Dice are loaded against Brown
James Forsyth 11:30am
The news that stamp duty is to be axed on houses costing less than £175,000 is rather underwhelming—the Tories proposed abolishing it on homes under £250,000 last year but is indicative of the problems that the government is going to have with its re-launch. The best chance for a successful re-launch would have come from a genuine period of silence over the summer followed by the rollout of a set of new initiatives. Instead, what we are seeing is confirmation that variously extensively trailed ideas are going to be implemented and often in less radical form than first suggested. This, as the Populus poll in the Times shows , is unlikely to change the voters’ mind about Labour.
Previewing the few remaining shots in the government’s locker was a mistake but it was one that the Brownites felt forced into making by David Miliband. The Brownites were keen, perhaps too keen, to show that they had ideas and to reassure Labour backbenchers that they had a plan. The result is that the dice are loaded against Brown as he rolls them for the last time.
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Comments
mark c
September 2nd, 2008 3:39pmas usual the devil is going to be buried deep in the deatil but from whats got out so far it seems less like help and more hapless and pointless redistribution dressed up to grab some headlines. It'll all end in tears with the housing market screwed further than it already is.
Hereford
September 2nd, 2008 3:43pm"...as he rolls them for the last time."
Brown is like the addicted gambler. He will never stop rolling the dice and gambling more and more of our money in the hope that eventually he will make that big win so he can pay everyone back.
He will drag on and on until the house stops taking his markers. Unfortunately, until 2010 he owns the house.
Verity
September 2nd, 2008 10:41pmThis is a genuine question for someone who actually knows the answer: Why doesn't HM sack Brown and his gang of thugs and wide boys and girls? If any government should ever been dismissed - even worse than Blair and I never thought I would type those words - it is this gang of thieves, gravy-trainers and incompetents.
They haven't the foggiest idea of what to do. They twiddle the knobs in a panic - OK, no tax on sales of houses under 175,000. That's going to make some people happy, of course, if they happen to be selling their home, but it does bugger all for the economy. It's a silly, fidgety little one-off. An "eye-cating initiative", in fact!
They have failed outstandingly at schools, public order, control of our borders and health. What more will it take?
Why doesn't HM dismiss them?
Is she afraid they'll race through some legislation abolishing the Crown? If so, what is the point?
Silent Hunter
September 2nd, 2008 10:52pmRecalling how all Labour Ministers have appeared to trot out the mantra that the credit crunch is a global thing..........isn't it funny that Britain has been found to be the ONLY country in the EU facing a recession.......the rest of Europe appear to be substantially better off than us.
Can we now look forward to reporters, interviewers et al challenging Ministers when they glibly trot out this LIE.?
Labour are a bunch of liars.
GENERAL ELECTION NOW PLEASE.
Hysteria
September 3rd, 2008 12:15amBut it's not just about the election is it?
Clearly the Tories will win but simply because they are "not labour"....
We need to start hearing what policies they are going to adopt, in a coherent message that the public can relate to and get behind.
David C
September 3rd, 2008 9:55amThe activity over the summer was part of the meme that Brown has used to replace a narrative.
The message is, as everybody knows, 'Brown is getting on with the job'.
In order to be seen 'getting on with the job' from the moment he wakes to the point where he finally rests from his Herculean efforts, Brown must produce a torrent of measures, each one carefully crafted to demonstrate the utmost activity, lest the public draw the conclusion that the Great Captain is actually cowering behind his desk, fingernails between his teeth, as the SS United Kingdom slides beneath the waves.
Brown did not have to reply in any way to Miliband's forays, save to have him quietly strangled and the body dumped overboard. After all, it was Brown who had spent his time before ascending to No.10 steadily undermining the Blairite wing of the Party and dispatching his possible rivals and when he entered No.10 he surrounded himself with political pygmies and long time cronies, so what had he to fear?
Another political miscalculation in a long series of miscalculations from the 'Great Clunking Fist’.
There is more to say about this and at the heart of Brown's problems are his character flaws.