Politics

bill

Splendid Fraser. You are one of if not my favourite columnist at the moment. Your writitng reminds me of the good old days when I used to buy the Speccie.

david

Surely it was the Conservatives,(not letting Labour off the hook) who shamlessly plugged the 'property owning democracy' and the right-to-buy etc. that brought thousands of people into the mortgage market, who couldn't really afford to be there. I think this problem pre-dates '97 it has its origins in the 'greed is good' eighties.

Miranda

So well said. Why on earth are the Tories not singing and dancing from the rooftops about this!!

Huw Thornton

Great article, Fraser.

I think that it's even more difficult than you suggest for the Conservatives to develop a compelling narrative.

Certainly, they could go for the "greedy bankers encouraged households to take on too much debt, and the Government did nothing to stop them" angle. This might not be a winner though. It goes against the traditional Tory position of deregulating as far as possible, and allowing people to take their own decisions (including how much debt to take on). It might also be misrepresented as a patronising sideswipe against those who took on personal debt to fulfill their ambitions for themselves and their families. The easy riposte from Labour would be "How dare these Etonians with family money tell ordinary hard-working people how to live their lives".

It could also seem negative if the Government is proposing measures to alleviate the effects of household debt (as in some ways it certainly will).

It does not anyway contradict the narrative of "blues from America" as such - the Tories might seem to be claiming that the fact of a recession (rather than its severity) is entirely home-grown when patently it is not.

The trouble is that the leadership does not appear to have the gravitas that Brown can command. They can be made to appear too inexperienced if they make direct full frontal attacks on the economy. Suddenly "Tory Boy" could appear to emerge again.

I think that the calls for such full frontal attacks are mistaken and could be counter-productive. It might be better and more positive to concentrate on developing policies on how the burden of ordinary households can be lifted - and criticise the measures that the Government is taking. Brown has a track record of very well thought through and complicated measures which simply do not appear to stack up as a real remedies. There is plenty of scope for developing a narrative of "We are the people who can help people solve their own problems effectively". But this will take time.

Guy

Hasn't Gordon Brown funded the massive investment in schools and hospitals by doing exactly what got the banks into trouble? Using scarcely understood PFI programmes to get these massive debts off the government's balance sheet?

Window licker

Great article

hadrian

If the Tories are prepared to half heartedly play along with the rampant statism of our 'grate'( well, he grates on me) socialist Leader, and not be up front with people about the hardships we all must face to get us through this, then they might as well give up..and unless another political party are able to carry that banner, I fear U.K. could be headed for long term poverty as well.
I dispute the comment that the Eighties 'property owning democracy' and meritocracy engendered materialistic greed in and of itself.Had it been allied to a proper thrifty puritan spirit it'd have been a seed ground for the trumpeted personal responsibility we're all hearing about now when it's almost too late!
As for supposed Tory market deregulation, this is a nonsense if you mean a free for all to cheat, lie and play fast and loose with wealth. The State's responsibility is to ensure honest trading and punish cheating.

Lola

Mr Nelson, the World and his granny have been / are saying all that you have written for the last 11 years. Why oh why aren't the Tories? All they've got to do is to tell the truth and keep it simple and surely to God they'll get him. Mind you then they'd have to follow up and the result of that could be very hard indeed for a lot of the population, so could they stay in power long enough to see the right policy through? Whatever, someone really has to hold the fiscally incompetent charlantan Brown to account.

David Preiser

Fraser, your second paragraph (after the bit about Lazarus) reads like Robert Peston's reporting for the last three weeks, sometimes a day or so before Mr. Brown says those things. That's the BBC narrative as well, and there isn't much Cameron or anyone else can do about it at the moment.

Fred

Absolutely brilliant. Oh so I wish the Tories could get their act together

J Kerr

What a fantastic article. As an SNP suporter I can only agree with the above assesment of Browns phoney economics.

All smoke and mirrors and debt ridden through cheap credit and PFI/PPP the politics of short termism.

My estimations of you have gone up. Welldone

Saor Alba

Faux Cu

Excellent incisive article.

It says in a few words what a host of newspaper articles have not.

Why and how this happened. Simple is best.

I especially liked the House of cards and wind analogy.

I believe that Brown is mentally unstable in that he actually believes his defence, that he was not culpable.

He also keeps repeating to himself that if he continues to repeat what he believes we will do so, despite all evidence to the contrary.

The problem, particularly in Scotland, is that the Press and BBC are slavishly following the Great Leaders line.

I sincerely believe he is mentally unbalanced.

Is there no one close to him who can take him aside and explain reality or, are they all in some political Stockholm syndrome culture