Rank desperation

Tankus

He raped our pensions , he screwed the poor (10p tax), why the surprise ?

Prodicus

What an unutterable $h1t.

fergus morrissey

oh my god,he really has lost it!why he feels the need to cuckold alistair darling again,come up with this piece of crap,then leave darling to field questions at a press conference.....part of his scorched -earth policy no doubt.

Billericay Dave

please god may this be the end of gormless and co, he really is bonkers and now the msm have cottoned onto the fact.

General Zod

He makes a fool of himself every time he opens his mouth (although he's capable of doing it just by moving the corners without speaking).

How is the rest of the EU going to take the UK seriously in relation to the Hedge Funds Directive when he's coming out with City-killing imbecility like this?

Minnie Ovens

If there was a tax upon stupidity then the Labour Government themselves would repay all debt in three months.

General Zod

Tim Geithner and even Dominique Strauss-Kahn have rejected this and shown Brown up on the world stage as a fool.

Nicholas

In old China coast pidgin parlance "Number10.gov.uk" has a very special and unintended meaning, but spot on for this shambolic, ridiculous pretend government..

"Gordon Brown he number 10!".

Yes, indeed.

Short the UK

I wonder if the FT (F****** Terrible) will back their man with this proposal.

John David Barnett

This son of the manse will do anything to keep his job - a job he has pined for for so many years. He reminds me of Gollum!

Dorothy Wilson

With the Conservative Party it is the men in grey suits who tell a discredited leader that it is time to quit. Where, oh where, are Labour's men in white coats?

skingers

why? why? why? why? why? why? Do we have to endure this egocentric madman? He should act as his office demands with some concern for his country and not his small minded political manoeuvring to better his party. Where is the sense of responsibility and integrity? And I guess we know the answer to that.

David Lindsay

Now, I'm not convinced about the Tobin Tax. But the rest of us - not least a manufacturing sector still, despite the best efforts of both parties, more than twice the size of the whole of financial services - was expected to bail out the City. Yet heaven forbid that the City should ever have to put anything back. If this is the Tories' line from the bailed out Home Counties, then the bailing out marginal seats of Scotland, Wales, the North and the Midlands will notice. And more than notice.

TrevorsDen

When did Brown tell Darling that he was going to propose this and assuming Brown told him before his speech what did Darling, the Chancellor after all, advise?

Did Brown discuss this with anybody? Was there any consultation with anybody? Is it really realistic that Brown should come out with something so dramatic at a G20 meeting (normally we are told these meetings require months of preparation and pre discussion).

This is Brown taking his Archie Rice act to excruciating levels.

Steve L

Scorched earth.

There really should be some way of stopping it, or at least hanging him after the next election.

Andreas Paterson

Billericay Dave, General Zod - I quite agree with you, it is clear from his ramblings that Fraser is quite, quite mad. His economic imbecility knows no bounds, how could anyone with an ounce of understanding object to a Tobin tax?

Golur

Slightly o/t, but extremely indicative of the way this man is divorced from reality, this from his interview in GQ magazine this month, with Piers Morgan:

"My brothers about to go on a 6 month tour of Afghanistan. Can you give me a guarantee that he will have the equipment he and his colleagues need to do the job properly"

GB "Our troops must be properly equipped and any suggestion that any politician would send them into battle without the right tools is wrong."

"Are you offended that you're not seen as a friend of the military"?

GB "I am a friend of the military"

"Many in the armed forces don't see it that way"

GB "Look, no request for UORS has ever been turned down since I've been Chancellor or PM".

So, three questions answered, and each answer is demonstrably untrue. The man cannot open his mouth without lying - but I suppose he thinks it's all for the best. Him and Piers Morgan discussing the Army - as someone on the Army Rumour Service said today "Isn't that like Ian Huntley and the killers of Baby P discussing childcare techniques?"

General Zod

Ever heard of Income Tax and Corporation Tax, David Lindsay?

General Zod

Nice try, Andreas. You clearly don't have an ounce of economic understanding.

Nicholas

Oh, dear.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6907991.ece

That's the way to do it. Who's been very naughty boys and girls then?

