There may be damp squibs ahead

Hugh

I think that Brown has a vulnerability,

A)The Board (the now defunct Board of Banking Supervision) operates(d) under the Banking Act 1987. It provides(d) advice to the Governor (of the Bank of England) on the following matters:

(i) the general principles and policy of supervision of institutions authorised under banking supervisory legislation;
(ii) the development and evolution of supervisory practice;
(iii) the administration of banking supervisory legislation, including advice on individual cases;
(iv)the structure, staffing and training of banking supervisors.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/news/1997/117.htm

(B). Brown abolished the Board of Banking Supervision.
(Lawson, House of Lords, and
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/annual/ar01_02app9.pdf),

(C). The recent G20 communique states inter alia;

" Policy-makers, regulators and supervisors, in some advanced countries, did not adequately appreciate and address the risks building up in financial markets, keep pace with financial innovation, or take into account the systemic ramifications of domestic regulatory actions.”

Surely this is addressed primarily to London and New York and our inadequate performance can be traced to (B). Ergo much of the current problems can be traced to Brown's actions directly.

Burt

I listened to Browns statement to Parliament on Five Live and expected to hear Camerons response. No chance. Totally one sided. It really does make me seeth

Pete, Scotland

Thats all very well, political anoracks are aware of all the opposing views and can agree or disagree.

But for a Joe Bloggs like myself, I work in a factory and tend to catch up on things through news headlines, all I seem to get is Brown reciting his mantra backed up by his minions reciting the same mantra.

Whatever alternative view there is doesn't come across very strongly.

I regard myself as a floating voter but the media reporting of New Labour really does give me cause for concern about our democracy.

Jim

Peter, we both know by now that it doesn't matter how little is achieved, Gordon Brown will still announce an earth shattering, world changing agreement of biblical proportions, declaring that the G20 have fallen in behind his inspired leadership, and the BBC along with most of the UK media will fall in line.

Athesius the Facilitator

I too was waiting for the reply on 5 live and am still waiting. But from what I can gather Brown just ignored the questions and went on a party political rant.
I think all this crap should be stopped. The Labour back benches are traitors to common sense and the country. As are the Daily Telegraph, goodness knows what has gotten in to them; and as for Ian Martin, I used to think he was the voice of common sense.
The Conservatives are going to have to realise that the rules of the game have changed and must now come out and fight or they (and the public) will become victims of a reverse logic. They seem to be getting blamed for things that are completely out of their control. It is bizarre. For Gods sake "They are not the Government". So please will all you Coffee House newsmen switch on and use a bit of influence, this is driving me mad.
And I would just like to say that having Mandelson at your awards was so 'cheesy' I am not sure if anybody at the Coffee house really cares about the future of this country. If you did he would not have been invited. Best newcomer? Total cheesy nonsense.

Lance Grundy

Pete, Scotland

“I…tend to catch up on things through news headlines, all I seem to get is Brown reciting his mantra backed up by his minions reciting the same mantra.”

Mmm. It is a problem. I’m a comprehensive school ‘educated’ scouser but I am interested in the state of my country and I want to understand the issues that face us.

First thing to do is completely cut out the BBC. Every minute you spend listening to their left-wing drivel is a minute wasted. It’s a highly partisan source of news and its reporting throws little or no light on the background - why things are happening or what we can do about it. You won’t learn anything there - a point Bert makes above.

Instead of spending 30 minutes each day watching the six or ten o’clock news I prefer to spend that time reading the short, sharp actuality I get here on the Spectator Coffee House and over at the Telegraph comment blog The Telegraph Finance Comment page also has some good analysis - particularly relevant to the current situation. Other than that just spend some time on the other broadsheet comment pages - although in the case of the Independent and Guardian, for the most part, you’ll just read the same sort of tripe you can hear on the BBC.

Pete, Scotland

Lance Grundy,

Thanks for your feedback.

It is good advice and I will pass it on as widely as possible.

Clare

Lance Grundy - the articles in the Guardian may echo the Beeb, but the comments are something else. Check out the response to Jackie Ashley's article, or the responses to Nick Robinson's blogs; even their readers are beginning to disbelieve the pap they are fed.

TGF UKIP

Athesius, "The Conservatives .....must now come out and fight." Exactly so - they must offer a different analysis and remedy and then argue their case with conviction.

