[mjn]

"A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, which is the sign of a weak government" Gordon Brown, 1992

i.e. did he really say the above?

[johntheexpat]

Well, according to William Hague in The Sun he said it.

Ah yes, just looked at what I wrote.
William Hague
The Sun

so it probably wasn't him then.

[Singh400]

Quick googling reveals he did say it

[Squiffy]

Singh400 beat me to it. Lots of references to Brown saying it.

e.g. The Debatable Land: Department of "But That Was Then! This Is Different!"

[loz]

He said it whilst shadow chancellor

[loz]

but he also said no more boom and bust.

However, anything he said in the past cannot be now thrown back at him because this is a global problem remember and nothing to do with him.

[Steven]

Its OK. Gordon will buy shares in Maccy D

[indianwells]

Well that's one thing he got right then!

[Jenn]

Originally Posted by loz

this is a global problem remember and nothing to do with him.

Well of course, the tories caused it all !!

[Singh400]

Originally Posted by Jenn

Well of course, the tories caused it all !!

Well [technically], the Americans caused it really. So called "ninja" mortgages is where it all started I think.

[loz]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Well [technically], the Americans caused it really. So called "ninja" mortgages is where it all started I think.

and who lent them the money?

Why do you think RBS just declared a £28b loss?

Even the boss of the new Lloyds group admitted yesterday that British Banks were partly to blame for the global crisis. And who was watching over those banks?

[keydude]

Also something along the line of 'will not let house prices spiral out of control' at around 1997

But then again he 'saved the world' recently.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by Singh400

Well [technically], the Americans caused it really. So called "ninja" mortgages is where it all started I think.

Sssh. Some people don't like hearing such things. You'll be saying next that other countries are just as badly affected or that the US has had to implement it's own Bailout 2.0.

And don't whatever you do suggest that the lack of manufacturing that is underpinning the US economy and currency (and others) is anything other than Gordon Brown's fault, after all we know what a strong manufacturing base we had in 1997, don't we?

[loz]

Originally Posted by andykn

after all we know what a strong manufacturing base we had in 1997, don't we?

Yes. The one NL have allowed to decline even further, and are currently doing little if anything to save what is left of it.

Guess they must have thought the Tories policies were good ones then, as they have had 11 years to change them. But didn't...

[Peridot]

I liked the analogy I read recently that likened GB to an arsonist who, having set your house ablaze, turns up holding a little handheld extinguisher and professes to be the person best qualified to put the fire out.

[loz]

Originally Posted by andykn

You'll be saying next that other countries are just as badly affected

They are. Perhaps because 80% of UK bank lending went overseas.

GB said he was shocked this week to find out. Well I am shocked he didn't know.
And now he is angry at what they have done. What, angry at them, or angry that he did nothing to stop them?

And there's me thinking he was the prudent chancellor for 10 years who went on to save the world.

[captainff]

Originally Posted by loz

but he also said no more boom and bust.

However, anything he said in the past cannot be now thrown back at him because this is a global problem remember and nothing to do with him.

*Shuffles around for the list that The Angry Penguin posted elsewhere .. .. .. ahh! Here it is!!*