Nick

There is a problem with industry. They are regularly making people redundant with a huge social cost.

What we need is a widget tax. Every widget made by industry needs to be taxed and the money needs to be put in a social fund. Then when they go bust, we have insurance for the social costs.

Nick

PS. Any resemblence to other proposed taxes is entirely coincident.

Moraymint

The guy is an unmitigated barnpot.

I've just been driving home from a night out, listening to him churning out the incomprehensible appartchikspeak that he now seems to regurgigate every time he comes on air.

This really is now absolutely beyond parody.

Where in the hell are the rest of the cabinet these days? Why in God's name do they not act and knife the pyscopath before he takes us all down with him? I guess that's what they want.

Will somebody please tell me what's happening? Is this just like something out of the Matrix, where we're all living in some nightmarish alter-world? If so, would somebody please switch off the machine and let us all get back to reality. Are we really in Great Britain?

This is utter madness.

2trueblue

Why the surprise? Labour are the KNOW NOTHING PARTY.

Amadeus Plonquer

Good Grief! Now Gordon Brown can't even fail properly.

I have a new theory that explains all. Gordon Brown is NOT the son of the Manse as he honestly believes. No. He is actually the adopted bastard son of the late Labour luminary and Chancellor, George Brown. The 'overwhelming desire' to be first Chancellor and the Prime Minister is in his genes.

This theory can be easily proved or disproved by a medical examination to determine if Gordon Brown is 'anatomically correct'.

biggestaspidistra

and on a related topic, guess what, there's a whole world out there and it's full of Neather
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6907991.ece?token=null&offset=24&page=3

Roger Davies

Brown will fight the next GE, because in his mind he is a genius and the best person on the planet to save it from unfettered capitalism. No one else comes close. I suspect he might end his days in a padded cell with his night-shirt firmly tied down at the back. He is now in the phase of saying anything to anyone in order that he will be heard. The man is quiet mad. But please let him stay and fight his first GE as Leader of the Labour Party, please let lead this group of idiots and donkeys into oblivion.

strapworld

Read the wise words of Peter Hitchins in The Mail on Sunday.
Words Verity, myself and others have written on Coffee House . But people are living in Cloud Cuckoo land if they think the answer to the question is Cameron!

"By their deeds shall ye know them. David Cameron is a fake conservative and those who still invest hopes in him are asking to be disappointed.

There is no need to put him in Downing Street to find out that the Cameron Tories will govern this country just as New Labour have done.

On the contrary, there is a great need to ensure he never gets there. Why would we need another Blair? Apart from those people who are happy to be in office but not in power, why should anyone want to help this rabble of cynical poseurs into government?"

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1226044/PETER-HITCHENS-Revealed-fakery-David-Cameron--tough-talker-took-cowards-way-out.html#ixzz0WG1QvVQu

Rainer Unsinn

"TrevorsDen
Did Brown discuss this with anybody? "

The voices in his head, probably.

.... .... ......

Strapworld.
I read Peter Hitchens every week, if only to keep my own heart less nasty.
You can tell a person's heart by their face.
This man is full of venom.
If he is so convinced he is 'all that' why doesn't HE do something about it instead of his poisonus vile rants every week.
He is from the past, like many of the politicians who will either jump or be kicked out come next June.
NO party can solve everything or please everyone, however unlike Brown and his scorched earth policies they can at least STOP making things worse.
The second you hear Hitchins you just KNOW what is coming..an old has been that writes a column in a sunday rag.
What has he done for the benefit of mankind, the Conservatives or the world?
He should take lessons from Quentin Letts.
Just look at Quentin's face...see the difference?

TomTom

Brown rejected this as Chancellor. He has zero credibility. We have a transactions tax - it is called Stamp Duty and VAT. What reserves did th British Government make ? Insurance on deposit-taking institutions £2000 ? No wonder people queued outside Northern Rock ?

That was prudence....£2000 ? Considering building societies expect a bigger deposit that £2000 when people are buying a home, it was a bit sparse Gordon after 12 years in office.

The man is pure humbug but his spinmeisters throught they had a headline at Sky and BBC but it was hilarious. They are such funny news channels with wacko stories and celebrity trivia, I could not work out which Brown was auditioning for.

