Tonight:
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That I'm beginning to feel sorry for Gordon Brown is a bad sign - for him. Politicians always know that when they elicit sympathy from the voters the game is up, because it means they are a lame duck, and no one votes for a creature they pity.
On the economy the Prime Minister has now nailed his colours to the mast, and it turns out they're the same battered standard he's been waving around Whitehall for more than a decade now. He first hoisted them at the Treasury: prudence, sound money, balanced budgets - and now he's carted them over to Number 10 but the trouble is the banner's been shot full of holes.
The inside word is that Brown accepts that the next year will be crucial and if the British economy doesn't escape the crunching jaws of tighter credit, the New Labour project will die at the ballot box.
He and his Chancellor glove puppet, Alistair Darling, are busy this week persuading the banks and building societies to pass on Bank of England interest rate cuts to their hardpressed mortgage holders. The banks aren't looking likely to respond. There are also rumblings that the Prime Minister will endorse an international initiative to clamp down on the outrageous, performance-related bonuses that have made high-risk investment so attractive to the City.
The idea is that instead of bonuses being annual, they should be paid only every five years, giving the business cycle time to turn before the boys-in-braces get their payout. It should encourage prudence - that very virtue that Gordo so prizes. The trouble is, he can't cajole the City with one big hand, and clout it round the ear with the other. He should know his history: the British executive - whether monarch or Prime Minister - can stand or fall on the goodwill of the Square Mile.
Brown abandoned sound money when, too late, he nationalised Northern Rock. He prevaricated over the non-doms for too long, being unprepared to abandon his predecessor's motto, "greed is good". Far from being in the black, the Government's books are well in the red - especially if all the "off balance sheet" items Brown himself promoted are included.
Actually, my tender feelings for the Prime Minister are bad news for me too; I'd like to feel cynical about Brown's current difficulties; and if not above, certainly to one side of it all, but the truth is that the current situation makes me angry. I think Brown is a decent enough man but he's fallen victim to the same delusions as millions of over-extended Britons, who believed the value of their homes would never go down, and that interest rates would never rise. They are little people - and the recession is going to hurt them badly. He's a big man who won't get financially hurt at all; it's only his colossal pride that will be dented.
Reader views (7)
Don't hold back Daniel, say what you mean.
- Tom, London, 17/04/2008 13:49
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Bravo! Will Self is on the money, as ever! Well, OK, I do mean the economy, stupid.
I have always been lost for words when it comes to Will Self's 'word power'. He is almost unsurpassed in his knowledge and inspired use of the English language, but being the pedant that I am, I must ask him if he has checked the true meaning of the words 'prevaricate' and 'procrastinate'? I was taken to task recently and was embarrassed to learn that I've 'got it wrong' or 'muddled' both words, throughout my life. A curious misapprehension?
On the other hand, I have to agree that 'prevarication' has also played a huge part in Brown's failure. Sadly, he just 'hasn't got it'; to use crude but appropriate language. The received wisdom and the educated and perceived view of most people, including the chattering classes, is that both his leadership and the Government itself, are now completely discredited and, irretrievably, doomed.
There's a limit to 'the people's' tolerance of Brown's procrastination and their good will. Will?
- Andrew Stephenson, Spitalfields London, England, 15/04/2008 21:10
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Don't most substantial City bonuses come in the form of share options which cannot be realised for 3 years? By the way, that's rhetorical, Will, the answer is; yes they do.
- St, London, 15/04/2008 19:17
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Gordon Brown should resign immediately!
He is a nasty, dour, incompetent champagne socialist who is totally out of touch with any form of reality.
His ghastly, crooked Nu-Labour government is infested with self-righteous, patronising crooks like Tessa Jowell, Hazel Blears and Rosie Winterton.
These horrendous people are obsessed with taxing decent, hard working people out of existence while they have their fat and greedy snouts deep in the trough of taxpayers money.
Life under their draconian regime has become totally unbearable and we need to completely flush Westminster of all this detritus!
- Daniel Howard, London, UK, 15/04/2008 18:44
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Any Prime Minister who can double the rate of tax that people on low incomes must pay whilst boating in the House of Commons that what he does is always correct does not deserve to be in power.
- Bethany Griffiths, London, 15/04/2008 18:03
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Brown's arrogance will be his downfall - never listening to his MPs who should provide him with what their constituents tell him. He always thought he knew best - nobody could whisper in his shell like. Now though, it appears that MPs, who are likely to lose their seats are hopping with rage and can't wait to see the back of him. He should not have signed the Lisbon Treaty without a Referendum, should not have abandoned the 10p tax rate for the poorest people and the chickens are coming back to roost. He is despised by most of us, almost as much as Blair was, in his last days but there it is. We really need a clean sweep of Westminster's MPs from the Speaker downwards and get rid of the corrupt and sleazy lot of pigs at the trough we have now!
- Barbara, Walton-on-Thames, England, 15/04/2008 16:17
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I cant say I feel sorry for Gordon... he has caused my hard working family much tax pain over the years and continues with the loss of the 10% lowest tax band. He is accident prone with one political disaster after another. He has surrounded himself with lightweight do-gooders who live on another planet. This self elected self righteous Victorian oligarch should call an election as soon as possible. History will be unkind.
- Colin Bond, London, 15/04/2008 15:03
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