1) Tony Blair: 1997 Conference Speech "I want this to be the New Labour Government that ended Tory boom and bust forever."
2) Gordon Brown: July 1997 "Today, the Bank of England has agreed with me that, if we are to prevent the cycle of boom and bust, inflationary pressures in the economy, which the previous Government negligently failed to tackle, must be brought under control "
3) Gordon Brown: November 1997 "I am satisfied that the new monetary policy arrangements will deliver long-term price stability, and prevent a return to the cycle of boom and bust."
4) Gordon Brown: April 1998 "We will not return to the stop-go, boom-bust years which we saw under the Conservatives. "
5) Gordon Brown: May 1998 "The Government have put in place policies to deliver that objective and are determined to avoid a return to boom and bust."
6) Gordon Brown: June 1998 "rigorous financial discipline that, together with monetary stability, ends once and for all the boom and bust that for 30 years has undermined stability "
7) Tony Blair: February 1999 "Moreover, for decades we have been prone to far greater swings in the economic cycle than our continental counterparts. It has been boom and bust....Under this Government, there is an entirely new framework for economic management in place "
8 ) Ruth Kelly: November 1999 "The Government have rejected the boom and bust of the Conservative party "
9) Tony Blair: November 1999 "We have the best chance of ending boom and bust in years."
10) Gordon Brown: November 1999 "Indeed, Britain was set to repeat the old, familiar cycle of boom and bust. Since then, we have created and rigorously adhered to a new framework of modern economic management "
11) Alistair Darling: January 2000 "On top of that, we have a healthy and stable economy and an end to the boom and bust that characterised the Tory years."
12) Alan Johnson: February 2000 "The Government's first priority on coming to office was to secure long-term economic stability and put an end to the damaging cycle of boom and bust."
13) Gordon Brown: March 2000 "Britain does not want a return to boom and bust. "
14) Tony Blair: 2000 Conference Speech "The first big choice: a government with the strength to deliver stability, or a government that takes the country back to boom and bust."
15) Gordon Brown: November 2000 "Our approach is to reject the old vicious circle of the '80s--rising debt, higher long-term interest rates, higher debt repayment costs, lower growth, higher unemployment, then enforced cuts in public spending. That was the old boom and bust."
16) Gordon Brown: March 2001 "We will not return to boom and bust."
17) Ruth Kelly: May 2002 "We must avoid a return to the days of boom and bust that manufacturers had to endure for a long time under the Conservatives."
18 ) Yvette Cooper: May 2004 "We know that they want to turn the clock back, but it would be foolish to turn it back to a policy of boom and bust."
19) John Prescott : January 2005 "Labour economic stability has replaced Tory boom and bust "
20) Tony Blair: 2005 Conference Speech "In the first two terms we corrected the weaknesses of the Tory years: boom-and-bust economics "
21) Alistair Darling: March 2005 "As I said, there are two approaches—first, a strong economy, stability and helping families or, secondly, the Tory cuts, the undermining of stability, and a return to the boom and bust of the 1990s."
22) Gordon Brown: March 2006 "I have said before: no return to boom and bust."
23) Gordon Brown: December 2006 "Boom and bust is a term that applied to the Conservative years and two of the worst recessions in history"
24) Gordon Brown: March 2007 "We will not return to the old boom and bust."
25) Alistair Darling: June 2007 "...acknowledges the outstanding performance of the economy under this Government with the longest unbroken economic expansion on record, in contrast to the boom and bust of the previous Government "

It's been a bit of a recurrent theme .. .. ..

[loz]

Originally Posted by captainff

It's been a bit of a recurrent theme .. .. ..

Ah, but....

GB didn't return us to boom and bust. It was the rest of the world and those naughty American's in particular that did.
Gordon can save the world, but it seems he couldn't stop it getting in a mess in the first place.

Captain Gordon banks on a new bailout to keep ailing economy afloat - Times Online

He's stopped the banks from collapsing and, behold, the world has copied him. He's stimulated the economy and, yes, now almost every economy in the solar system (he's beyond global now) has followed suit. Now the Great Gordo wants the banks to lend and, lo, he expects the rest of the world to take his lead. It's strange how the world is both following Mr Brown, and it's to blame for everything. Nothing is Mr Brown's fault and nothing is Britain's fault. Yesterday he blamed all our woes on the US sub-prime market and foreign banks. Even the current crisis in lending has nothing to do with our banks: British banks ARE lending just as much as they ever have, it's those rotten foreign ones that have stopped.

“Yes I am angry at the RBS and what happened,” he said before he remembered that, actually, it wasn't RBS's fault. This wasn't a British problem at all! It was all because RBS had acquired a Dutch bank (foreign) which, in turn had been saddled with loads of sub-prime debt (foreign). I think Mr Brown was almost in nirvana (also foreign these days) as he explained this.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by captainff

*Shuffles around for the list that The Angry Penguin posted elsewhere .. .. .. ahh! Here it is!!*

It's been a bit of a recurrent theme .. .. ..

How soon we forget...

Do we have interest rates at 15% or double digit inflation? That's a Tory bust, this is just a normal global recession.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by loz

Ah, but....

GB didn't return us to boom and bust. It was the rest of the world and those naughty American's in particular that did.
Gordon can save the world, but it seems he couldn't stop it getting in a mess in the first place.

Captain Gordon banks on a new bailout to keep ailing economy afloat - Times Online

Perhaps we should make him World President, then he could affect the whole world.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by Peridot

I liked the analogy I read recently that likened GB to an arsonist who, having set your house ablaze, turns up holding a little handheld extinguisher and professes to be the person best qualified to put the fire out.

Did it mention all the other (national) houses all along the street in the same situation, Sarkozy on one side with his extinguisher and McAleese on the other side.