The basket case is Britain and everyone knows it. What I wonder, is what £1,500,000,000,000 would have done for Britain's manufacturing base. Would it have seen off Japan and Germany ?

Then again, RBS just lost £2 billion and Lloyds is propped up with £165,000,000,000....and they say Britain is a world leader in Finance. Really ?

Is this satirical ?

.... .... ......

179 DAYS....Tick....Tock....

NickW

We knew from the beginning that it was unwritten labour policy to irrevocably tie us into Europe via the Lisbon treaty, without the promised referendum.

We can see the scorched earth policy in action.

It seems highly likely that the deliberate destruction of our economy is implicitly designed to ensure that we are forced into the Euro and thereby become utterly dependent on Brussels.

Brown's plan is the final destruction of our Country by the removal of our financial independence and freedom of action.

It doesn't look like anyone is going to stop him.

denis cooper

Third attempt to get my comment to appear automatically ... a shorter version this time:

"The kind of proposal that might be aired by a Frenchman, purely to outrage Britain."

It's not just the French, and as we know Brown will normally go along with Merkel and Sarkozy even when it's against our national interests - or maybe especially when it's against our national interests?

http://www.euractiv.com/en/financial-services/eu-warms-tobin-tax/article-185605

"EU warms to Tobin Tax

Published: Monday 21 September 2009

EU leaders are showing renewed interest in taxing global financial transactions to help poor countries by means of a so-called Tobin Tax. After receiving the backing of France and Germany, the European Commission is looking again at a subject that has been broadly neglected so far."

Frank P

There seems to be a general consensus here that Brown and the residual rabble from the NuLab project are the problem. There is also a growing consensus that Cameron appears not to be the solution, exacerbated by his wet exposition last week about the fait accompli of the European Constitution (aka Lisbon 'Treaty' aka stitch-up).

Unfortunately there is no consensus whatsoever about a potential leader to extract us from the damage wreaked on our nation for the past half century of infiltration of our culture, institutions, halls of academe and the erstwhile backbone of the nation - HM Constabulary.

The ceding of our sovereignty to the bureaucrats of erstwhile enemies and weak allies, at the expense of our true allies - the Yanks, the Anglo-Scottish Canadians and the Australasian Dominions, in other words the Anglosphere, is the heinous crime of the era.

To the streets folks! I'm prepared to drag what's left of my rotting flesh up to the occupied territory of Londonistan for a final protest, if some of you younger ranters here will organise it. Perhaps Melanie should be canvassed to hire a suitable venue and address a rally indoors first of all.

In fact, if this this magazine still had the interests of conservatism and our traditions and heritage at heart, instead of convening soirées to strut their stuff with their leftie mates and 'associate editors' in a 'big tent' in Chelsea, accessed only by exorbitant ticket prices, they should rather convene a mass rally in Hyde Park with a few fire-brand conservatives to lead the fight back and allow us to vent our grievances in the flesh.

How about it Melanie? I can think of half a dozen speakers who could address a gathering of true blues and put some fire in the bellies of the traditional indigenes and start the Long March in reverse. We keep rabbiting on - when are we going to DO something to at least attempt to halt the decline?

When Frank Luntz invented David Cameron on Newsnight in September 2006 I felt a slight twitch of hope in my flickering soul. Subsequent events have quashed it completely. There must be an alternative catalyst to get us out of this mess. I feel an attack of Tourette coming on - so over to you lot.

Frank P

A good friend just emailed this link to me:

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2009/11/support-for-the-cameron-project-grows-among-centre-right-columnists.html

A fair summary of support and dissention? Or just more whistling in the dark.

I repeat, these buggers need to see the dissension on the streets. Unless they do, they will continue to delude themselves. A conservative website slagging off true conservatives? What else can we expect now?

Btw if Melanie's persistent admirable excoriation of Cameron over the past couple of years isn't nasty, then I need a new Thesaurus, there seems of have been emendation in the Conservativehome copy. You'll have to try harder Ms. Nasty! I geddit it, but they seem not to.

strapworld

Fraser. With the Sunday Times reporting the immigration issue today. I now ask, yet again, for you to live up to your promise!