The trouble is they can't or they won't. In the past year they have had opportunity after opportunity to ditch their Blue Labour economic policy of matching Brown's spending (and by direct implication) his borrowing, in favour of a conservative policy of cutting spending and "sharing the proceeds" of that spending cut between tax cuts and debt repayment.

Every opportunity though has been spurned which has resulted in the mess in which they now find themselves.

These people are terrified of the name of their own Party and, now he has stopped his own process of self-destruction, they seem terrified of Brown too.

John

Cameron should bring up the G20 damp squib in PMQs.
eg: "You're telling us how you took control of the conference and secured blah, blah..."
And yet, the following day the US press largely ignored the conference and totally ignored you.
As far as the Americans were concerned, you were the invisible man. Your spin doctors ensure that you're feted here in the media, but abroad, you're the invisible man.
Soon you'll be invisible here.

mitch

With no definite action from all 20 they can pretty much say what they want at home and that was the real reason for the meet.
Gordon will now do what he damn well pleases we just get to pay for it.

Gordon Musgo

The next thing the tories will be able to exploit is the size of the 'tax giveaway'/cut/fiscal stimulus. The thing is, either the amount will be small, per head, or the amount will be larger and the cut targeted on the poor. If it small, it's no stimulus, if it's large, GB is too mean to give it to everyone, and if it's to the poor, how does he expect it to be a stimulus to the economy. Would GB advise any particular poor person to do anything with a windfall other than to pay down debt? Is he telling people with debts at 20% plus on credit cards to spend the money? It can only stimulate the economy if given to people who'll spend it in the right way. Whichever option he takes it will be wrong. If he targets it, won't there be resentment? If it's mean, won't there be a chance to laugh it out of court? If it's big and widespread, won't it be putting the entire nation into credit card hell? The thing is to go along with him talking it up now, and pounce when the inevitably inadequate plan is finally announced.

Nicholas

"First thing to do is completely cut out the BBC. Every minute you spend listening to their left-wing drivel is a minute wasted. It’s a highly partisan source of news and its reporting throws little or no light on the background - why things are happening or what we can do about it."

But the nub of the problem is that a majority of voters probably derive their perception of politics from the BBC rather than anywhere else. Not everyone will be prepared or even equipped to scour for impartial and objective news online; most will take on board the sound-bites offered by the BBC news. This morning the wording crafted for the Radio 3 news bulletin managed to imply Barclays wrongdoing for raising funds in the Middle East rather than from the British taxpayer.

The bias and lack of objective journalism from the BBC compounds the problem of the Tories narrative not resonating. What they have to say may make perfect sense but, as Pete notes, it doesn't communicate with enough strength. Certainly not enough strength to punch through the layers of government propaganda and misinformation being peddled by the BBC.

Another problem for the Tories is Brown's willingness not just to lie but to lie very big. Most of the government's narrative, on everything from the economy to Haringey, is outrageous in its deceit and conceit. But the strands of the Labour deception on this country have not been pulled together in a way that makes them properly accountable. They are like an urchin who, smashing a window with a brick and seeing there is no reaction, no-one coming to apprehend him, then begins to systematically smash all the windows with larger and larger bricks. When I watch Brown or his ministers on TV they give the impression that they are becoming ever bolder in bare faced lying and wielding power recklessly. Their defence is inevitably an attack on the Tories which coming from a government holding power for almost 12 years ought to be the subject of widespread derision - but isn't.

When the scandals and blunders of this government are considered it is beyond belief that so few ministers or indeed the government itself have not resigned. They have mastered the art of the stubborn defence to the point of stonewalling the press and media on the very few occasions when heads are called for. Haringey is a classic example of New Labour survival. A truly awful catalogue of incompetence and mismanagement is exposed which has at its root Labour ideology but the government is "allowed" to deliver more of the same in response together with a barrage of meaningless platitudes that read as if they have come from a standard Labour script entitled "What To Say When We Are Found Out". The fantastic phenomenon is how this is being swallowed, not just by the ordinary joe but by journalists who should know better.

In the face of all this the Tory narrative has to be above and beyond the call of duty.

liz Brown

Can the Tories not demand to be heard and be given a decent amount of time to make their case on the Beeb - it seems that it is always the Lib Dems who are asked to pronounce and no one listens to them - so Liebore gets away with murder. The Jon Snow newscast on Channel 4 is so far up his own arse that that is useless as well. As to the newspaper meeja they are total economic illiterates and swallow whole and regurgutate, withuot thought, the lies they are fed by Mandlebum and Campballs........