[loz]

Originally Posted by andykn

How soon we forget...

Do we have interest rates at 15% or double digit inflation? That's a Tory bust, this is just a normal global recession.

Only one of GB's best mates could describe the current situation as that.

Seen any green shoots lately too? Or a recovery in the housing market?

[pandemic]

Originally Posted by loz

and who lent them the money?

Why do you think RBS just declared a £28b loss?

Even the boss of the new Lloyds group admitted yesterday that British Banks were partly to blame for the global crisis. And who was watching over those banks?

Actually it was China who were lending around $3 trillion to the US, so that the economic cycle could continue. In turn the US lent the money to UK and Europe. Eventually it all dried up when the Lehman Brothers went down, funny thing is if they were bailed out by the US we probably wouldn't be having this conversation for a few more years yet.

[loz]

Originally Posted by andykn

Perhaps we should make him World President, then he could affect the whole world.

Unfortunately it seems, his ability to save the world was short lived, as others have now come to realise

Europe spurns Gordon Brown's pleas over banking crisis - Times Online

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were rebuffed by European leaders yesterday over their pleas for concerted action across the European Union to beat the banking crisis.

'Sell sterling, take cash out of Britain' - Times Online

"I would urge you to sell any sterling you might have,” Mr Rogers advised his army of investment followers. “It's finished. I hate to say it, but I would not put any money in the UK.”

The reaction was instant - though it is impossible to say how much was attributable to Mr Rogers. The pound slumped, by almost 4 per cent at one point, falling to a seven-year low against the dollar and an all-time low against the Japanese yen.

Not since Black Wednesday in 1992, when the currency was expelled from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, had there been such a steep fall in a day.

And Obama is in no hurry to meet him...

Brown to lose out in battle to be first European leader to visit Obama | Mail Online

Gordon Brown looks destined to miss out in the diplomatic tussle to be the first European leader to visit Barack Obama.

As French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel emerge as favourites to secure the public relations coup, Number 10 has instead started to attach greater importance to 'shared values' than to face-to-face talks.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by loz

Only one of GB's best mates could describe the current situation as that.

Seen any green shoots lately too? Or a recovery in the housing market?

Morrisons' or Easyjets results?

And the country most definitely does not need a recovery in the housing market any time soon. And I'm speaking as someone with a paid off 2 bed flat in inner london.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by loz

Unfortunately it seems, his ability to save the world was short lived, as others have now come to realise

Europe spurns Gordon Brown's pleas over banking crisis - Times Online

Only a news worker with lots of space to fill would say that "start an investigation" meant "rebuffed":

The European Commission said that it would start an investigation into the insurance scheme idea to see if it was beneficial for other countries to follow Britain's example

'Sell sterling, take cash out of Britain' - Times Online

Not since Black Wednesday in 1992, when the currency was expelled from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, had there been such a steep fall in a day.

Ah, news workers again. So the situation was worse in 1992, then.

And Obama is in no hurry to meet him...

Brown to lose out in battle to be first European leader to visit Obama | Mail Online

Ah, so when there's pressing domestic troubles at home, other leaders are fighting in a beauty parade to meet the bloke from the country that started it all. I'm quite happy not to be quite as close to the US' coat tails for a few years - another wise GB decision.

[Mep]

you're not related to LGS are you?

[Jenn]

Originally Posted by andykn

How soon we forget...

Do we have interest rates at 15% or double digit inflation? That's a Tory bust, this is just a normal global recession.

Just wait for the pound to go down even further, for all the imports to go up in price here and we'll check the inflation rate then... Probably just a few weeks to go.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by Jenn

Just wait for the pound to go down even further, for all the imports to go up in price here and we'll check the inflation rate then... Probably just a few weeks to go.

I consider that unlikely as prices have actually dropped for the last three months in a row.

[eric pisch]

Originally Posted by andykn

How soon we forget...

Do we have interest rates at 15% or double digit inflation? That's a Tory bust, this is just a normal global recession.

yes how soon we forget that i have already posted twice reminding you that the 15% rate was down to dodgy fund managers causing a run on the pound and and the EU central bank not doing its obligation of supporting it, hense we left the ERM

as for the inflation, better inflation than deflation and a valueless currency, pound has been hammered and soon we will have the presses rolling out currency making the pound worth a fraction of what it is now, this will push up the cost of all imports drastically (and we import just about everything) and inflation will sky-rocket, whilst we reap the benefits of record debt; that's the labour way