that explained what would have happended if the banks hadn’t been saved and we hadn’t had quantitative easing: What would the effects have been on the stock market, unemployement and general society and what would need to have been done now.
simon68 says:
Debt to GDP is not the major problem in UK.
The problem is industrial structure in UK has been hollowed out in the past 20 years leaving only so-called banking and properties bubble.
I remember before the 2008 financial tsunami it’s easier to get a 110% mortgage loan to cover even the conveyance expense and house decoration. That is no difference to bookies.
The UK banking industry and gilts sell are basically Ponzi scheme.
simon68 says:
World’s Millionaires Increase by 14%, Boston Consulting Reports
June 10, 2010, 6:47 PM EDT
June 11 (Bloomberg) — The global millionaires’ club expanded by about 14 percent in 2009 with Singapore leading the way, The Boston Consulting Group said.
The number of millionaire households increased to 11.2 million, according to the study released yesterday by the Boston-based firm. Singapore posted a 35 percent gain, followed by Malaysia, Slovakia and China. In 2008, the number of millionaire households fell about 14 percent to 9.8 million.
1st Ranking = Sinapore
2nd Ranking = Hong Kong
3rd Ranking = Switzerland
4th Ranking = Kuwait
5th Ranking = Qatar
6th Ranking = United Arab Emirates
7th Ranking = United States
8th Ranking = Belgium
9th Ranking = Israel
10th Ranking = Taiwan
http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/where-the-worlds-millionaires-live-the-top-10-countries/19510242/
simon68 says:
If UK leaders do not anything to rebuild its industries, I am sure it will become the poorest country in Europe. Even Slovakia achieves ranking as the 3rd fastest growth country in millionaire households in 2009.
However, if we count the number of households millionaire in debts UK could achieve the top of the rank.
No more debts……………households or government for sake of future prosperity.
simon68 says:
Industry in Germany
The world’s largest coherent chemistry plant BASF near LudwigshafenSee also: Mittelstand.
Industry and construction accounted for 29% of gross domestic product in 2008, and employed 29.7% of the workforce. Germany excels in the production of automobiles, machine tools, and chemicals. With the manufacture of 5.5 million vehicles in 2003, Germany was the world’s third largest producer of automobiles after the United States and Japan, although the People’s Republic of China was threatening to displace Germany in the world rankings as early as 2005. In 2004 Germany enjoyed the largest world market share in machine tools (19.3%). Of vital importance is the role of small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms, which specialize in niche products and often are owned by management.
Better follow Germany.
dude says:
What utter rubbish. The Torygraph is at it again. It managed to boot out Laws on the back of their expenses data. It is ultimately looking to get rid of the left of centre element in this government and replace it with a fully Thatcherite cohort.
This country has been in the sh1t since the 80s, when rather than have a social democratic approach to doing things they attempted — blatantly — to remove Socialism. So now we have an economy where you have to pay for everything, and if it isn’t run as a business it is not even worth commenting on.
Now whilst I hate a lot of what (New) Labour has done, it is mainly because they have continued the Tory crap. They have indeed allowed house prices to increase, without doing anything significant to temper this. Rents are high so BTLers can buy their own properties off the backs of others. If there was a strong and significant public rented sector with quality houses that would be significant competition to BTL and force down rents. Then if you really wanted a quality home you could pay the higher rents of the private sector and the BTLers could reasonably build their empires.
There is so much the government — any government — can do to build a better country. If we now are not able to make our own shoes nor build our own ships then I understand we should be investing in the new, highly promising, Internet economy. But we aren’t, because to do so means paying now for lots of investment that won’t give us dividends for another 10 or 20 years. We need to make sure we have high-speed broadband; but this costs a lot of money. Also, in five years the goalposts may have changed. But to put this off, or say it is better that the private sector do this because of this risk is stupid. If in five years things have changed we have to look at it again then. Look, it’s not difficult — if we don’t have the technology how can we compete? Hobson’s choice in my view.
