Brown revels in it
Lloyd Evans 6:46pm
It looked the final victory of International Socialism as Brown wrapped up the G20 summit. Lenin himself couldn’t have been happier. The world’s banks have now effectively been merged into a global collective. There’ll be subsidies for the poor provided by the wealthy. Bonuses will be monitored. Salaries for top bankers may well be capped. Tax havens for fatcats will be squeezed into extinction. Colleges of supervisors will be trained and sent out to patrol the international bourses, like bean-counting beach attendants, to ensure that the world economy never again surfs onto the rocks of fiscal oblivion. The costs are so vast they vanish into the clouds. Their sheer scale obviates all scrutiny or criticism. A billion may be a blunder. A trillion is an act of God. Precisely how many trillions are involved got lost in the spider’s web of Brown’s rhetoric. His taste for making enormous funding announcements collided with another of his favourite tricks – revealing that the previous, or the expected package, has just been surpassed by an even more galumphing slice of dosh. So the detail of a trillion dollars – had he announced five of these monetary swarms or six? – vanished behind his oratorical sleight of hand.
But setting aside one’s cynicism, it felt as if something new and original happened today. We learned that the G20 will reconvene later in the year to monitor progress. Are we witnessing the birth of a world parliament that meets at six monthly intervals? Bob Geldof, commenting on the BBC, declared that today’s summit ‘makes the G8 redundant.’ And he agreed broadly with Brown’s global approach and in rather more colourful approach than a sober-suited politician can use. ‘We sucked on the tit of free money and the bloated asset that burst was us – and we have to clear up that mess.’
The credit crunch is Brown’s 9/11 and his language was suitably militaristic. This was the day, he said, when the world fought back against the crisis. It was also the day he fought back against his critics. Give him his due. He looked composed and commanding this afternoon. And he successfully concealed any pleasure he might have felt at announcing the biggest injection of state aid in the history of the universe.
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Publius
April 2nd, 2009 6:57pm Report this commentI expect this will go down like VE Day or the birth of Christ as one of those days written forever in the stars. Street parties will spontaneously break out across the nation. Rejoice, just rejoice!
Demetrius
April 2nd, 2009 6:58pm Report this commentWhat was it that Stalin said? "When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope." Wasn't Gordon a bit of a Stalin Groupie as kid?
adrian drummond
April 2nd, 2009 7:05pm Report this commentI'm seething. Brown was the reason why the patient became ill in the first place and now he's announcing the cure.
David Ossitt
April 2nd, 2009 7:08pm Report this commentIn the fulness of time this summit will prove to have been a costly exercise that will achieve little, they the polititions all have a differing agenda.
The only one thing that they all have in common, is the that their own electorate will think that they are doing something constructive.
When in all truth they are all whistling in the dark.
strapworld
April 2nd, 2009 7:14pm Report this commentOh yeah, Same old Brown, Same old lies. If it is a new order why have we got Brown still?
New World Order!! sounds lovely,means nothing come the next major problem placing Russia and China against the West!!
Role on next week. the truth will then come out -as it always does following a Brown announcement.
RW
April 2nd, 2009 9:52pm Report this comment"Bob Geldof, commenting on the BBC...agreed broadly with Brown’s global approach"
How lucky we all are to have these sainted persons, St. Bob and St. Gordon, bringing the Words of Truth to the benighted masses, by way of the Brown Broadcasting Corporation, which has never been known to lie or contradict the Labour Party.
Where would we all be without them?
hadrian
April 2nd, 2009 10:24pm Report this commentComing from the talentless Geldof that line of his about 'bloated dosh' is utterly rich ( excuse pun!).
What grandiose self delusion these politicians and 'celebrities' indulge in! I cannot wait for the fall of the lot of them- except of course that it'll drag us all even further into the pit. Let's just remember for future reference that Madman Broon was at the very heart of this lunacy.
Vapid Cant
April 2nd, 2009 10:29pm Report this commentLloyd.
This could never have happened - any of it - without the disastrous management of the banking industry.
You make it sound as if some great socialist web has tightened around an otherwise healthy system.
We're bailing them out remember? At huge expense. We're not letting them go bankrupt as we would with any other industry.
Bonuses will only be monitored because massive abuse has taken place. Salaries for bankers will cap themselves - due mainly to the fact that they are wildly in excess of what the market will now bear.
'Tax havens for fatcats will be squeezed into extinction'? Are you expecting any tears over this then? Why should I pay tax when people with more money than me can avoid it?
Bob Geldof? Frigsake what are you playing at, referring to this windbag.
And the credit crunch is not in any sense, 'Brown's 9/11'. How anyone could equate these two events is actually quite disturbing.
Ray
April 2nd, 2009 11:19pm Report this comment"The credit crunch is Brown’s 9/11".
Yeah, and we all know what kind of mugs the previous incumbents of Downing Street and the White House took us for after the first 9/11.
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