Moraymint

Frank P

It's weird. For most of my life I have been absolutely of "the Establishment". Now I despise and distrust the Establishment with a vengeance. I never thought it would happen, but these days I favour anarchy over hierarchy.

Engaging politely and firmly with politicians and/or bureaucrats in the vain hope of influencing change is an utter waste of time; the political and bureaucratic classes have become the enemy of ordinary people. Politics in the UK now is about "them" and "us"; just like it was in the old USSR (and no doubt still is in Russia today).

We have an unelected Prime Minister (just like they do in Afghanistan). We live in a nation in almost unprecedented socio-economic crisis and we're told we can't vote now to eject a failed Executive from power.

We're told that we're now fully fledged members of an actively anti-democratic, bureaucratic superstate (we had no say in this turn of events), where if we don't like what's going on we have no democratic mandate to change those who rule over us from Brussels.

What else is there if it's not anarchy? What does our political class expect if they disenfranchise their citizens? It's not rocket science.

Traditionally, the British people don't do revolution. However, as our economy collapses during the next parliament there will be social unrest in the UK. In the past, I would have tut-tutted at people swarming on our streets. In future, I'll be there with them. I wonder how many more there are like me?

biggestaspidistra

"I wonder how many more there are like me?"

I shall join you Moraymint. A Prague spring is due. In fact I've been wondering what kind of badge I could wear to show my revulsion at this government and the media and perhaps the number 68 will do nicely. At least until there's a better suggestion.

And yes Fraser, how is the draft?

Andy

Fortunately, the ROW (rest of the world) seems to have laughed him out of court. Brown surely wouldn't go it alone, would he? Wait a minute - he thinks he's the right man in the right job doing the right thing, That means only one thing; we've had it!

Marcher Baron

biggestaspidistra - count on me to be there with you and Moraymint. In the meantime, I've started scrutinising my grocery bill with a view to eliminating the items that attract VAT in order to withdraw what tax I can from this corrupt government. Every little helps, as they say.

Barbara

Are we that bad off he's trying to raise more taxes this way, he must be foolish to think 'bankers' would allow this to happen and of course we'd be right in the mire of financial dealings with this on the back of the Bank of England. We are taxed to the hilt now, and banks are letting down busineses by the dozen by refusing to lend, what he should be concentrating on is making thoughs who have taken our money, do what they should be doing supporting British busineses. Instead many are simply pulling the plug, reducing overdrafts, and stopping lending at all in most cases resulting in higher than necessary clousure of firms. God help us all from this treacherous government, Brown knows he's finished, why he carry's on I've no idea, if he has the sense all say he has he should retire gracefully and call an election, and let us decide for it appears we have more commonsense than he.

MrSpiggot

He knew the Brown Broadcasting Corporation would run with it, and duly they obliged

Frank P

Perhaps the caption above the post picture should read: "Rank Desperado".

theprofromdover

Gollum Brown is useless and dangerous, agreed.

However,
this tax idea is actually a good one (but probably not in the way he intended).

The thing with a trunk and big ears in this room is high frequency trading.
ABSOLUTELY distorting the markets, and going to get worse.
If you apply a Tobin tax on all share transactions which are re-sold within a specified period (say 100 days), then you can cripple the hyper-selling which now seems to account for 70% of the daily market in NYSE, and rising fast in the UK.

With HFT you can buy and sell your shares in milliseconds (just ahead of the competition), holding them just long enough to make a fraction of a penny on each share, enough to make millions a day. Why do you think GS cleared over $100 million per day on dozens of days during the past quarter?
H.F.T.
GS are creaming a fat profit just before they sold them to their clients, and pumping the current colossal bubble that is about to explode.

The only way to slow down this out-of-control trading is to force people to hold their share purchases for a reasonable length of time.

A share price should reflect the company's well-being, potential, sales and assets.
Take British Airways for example...... the share price went up, on the recent results?!!!!!!!!!

theprofromdover

......... or just apply gambling tax on the share dealings of the City; cos that is all they are doing.
They certainly aren't investing in companies.