Brown puts on his gloomy face for the world stage

davidke

It's also an attempt to tell the British that it's the whole world, stupid, not me (GB) that is the problem.

Frank P

The fevered rambling of his death throes.

Rob C

The UK should one of the first out of recession because we rely much less on manufacture and more on services and finance, but I'm not sure we will. He'd certainly be right to highlight the fact that we have additional localised problems - namely HIS government!

This recession is due largely to two factors - debt levels and confidence. This government has bred the debt-culture and led by the example that we can have everything today and pay tomorrow rather than planning and prioritising investment.

The confidence issue won't be resolved without new leadership as this rabble are totally discredited as incompetent, devious and dishonest. He also broke the regulation that would have mitigated this mess and we shouldn't lose sight of that either.

Jonathan_T

Another short term "strategy" from a short term Prime Minister.

Gary Williams

"it foregrounds what I call..."? I'm in favour of an evolving language, but there are limits!

Wrt your speculation that Brown's intention is to create a potential escape route for himself: is it not more likely that he is trying to highlight the dividing line between himself and the Tories? That is, by warning that the risks remain serious, he is implying that is it essential that he remain in charge in order to continue his programme for the foreseeable future.

John Moss

Would paying back some of the £200bn of debt Brown ran up between 2001 and 2008 class as putting in place conditions for sustainable growth?

The man is economically illiterate and the only reason the European leaders at the G8 aren't laughing in his face is that they need him to survive long enough for Lisbon to be ratified.

Julianlzb87

Don't forget to invite Brown to be honourable....
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/please-go/

boulay

he always has a different speach to world leaders to domestic audience as the world leaders do not fall for his schtick and he would be laughed off the stage.

mirror readers et al do not generally spend much time reading the reports on G8 meetings so his downbeat messages are usually lost whereas macguire and friends can spout rubbish about brown lying over domestic issues.

Swiss Bob

I'll be lunching just down the road. If I see Brown I'll be sure to wave.

Denis Cooper

I don't think Brown need worry too much about testy confrontations at future summits, not until after the Lisbon Treaty either has come into force or has been finally killed off.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6644853.ece

"Gordon Brown helped by European leaders keen to ratify Lisbon treaty"

"European leaders are so desperate for Gordon Brown to stay in power until after the Lisbon treaty comes into force that they are willing to make compromises to shore up his political position, The Times has learnt."

"Diplomatic sources told The Times that Mr Brown’s position with European leaders is enhanced because they fear that a leadership challenge and early election could sink the treaty, due to come into force by Christmas. The Conservatives are committed to a referendum if they are elected before it is ratified."

A number of points here.

One, this also applies to Obama, who supports the Lisbon Treaty just as much as Bush supported the previous version, the EU Constitution.

Two, this hasn't just started. Why else were Merkel and Sarkozy et al, and Obama, all willing to come to London for the practically pointless G20 meeting, if not to shore up Brown's position vis-a-vis the British public?

Three, although they want to keep Brown in Downing Street, the really important thing is to keep Cameron out of Downing Street; so if Brown was replaced by, say, Johnson, then they'd do whatever they could to shore up his position.

Four, Cameron himself has created this situation through his conditional pledge of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Flemingcrag

It is probably true that the actions of other Countries could help Britain out of this recession just as it is equally true that Gordon needed no help from any other Country to put us into it.
Unique things that one-eyed Gordon fails to see need to be sorted before things in the words of Tony Bliar "can only get better" include;
The regeneration of Manufacturing where a million jobs have been shed since Labour came to power.
The trimming of the one million jobs created in the illusionary successful Financial sector.
The further trimming of the 1.3 million recruited into the Public sector to no beneficial improvement in services since Labour came to power.
Gordon would rather strut the World stage pontificating in his "honest" son of the manse pose rather than deal with any of these tough nuts to crack. Like all Labour ministers before him he only knows how to spend money and borrow more, not how to create it by any other means than a printing press.
Macavity Brown has no credibility at home as he is cuckolded by Meddlesome and "supported" by Ed (so what) Balls, none of which will have escaped the notice of those he attempts to lecture on the World stage.

Augustus

Apres moi le deluge!

Pete Hoskin

Gary Williams: erm, what's wrong with that? Are you implying that the word "foregrounds" is "evolving language"? It's in the OED...

oldtimer

It is all part of his exogenous recession theory - "it all started in America". This theory is about to evolve into "blame it on the foreigners; its all their fault because they ignored my brilliant advice to reinflate regardless".

You can almost hear the cogs and gears grinding away in the bunker as a new version of the new "on message" strategy gets printed out. Give it a week and we can expect to see a full 180 degree u-turn.

Note the touch of Mandelsonian metamorphosis here and the infinite flexibility of the exogenous recession theory.

Alexandrovich

He has another face?

Gary Williams

Peter Hoskin: "erm, what's wrong with that? Are you implying that the word 'foregrounds' is 'evolving language'? It's in the OED..."

I was referring to its use as a verb. You are correct; it has indeed been consecrated by the OED as a verb. The reason that one never hears or sees it used as a verb is because it's a dreadful one. To borrow from one of Mr Brown's predecessors, "This is the sort of English up with which one should not put."

Hysteria

"And, second, it foregrounds what I call .."

WTF????

Pete Hoskin

Hysteria: it makes perfect sense. See comments above.

john miller

This is an old Mandy tactic used by Blair for 10 years.

Tell different audiences different things - the things they want to hear.

Worked for Tone cos they only listened to the (you're ahead of me here) the tone of his voice, never the words.

Every other leader in the world thinks he's a - well, what all we Coffee Housers think he is - so he can't get any worse there.

But back home is bum is on the fence and both sides of it at the same time. Can't get a better position than that...

I did say it was a Mandy idea, didn't I?