Brown shouldn't lecture anyone about hiding debt
4:52pm
Quotes have been released from the Sky News interview with the Prime Minister tonight, and one catches my eye. He talks about City firms misbehaving. Kay Burley asks him how. He answers:
"What we are discovering is that there were large off balance sheet activities that were being run by some of the major companies in the world, I’m not naming any individual companies, because many companies were involved in this. They were not fully disclosed, they were therefore the problem that had to be dealt with when the markets started to fall."
Hmm - large off-balance sheet activities? This from the man who has so far kept at least £50 billion of capital spending off the UK balance sheet in PFI deals, as our cover story spells out. Brown has applied the “creative accounting” tactics of the City to government. That’s why he’s spent literally years in arguments with the European Commission who want him to conform to financial orthodoxy and own up to the debt. Right now, for example, the Department of Health is considering whether to let NHS Trusts set up charities as debt-concealment vehicles to avoid the new accounting regulations.
So the UK government and its agencies are hiding debt from the taxpayers just as Enron did from its shareholders. And the ONS yesterday showed borrowing in Apr-Aug hitting £28.2bn, up from £16.5bn in the same period of a year ago. Receipts are seizing up, yet spending continues apace. And that’s just the debt we know about. There is a big financial scandal brewing in UK national accounts. Brown should fix that, before lecturing the City.
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Comments
oldtimer
September 19th, 2008 5:17pmAn extract can be found here:
http://playpolitical.typepad.com/labour_party/2008/09/gordon-brown-ta.html
That comment struck me too. None of the interviewers seem to have picked him up on it - which was a bit slow of them. The man is a hypocrite, but we know that already.
richardj
September 19th, 2008 5:19pmThis was on the news last night -taken you some time to comment. It is the biggest own goal and yet another red herring to divert attention from the real problem, which will no doubt re-surface in a few days. Do you believe that governments can manipulate markets to save their skins and everybodies financial well being - this will be interesting to watch. Meanwhile the Labour conference next week will bask in comparative sunshine, unless the rally dissolves and the heat is turned up again.
mitch
September 19th, 2008 5:22pmI wonder if he thinks we dont know about it? is he so self deluded?
John Moss
September 19th, 2008 5:24pmForget the "off-balance sheet" stuff, Brown has spent over £200bn more than he has taken in since 1997, lifting the National Debt from around £400bn to nearly £650bn, ON the balance sheet!
Add in PFI and pensions and the Taxpayer's Alliance make the total nearer £1.8bn!
Richard Mottram, where are you now!?!?
Mak
September 19th, 2008 5:40pmVery well said, sums the ghastly man's actions perfectly and removes the rather feeble smoke screen that he is putting up in order to try to save his worthless skin.
Dominic Allkins
September 19th, 2008 5:46pmYou are so right. It's hypocritical for Brown to say such a thing given his record.
But do we know whether Kay Burley picked up on this or just let it pass.
My guess is that she didn't grill him on this which is such a wasted opportunity.
BrianSJ
September 19th, 2008 6:01pmGood spot.
If anyone should feel sorry for the man, they need remember only this post.
David C
September 19th, 2008 6:26pmNo matter which way you look at this, the truth is obvious:
Brown is a Crook!
Somebody wanted his similarities to Nixon - there you go!
Richard Holloway
September 19th, 2008 6:35pmHe can't. The bug PFI swindle (well publicised in Private Eye) is exactly the reason that Osbourne isn't keen to reveal any tax cutting plans. Who knows how much debt our schools, hospitals and other public buildings are saddled with, and it's all Brown's fault.
Joswarren
September 19th, 2008 7:09pmAll the arguments about Brown's incompetence must be raised by every Opposition spokesman in every interview possible.
Most people understood that abolishing the 10p tax rate was to wrongfoot the Tories and try to score party political points, after the Tories repeated it time and time again...they have got to keep on at this. The blame must be laid squarely at his door.
mac
September 19th, 2008 7:18pmJM - Mottram's landed safely:
"Support services group Amey has appointed Sir Richard Mottram as non-executive chairman of the board with immediate effect [20 Aug 08].
(www.building.co.uk/story)
mitch
September 19th, 2008 7:41pmIt looks like the short selling of HBOS story is being pushed very hard even though its rubbish.Gordon riding to the rescue eh?
David C
September 20th, 2008 8:35amJohn Moss:
I assume you mean £1.8 Trillion.
Those figures (allowing for inflation) would put the debt close to what the UK owed the US at the end of WW2.
That took two generations to pay back.
My children's children will be paying for Brown's criminal mismanagement.
The Laughing Cavalier
September 20th, 2008 9:08amBrown's Enron style accounting is far worse than anything the banks have been up to.
Frank Pulley
September 20th, 2008 12:32pmmac
So Mottram was almost right . We're all f****ed - except him, it seems.
But like the castaway in that other old joke, his turn in the barrel will come!