Brown’s Enron for Africa
Fraser Nelson 4:32pm
In David Miliband’s “leaving do” speech for Gordon Brown, one line jumped out at me – when he said Gordon Brown has “transformed the debate about international development in Britain”.
He has certainly transformed the accounting, by pioneering dodgy off-balance sheet financing of overseas aid. It’s worth revisiting, in the light of his new pious anger about banks who use off-balance sheet financing. His so-called International Finance Facility is a classic Brownite vehicle: it exploits a Eurostat loophole so if three or more EU countries share a pool of debt, it doesn’t show up on any of their books and they can fool their taxpayers into thinking they owe less than they do. It could only go ahead when Eurostat agreed on Brown’s definition of their rules.
Brown wanted to do this for a £50 billion loan, but couldn’t get anyone else to join in his scam. Germany and the USA refused, saying the accounting principles behind it were dishonest. No one cared then (except for a few geeks) but now it can be see as an example of how Brown incorporated into government the spiv techniques.
So his legacy in international aid is to create something quite novel: an Enron for Africa.
PS – For a good description of Brown’s IFF scam – which typifies his approach to public finance - click here.
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Nick Kaplan
September 22nd, 2008 5:00pm Report this commentFraser; It seems that Darling also suffers from the delusion that his government has reduced national debt in the last 10 years, pity you weren’t there to correct him...
Please keep up this analysis though, the information is really useful and impossible to find anywhere else.
Many Thanks
Searcher
September 22nd, 2008 5:33pm Report this commentHere’s what I just can’t work out about Brown: does he really know full well that all these schemes (IFF, PFI etc) are just playing with accounting rules to fool people, and he’s pleased with himself for fooling (some of) us, in which case he’s about as ethical as Robert Maxwell; or does he really think that he is some kind of financial wizard, in which case he’s completely deluded? Either way, he’s a danger to the nation. I realise that the foregoing is just a long way of asking, is he a fool or a knave?
TGF UKIP
September 22nd, 2008 6:38pm Report this commentFraser, another fascinating post detailing Brown's chronic financial deceit and his habitual bare-faced dishonesty.
However, it is not the slightest use you and other Coffee Housers railing about it while Gordon knows full well he can continue along this path with impunity.
The real target for your anger and indignation should be HM Official Lame and Limp Opposition who are demonstrably unable to hold him to account. Nor are their lamentable failings all due to media bias as their many Coffee House defenders would have us believe.
TrevorsDen
September 22nd, 2008 9:18pm Report this commentOh shut UKIP you pathetic Trans World Airways Tourist, spare us your self serving little rants. Worry about the mess your own party is in.
Brown has got lower poll ratings than the Black Death ... and the leading contender for his job has all the appeal of Jimmy Clitheroe.
I think the opposition are quite happy to leave it at that.
Hysteria
September 22nd, 2008 9:33pm Report this commentSearcher - I agree
and what TGF said - WHERE THE BLOODY HELL IS THE OPPOSITION????
TGF UKIP
September 22nd, 2008 11:16pm Report this commentTrevorsDen, now that's more like it! That's the sort of indignation the Tories should be expressing on behalf of the British people.
Given the scale of Labour's corruption, incompetence and dishonesty the Tories should be seeking to bury Labour just as New Labour buried the Tories in the two years up to 1997.
Given this lot are ten times worse than Major & Co ever were, your precious Tories have the opportunity to render Labour unelectable for decades to come.
And BTW as I've posted many times before I am neither a UKIP member nor activist, just someone who's grateful that there is one genuinely conservative party available as a repository for my vote.
Hereford
September 23rd, 2008 9:31am Report this commentI agree with TGF. Someone in the Tory Party needs to collate Brown's lies and feed them to the front bench to be used as ammunition at every opportunity. People like Fraser challenging Brown and that slug Prescott in meetings doesn't cut it. These lies need to be pushed up into the light so hard that the MSM can't ignore them.
Ian C
September 23rd, 2008 12:04pm Report this commentTGF et al - if Cameron doesn't close the deal next week he never will.
He has to nail Brown now by both making the necessary changes to differentiate the Tories from Clegg's move on tax and Labour spending. "Sharing the proceeds of recession" is not attractive.
As someone said on the Focus Group for newsnight about GB - he has to be radical and credible.
Last year they pulled it out of the fire and prevented GB going for election. This year he has to go for the throat, because he won't get another chance once the main publicity is PMQ's once a week and a new leader is elected by Labour which will induce a spring election.
Trafalgar
September 23rd, 2008 2:02pm Report this commentFraser, I wish the Conservatives could get you on to their staff as a speech writer or policy guru.
I'm looking forward to Osborne's speech next week - I'm sure he has a few surprises lined up.
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