It's Brownie time
Peter Hoskin 7:39pm
For the past few weeks, CoffeeHouse has been asking its readers to shout out about Gordon Brown’s lies – or Brownies, as we call them. The response has been superb. Congrats to CoffeeHouser James, for providing an almost comprehensive list:
“As for GB's lies...where to begin: The Constitution/treaty. The state of the economy when he took over in 1997. Comparing RPI in the 1990s with CPI now. Constantly pretending that unemployment is now low, and youth unemployment almost abolished - when over 4million are not in proper work. The scandalous New Deal. The scandalous failure of the Tax Credit system. The lie that defence spending has gone up in real terms (inflation in the defence sector runs at around 8%).”
But there are others. Cat mentions one:
“Oh - and lets not forget Brown's "green agenda" pledges.......... followed by a cut in the Defra (& Wrap) budget.”
And, personally, I'd like to see Ted Telford's question answered:
"Does anyone know whether he actually wrote that 'profiles in courage' book himself?"
Now's the time for Coffee House to go through your suggestions and fashion them into extended blog posts. This will start with Fraser outlining Brownie No. 1 – Inflation. And the process will be continued over the next few weeks - with more posts, articles and guest contributions - until we’ve built the definitive catalogue of Brownies. Please keep giving your thoughts as we go along.
Aside from what the Brownies are, there’s a second element to this story. Namely, how Brown gets his deceptions across – the little methods he uses; the overarching techniques behind his deceptions. We’ll soon move onto this. For now, it’ll suffice to say that Team CoffeeHouse liked Thomas Widmann’s description of Brown as an illusionist:
"To me, Brown's methods are fundamentally the same as those of a magician/illusionist. Therefore, it would make good sense to call them magic tricks, effects or illusions, or perhaps -- including his name -- Brown tricks or Brown illusions. Perhaps even brownillusions?"
Let’s start undermining the trickster in No.10.
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Comments
Nicholas
March 5th, 2008 8:46pmHopefully when complete, and given the transient nature of online data, you will publish all this in a Spectator Special Edition that will serve as the definitive archive-able catalogue of Brown's lies for all time?
Philip Collinson
March 5th, 2008 9:58pmIn the Telegraph's 3 line Whip blog, there is the following: In his book Servants of the People, Andrew Rawnsley recounts an explosion from the then Chancellor after he had been challenged during a radio interview about what he knew of Bernie Ecclestone’s £1 million donation to the Labour Party. According to Rawnsley, a highly agitated Brown afterwards yelled at aides: “I lied. If this gets out, I'll be destroyed.”
salieri
March 5th, 2008 10:39pmAh well, time to draw a line and move on, as a former PM (now what was his name?) was wont to say when drawing debate to a close. Truth is now, in politial terms, an elastic concept: whatever you want it to be - or else can get away with before memory fades. Mr. McBean can't help it any more than his predecessor. "Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand/ With a grip that kills it." (Tagore)
Nick
March 5th, 2008 10:48pmThis is all very commendable, but isn't a list of "Brownies" the sort of thing Tory Central Office should be able to supply, fully cross-referenced and web-linked, on request. What have their young researchers been doing for the last few years ?
Yeah but...
March 5th, 2008 11:19pmHe started off lying... "I will not allow house prices to get out of control and put at risk the sustainability of the recovery." Gordon Brown, 1997 Budget Statement.
Chris G
March 5th, 2008 11:26pmPerhaps you could call this concerted effort to watch out for Brown's lies to be the 'Brown eye'
TrevorH
March 5th, 2008 11:44pmThere is no question about it --- Brown is an illusionist. He lives by smoke and mirrors and misdirection. 'Magician' though is a polite word, 'con-man' would be more apposite, and despite is protestations to the contrary he is an amoral one at that.
Griff
March 6th, 2008 7:48amDon't forget the double and triple counting of the actual spend on health and other services in the early years of New Labour.
David
March 6th, 2008 8:29amI think of him as "Goebbels" Brown.
Dev C
March 6th, 2008 9:14amTime for revolution. Gordon Brown has desecrated everything the British involvement in the World Wars stood for. Time for an uprising. This has just gone too far.
Glyn H
March 6th, 2008 9:37amNO one has yet mentioned the PFI scandal. May I recommend In The Back over at the Eye (to which I also subscibe) for comprehensive coverage of the depth of the fakery to keep these figures off the nations books.
Gareth
March 6th, 2008 10:09amThe lie about Defence spending is even more mendacious than James suggests. 8% is very much an average and is not a rip off but reflects the level of technological risk inherent in producing cutting edge war fighting systems. When it comes to aircraft and high end warships, inflation is nearer 15%. Thus one could argue that, despite proclamations to the contrary, this goverment is deliberately hollowing out overall Defence capability and actively pursuing a strategy of making Typhoon and the Carriers ultimately unaffordable. This stinks to high heaven but sadly you journos appear not to be able/prepared to put in the proper research to get to the bottom of it. The evidence is right in front of you but.......
Max Kaye
March 6th, 2008 10:17amEither Brown is a consummate illusionist, or the British people like being treated like stupid, masochistic cattle.
Alas, I'm beginning to think it's the latter.
Fergus Pickering
March 6th, 2008 10:45amI'd like to see masochistic cattle.
Jeremy Poynton
March 6th, 2008 11:59amGood one when he went to China in the same place as Branson. When asked whether he and Branson had discussed Northern Rock on the flight, he said no. Asked again later, he said yes. To my mind he is a congenital liar and - like Bliar - doesn't know he is doing it. If it comes out of his mouth, it is true. Often seen as one of the defining characteristics of NPD.
Max kaye
March 6th, 2008 12:10pmFergus Pickering: try your local high street. They're easily identified by the vacant-eyed expression as chew their cud (aka fast food - always consumed on the hoof).
salieri
March 6th, 2008 8:32pmYes, and they lie down when it's going to rain
Jim Pickard
April 9th, 2008 3:04pmIn PMQs the other day he claimed that interest rates hit 18 per cent in the early 1990s. They've never been that high.