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Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill

Clemency suggests


Wednesday, 23rd April 2008

Where have all the Brownites gone?

Fraser Nelson 10:39pm

I'm just out of a More4 studio debating Brown with Francis Beckett, author of a very good (and, to my mind, under-appreciated) biography of the Dear Leader. He'll carve a niche for himself, I thought, being the talking head supporting Brown over his two remaining years in power. But even he struggled to say that Brown is cut out for office - or that he is decisive. He wanted to be supportive, but Brown as a PM? Even he didn't seem to see it.

Producers who set up these TV pundit debates often moan about the problem of balancing them. It's getting harder and harder to find anyone not on his payroll saying "actually, he's a good man doing a good job". And he's not even a year into the job. Have all his supporters really evaporated so soon?

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Comments

The Laughing Cavalier

April 24th, 2008 8:50am

Brown is not the "Dear Leader", that was Blair. He is the Dour Leader.

David

April 24th, 2008 9:09am

After watching Newsnight last night, and the gulf in understanding between Frank Field (using quotes from a letter) and Yvette Cooper (there in person) as to just what the U turn actually means, I think we have just witnessed TAXCON 2.

Its sole purpose was to get the Labour backbenchers help the PM thru PMQs yesterday. It does nothing to solve the issue confronting the low paid affected by the abolition of the 10p rate.

Ann

April 24th, 2008 9:17am

No! Really!! You mean, MacLiar actually is so low as to perpetrate a con and a scam on the taxpayer? I am gobsmacked!!!

Oscar Miller

April 24th, 2008 9:37am

David - you are absolutely right. The fact is millions of people earning under £18,000 will still not be entitled to receive any compensation of any kind. And many others will probably be too bamboozled to claim what they are entitled too. Added to that it is insufferably patronising to fob off some pensioners with a winter fuel allowance which Vince Cable rightly points out will not amount to the extra tax they are now paying. This is beyond doubt TAXCON 2.

Jennie

April 24th, 2008 10:00am

The Labour rebels, now that Gordon's (and Darling's) drivel about 'compensation' is dawning on them, still have time to vote against the Finance Bill after all.

THX1138

April 24th, 2008 10:25am

Did anyone see Gordon Brown on American Idol.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld1KHAz41JE

Maybe be this is why we need to scrap the 10p tax rate?

Dennis

April 24th, 2008 11:35am

Yvette Cooper keeps saying that half the losers from the abolition of the 10p tax band are in the 'top half of the income distribution'.

She makes it sound like 2.7m of those to be worse off as a result of this change aren't poor people at all, but hedge fund managers or something.

Yet all the reports agree you have to be earning under 19 grand to be worse off.

I can't get my head round this.

Can someone explain?

Tiberius

April 24th, 2008 12:53pm

The explanation, Dennis, is that Yvette Cooper is nuts.

David

April 24th, 2008 12:56pm

"I can't get my head round this.

Can someone explain?"

Think of words like "smoke" and "mirrors" and "arse" and "elbow" and all will be clear.

not a statistician

April 24th, 2008 1:12pm

Dennis,

Forgive me, I am no statistician, could this be a horrendous Brownie?

Average income is circa 24k. Significant numbers of people earn far more than this simple maths mean that a large number (a majority?) of people less. Which means it is possible to draw a line through the income distribution which has 50% of people either side of the line but bears no relation to the average salary.

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