Out of touch

Max Kaye

Brown's timing is always great*. Remember all our gold he sold when the market was at rock bottom?

* Bernard Levin once suggested a new punctuation called ironics. We need something like that for online use. Any suggestions

simon hb

Sorry, Fraser, I think you're the one who's out on touch on this one. People who've been trying desperately to buy a house, a flat, at all for the past three or four years of "good" times aren't going to suddenly decide to stay an extra two or three years living in their parent's box rooms or paying rent simply because the economy is mangled.

If you've had a deposit and a job but not been able to afford house prices that have been bubbled-up for half a decade, wouldn't you be very keen to actually buy now prices are falling?

Jon

So, you're saying that financial assistance to first-time buyers is now a complete waste of time, because there are no sane first-time buyers? Presumably the same applies to the Tory policy of abolishing stamp duty for first-time buyers?

RW

"wouldn't you be very keen to actually buy now prices are falling?" Simon HB, once you've bought, what makes you think your property's value will somehow miraculously stabilise and defy the rest of the market? What if it continues to fall and you end up in negative equity like so many did in the early 1990s?

I did, and lost my job as well, and I wouldn't recommend it. Much better to stick with renting until there are signs of the market bottoming out, and not have the threat of a financial millstone round your neck. Fraser's 100% correct.

RW

As for Brown, if he really believes the rubbish he's currently spouting then he's seriously deluded, and if he doesn't but keeps on saying it anyway he's not just incompetent but malevolent.

I bet the proverbial fly on the wall at clandestine Labour Party gatherings is getting an interesting earful.

Fraser Nelson

Simon, people can rent as most do on contiental Europe. Jon, ive long considered financial assistance to first time buyers recklessly pro-cyclical. 125% mortages, parental transfers etc have all fuelled the house price bubble now bursting. And yes, this criticism also applies to the Tories today banging on about helping people onto the housing ladder with a £2,500 stamp duty cut - when prices are dropping by £4,800 a month. As with Northern Rock, most sense on the credit crunch is coming from Vince Cable. The Tories cant afford to lose this round to him too.

David

He gave an interview to Nick Robinson on BBC`s 1pm news and again said we had low inflation in the UK - not my experience. He also said there has been (sic) a credit crunch - I thought we were just six months into one that is just starting to bite here in the UK. He blamed it on the USA - failing to mention that consumer and government debt is much higher here than in the USA. As for the off balance sheet stuff, that is yet another scandal. Obviously he is living in an all expenses paid ivory tower called No 10.

Tiberius

Out of touch, perhaps, but he's not lost his touch. We've just run week-one payroll for the new tax year, with the 10% tax band absent for the first time. Guess what? For many employees, their take-home pay is almost exactly the same as it was last week because the annual increase in their tax code compensates. That grin in the picture above says it all, doesn't it?

Roy

Tiberius. Brown's stated objective in abolishing the 10% rate was to use the money to "end child poverty". Therefore, if the abolition of of the 10% fails to rate revenue, as you say, then he clearly has lost his touch. Either way, he loses.

Brown Watcher

I haven't seen the interview but I bet Robinson's questionning is as forensic as ever (not).

But I did read this comment from clown Brown on the BBC web site:

"If you look back 15 years... we had 15% interest rates, 10% inflation, rapidly rising unemployment, public spending having to be cut, taxes having to rise dramatically."

How long is this idiot going to give us a history lesson? To peddle such irrelevant comparisons shows he's a complete con, totally dishonest and with no moral fibre.

Or he may be stark staring bonkers...

...Either way he's got to go.

Blue Porcupine

Tiberius, that's just lying sophistry and you know it. The tax free allowance ALWAYS shows an indexed increase. It was 5225 last year, it's 5345 this year, it'll be 56xx next year. People ought to have seen their pay packet GOING UP, not remaining the same. This is a new financial year in case you haven't noticed and there this little thing called inflation, you see...

The indexed increase doesn't cushion anything, it just stops the pain inflicted by Brown's cut being made any worse.

Disgraceful argument.

Tiberius

BP; what, exactly, do you think my argument is?

Caroline

BW.… "If you look back 15 years... we had 15% interest rates, 10% inflation, rapidly rising unemployment, public spending having to be cut, taxes having to rise dramatically."
How long is this idiot going to give us a history lesson?

Answer - For as long as he chooses, although those who lived through those hard times need no reminding, it’s well seared into our memory. I dare say you would prefer to ‘move on’ from that now, as evidenced by the endless attempts to whitewash ‘Black Wednesday’ but that won’t work either. He is quite rightly reminding the public of what happened under the last Tory Govt. and inviting them to make comparisons in just the same way as the Tories (complete con, totally dishonest and with no moral fibre.) loved reminding the public of the winter of discontent. So no, he isn’t ‘bonkers’ – it’s politics – just too annoying eh?