And what about having all these trained programmers and Internet savvy support people? The argument about 50% of school leavers going on to university is spurious. Thatcher managed to destroy a lot of our native industry on her crusade to kill Socialism. So we have no alternative than to develop these hightech industries. And that needs skilled people.
Yet they are now talking about putting up tuition fees. Knob-heads. Just because the government is too frightened to get the middle classes to pay more in tax to fund this, they have to think of silly arguments like you’ll earn more as a graduate. But the jobs they are creating are crap — my daughter has a degree, a debt, and a minimum wage job. Well well done Thatcher/Major/Blair/Brown.
And what is she going to do? Leave the country. Brilliant I say. Then they won’t get their loan back, and the middle classes will have to pay the defaulted loan.
As long as people continue to believe the right-wing crap pumped out by the majority of the media we will all be kept in our place.
And my parting rant — how long before you all on here start moaning not about (New) Labour, but about how worthless, incompetent and unjust the current But you’ll all still be sitting on your own crowed tube, and living in your own rented flat from a BTL idiot who is screwing you into the ground.
Until the everything must pay for itself view fades from your memory you will still be sitting in the same deep sh1t of the last 30 years.
This country is crap and the people are part of the problem.
mr g says:
@Dude
You’re obviously too young to remember the 1970’s sh*t served up by Liebour and the unions.
dude says:
Oh indeed I do remember the 70s. I loved the 70s. It was the 80s when it all went wrong. And it’s *never* recovered (apart from inequality getting worse and worse again).
The 70s were the halcyon days before the storm…
simon68 says:
UK Government is the world’s 2nd largest debtor just behind America. In view of running such deficits and debts what did it build?
Name one example, UK is the most primitive country in term of capital investments in building fibre optic infrastructure for broadband among Europe leagues. How can it compete on global arena?
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7294/broadbandleadership.gif
simon68 says:
Chinese Government set aside huge funding on infrastructure projects to support its economic development in future decades:-
High Speed Rail in China refers to any commercial train service in China with an average speed of 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph) or higher. By that measure, China already has the world’s longest high-speed rail (HSR) network with about 6,552km (4,071 mi.) of routes in service as of May 2010. China is currently the first and only country in the world that has high-speed trains which run at operational speed of 350 km/h (217 mph) or above in regular commercial services.
With generous funding from the Chinese government’s economic stimulus program, 17,000 kilometres (11,000 mi) of high-speed lines are now under construction, with plans for a total network of 50,000 kilometres (31,000 mi) by 2020. By 2012, the length of China’s high speed rail (250 km/hour or above) network will reach 13,000 km and is expected to be greater than the rest of the world combined. China’s high speed trains use a wide range of domestic and imported technologies from Germany, Canada, France, Japan and Sweden.
simon68 says:
China is even exporting bullet train technology to United States:-
BEIJING — Nearly 150 years after American railroads brought in thousands of Chinese laborers to build rail lines across the West, China is poised once again to play a role in American rail construction. But this time, it would be an entirely different role: supplying the technology, equipment and engineers to build high-speed rail lines.
The Chinese government has signed cooperation agreements with the State of California and General Electric to help build such lines. The agreements, both of which are preliminary, show China’s desire to become a big exporter and licensor of bullet trains traveling 215 miles an hour, an environmentally friendly technology in which China has raced past the United States in the last few years.
simon68 says:
Even a tiny place such as Hong Kong has created a Nobel Price winner who put fibre optic in broadband communication usage. Mr Charles Kao has been the principal of Chinese University of Hong Kong for 10 years.
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/884/nobelprice.gif
rumble says:
More broadband baloney. Gov do this, gov do that. Allow some competition to BT.
“burbling states”
sureseam says:
dude – the seventies were NOT the halcyon days – they were economic chaos with the UK going cap in hand to the IMF and all the austerity that followed (high inflation and falling real wages).
It may felt like halcyon days but that stems from memories of being younger I suspect.
The times immediately ahead may have much in common with that era – if that cheers you up.
Mr G says:
@Dude “The 70s were the halcyon days”
Could you explain the logic behind that statement please?
mr g says:
@Dude “The 70s were the halcyon days”
Could you explain the logic behind that please?