Brown's headlines take shape

Donna

...and to achieve the only thing he is really interested in: getting a boost in the polls.

So shallow,so nauseating and it won't fool anyone.

Sally Chatterjee

It's vintage Brown: a lot of the money announced was already on the table. The test will be whether he announces the new money or reverts to type and claims credit for existing spending.

David

Agree with Donna, and indeed yourself. The only thing Brown wanted to get from this was to look big and important. If he does that, the economy can continue to die a slow death as a result of his ineptness, and the man won't bat an eyelid.

Sir Graphus

Sadly, though, Donna, people will fall for it. It allows the "do nothing Tories" accusation to carry a bit of weight. It allows GB to appear to have been a statesman and show Dave to be an over-promoted wonk. Dave had better have a strategy in place already to respond to this, or he doesn't deserve to be PM.

Chuck Unsworth

Well, what does it all mean for (and to) the man on the Clapham Omnibus?

Denis Cooper

To put this in some kind of perspective, $1 trillion is about 1.6% of world GDP.

Gil

Er...one question? Who is going to pay for all this? All together now...

Bert

Genius! Making sure the IMF has enough to bail us out just in time.

RW

In as far as I understand any of it (which is not very far), it seems that IMF Special Drawing Rights is a form of global quantitative easing (??) Which means that the entire world is going to print tons more Monopoly money, we shall all be rich beyond the dreams of avarice and Gordon Brown will rule triumphantly for the next millennium. Or something.

It all reminds me of the old Monty Python Confuse-a-Cat sketch - "Confuse-a-Voter".

I'd be surprised if any of it made the slightest long-term difference to the polls. People have already decided what they think of Brown and his grinning charades, his lies and his posturing.

Away with him. Man's a charlatan.

Kelly Mac

So what exactly has Britain got out of this costly summit? Even BBC Stephanie Flanders admitted not much.

Susan Hill

For some time I have been banging boringly on here about the housing market NOT being as bad as everyone has suggested, houses in my area selling, estate agents reporting decent business. I have been shouted down and ridiculed every time. Now, Nationwide reports house prices up last month and increased sales round the country. HSBC is offering 75% mortgages again, up from their max of 60%....
Three houses in the main street of my nearest small town sold in the last week.
So something`s working. Not down to Brown.. but it`s still working.
Tell you what - I think we`re at the bottom and things are going to improve from now. We haven`t had any headlines about X or Y making 2,000 people redundant for a while either. I just wonder if things are better than we have been fearing.

Wilhelm

Remember when Gordon Broon sold Britains gold reserves for a couple of coconuts a few years ago.

JONNY

Of course if it were to register Bounce-wise..say 5 or more points... it might just tempt The Bottler to put a pudgy toe in the water. And chance it in June.
Probably a mistake, but when you're waltzing in Seventh Heaven, strange fantasies can enter the brain.

Nicholas J. Rogers

People are fed up with massive, incomprehensible numbers. It's all starting to sound like a massive put-up job.

David Ossitt

Kelly Mac

"Even BBC Stephanie Flanders admitted not much"

You would not bet your pension on the opinions of that young woman would you?

I find her singularly light weight.

She is a bit like Robert Preston in that they are both so very full of themselves.

Hysteria

@ Susan - interesting thought. Remember all the panic last year from Paulson that "the sky was falling unless you pass TARP NOW" - well the sky didn't fall.

How many weeks ago were we told that multiple East European countries were about to go under? Last I checked nothing has come of that.

Bob.India

Susan Hill. Unfortunately, Bombardier, global manufacturer of regional and business aircraft has just announced 1000 job losses at its Belfast plant

seb

Bob.India

And Norwich Union, now Aviva, has announced far worse job losses than Bombardier has. The US housing market? Not getting better. The news will continue to be largely awful for months to come. The monopoly money will somehow fail to materialise or will not make any difference. Today's stock market surge will prove to be a one-day wonder. It is deeply stomach-churning for any person with an IQ greater than 6 to have to listen to the little kiddies on the BBC announce another Brown Bounce, but, as many have suggested elsewhere, the boom may tempt Kirkcaldy's Leading Autist into calling an election. By polling day, inevitably, he'll be cruising for the ultimate bruising as none of today's lies and bluster will have materialised into economic revival.

Percepied

This $500bn earmarked for the IMF interests me.

If I recall correctly, 4 countries have been bailed out so far (Iceland, Hungary, Latvia and Romania) to a total of $35bn.

So, either there is major trouble ahead that would need $500bn, or Brown et al have conjured up an unnecessarily large figure which will not be called on (it is money that can be made available rather than money that will be paid) in an attempt to impress the watching.world

David Ossitt

JONNY

"And chance it in June".

He has not now; nor has he ever had the bottle.

The very earliest that this man will go will be the May of 2010 and my guess is that he will go as near to the wire as possible and that would be the 3rd June.