Understanding Brown's Bust
Peter Hoskin 3:42pm
Do check out Tom Bower's superb article in this week's issue of the magazine (you can read it here). It traces Gordon Brown's personal journey from attacking the Lawson years as "a boom based on credit" to overseeing one of the most spectacular busts this country will ever suffer. I've pulled out Bower's overview of the current crisis below, but I'd recommend you read the whole piece:
"To travel full circle within 20 years from scorning ‘Lawson’s Boom’ to masterminding ‘Brown’s Bust’ is probably unrivalled in modern British history. Just as Thatcher was harmed by her misquoted phrase, ‘there’s no such thing as society’, Brown’s damnation of ‘the age of irresponsibility’ was uttered by a confused socialist psychologically unprepared for his nemesis. Deriding all the warnings of an impending recession, Brown had relied on Alan Greenspan’s assurances that credit fuelling the housing boom was rock solid — and rewarded the chairman of the Federal Bank with a knighthood for his genius. Until the crash, Brown’s crude misunderstanding about derivatives, credit markets and ‘naked short selling’ was concealed by that brilliant propaganda cliché, ‘the Iron Chancellor’. His economic illiteracy would be the stuff of political boredom if Brown did not remain responsible until mid-2010 to save Britain from a slump. Frighteningly, Brown still does not grasp why the collapse of ‘Brown’s Britain’ — the title of Robert Peston’s pastiche published with Brown’s co-operation in 2005 — was inevitable. Unaffordable and ideologically warped, Brown’s vision relied on unsustainable state spending, manipulation of Whitehall and addiction to personal control. Those are precisely the tools he will use over the next months to restore Labour’s re-election chances. Only the state, he will argue, can save the country. His critics will reply that his remedy is poison because the same medicine caused the crisis."
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Short the UK
October 30th, 2008 4:36pm Report this commentDon't get too sweaty as there is a good chance we will be calling in the IMF by the Spring. You just wait for the economy to collapse and the run on the pound to begin in earnest.
You ain't seen nothing yet.
This is going to be epic.
The Tories really need to speak with some doomsters so as to understand what is about to unfold. They have been pathetic.
I see it this way:
There are two of me:
1. The outer me = rational.
2. The inner me = emotional.
Brown will focus his rhetoric on the Inner Me of the voter.
The voter needs his/her Outer Me (rational) to be enlightened. The Tories are pathetic at this - really pathetic.
They are far too woolly and too focused on the Inner Me. They must attack heavily on the Outer Me and no let Brown escape into the Inner Me.
So far, I personally don't think Cameron & Osborne are street wise enough to understand what this depression means.
mac
October 30th, 2008 4:48pm Report this commentGood to have such a definitive political obituary so far in advance of the subject's actual demise. "The Iron Chancellor", indeed. It's as accurate as his erstwhile corkscrew chum's "straight guy" sobriquet.
TrevorsDen
October 30th, 2008 4:58pm Report this commentHmm ...
'bail' is a collection of rules and conditions whereby someone is allowed a measure of freedom.
'bale' is what you do when you do to empty water from a sinking boat.
I did think it was no wonder we were in this crisis when it seems no one can use the correct word to describe the governments attempts to shore up the banking system - our tax money is in effect being used to stop the banks sinking.
However the more one hears of the demands and conditions Brown and Darling are putting on the banks the more the first spelling seems the correct one.
oldtimer
October 30th, 2008 5:06pm Report this commentSpot on!
Thomas Cussans
October 30th, 2008 5:07pm Report this commentThe key – in almost every important respect, the only – point about Brown is that he is barking mad. Properly, completely off what passes for his trolley. Bonkers.
He is a man consumed by horror at what he knows are his own limitations and accordingly determined to pretend by any and every means available to him that OF COURSE they don't exist and never have. As a consequence, he must permanently impose himself on us all in precisely the same way that he must always be right.
These contradictions are such that, inevitably, one day there will be a tiny phutt, a whispy trace of smoke and then ... nothing. He will have ceased to exist, turned into nothing by the strange and tortured workings of what passes for his psyche.
In the meantime, however, an oddly docile nation is reduced to penury.
Can no one rid us of this evil, desperate buffoon?
Wight Tory
October 30th, 2008 5:12pm Report this commentWhen Gordon claims to be the one to take us out of the downturn, it always strikes me as a statement is sounds like "The kid who padlocks your bike to railings and being the only one with a key"
DC's take on this, should be that the fact that he locked us into this situation, does make him best quailified, but the one not to have been trusted to start with.
Browns policies have nothing to do with the countries prospects but mearly his and his partys chances of being re-elected. Telling turkeys there's no Christmas, isn't the same as cancelling it.
Perhaps the distain that the cabinet have over Joe Public, when he's feeling our pain, he should be reminded of Mandys accomedation arangements in Moscow, are a clear example of how much the people in his party are hurting at the moment. One nights board, could go some way into improving the lives of those sleep rough in London each night.
Ricardo
October 30th, 2008 6:25pm Report this commentShort the UK: I think that the Cameroons will have noticed one key fact - that Obama only opened up a convincing lead in the US polls after the announcement of the Paulson rescue plan. McCain rushed back to Washington and made a fool of himself; Obama kept shtum for a couple of days and avoided making any commitment.
So, we can expect low-key carping but no solid proposals until it is clear that either Brown has succeeded - in which case that vindicates DC's statesmanlike decision to put country before party - or failed - in which case DC will say that he and Osborne were against the govmt all along.
It's all about change you can believe in, you see. Or perhaps beliefs you can change in; I forget which.
Short the UK
October 30th, 2008 8:37pm Report this commentI agree, McCain lost my support with his dithering.
I just get vexed that the Brown One is not getting hammered for the destruction that is about to be unleashed on Blighty.
As the economy collapses Brown's support should crumble.
Still, the Tories have been so far behind the curve. There have been plenty of voices warning about the UK economy for years.
There is no excuse for not being at the front of the curve - that is real judgment.
I think many people lost their minds during Brown's boom. Let's see some sanity return!!!
james harries
October 31st, 2008 12:20am Report this commentpeople really hate gordon brown don't they? ok, he's thick, innumerate, scottish, bites his nails, etc. but he's a human being. give him a hug! he's just like any other manager who's seen the footfall fall off a cliff. tomorrow he will blame the weather for the failure of his bailout.
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