The Reykjavik government caved in as once-proud voters found themselves relying on global charity to keep a roof over their heads and food on their tables. Could that happen here? Unlikely... probably. But a few months ago it was unlikely Britain — or Iceland — could go bust. It was only last October that Chancellor Alistair Darling promised the economy would keep growing, slowly, then recover after a slight hiccup. Suddenly it turns out he and Gordon Brown didn’t have a clue. Not only did the slump catch them by surprise, but every bleak development is overtaken by alarming new events. Some experts now predict the economy, far from growing, could shrink by a shocking eight per cent. Our banks turn out to be toxic money laundries. Jobs are evaporating so fast that firms are planning emergency three-day weeks to save what’s left. The Pound is sunk and foreign investors are taking their cash home. Only yesterday, we were the world’s fourth largest economy. Today we may be below 20th-placed Poland, which has properly regulated banks and is luring home thousands of our finest migrants. Having just entered Recession, we are already heading straight for Depression without passing Go. If the Tories were in power there would certainly be riots on the streets by now. I wonder why that is? But would public protests persuade Gordon Brown to call an election? For the moment the Prime Minister seems more worried about cartoons making him look “too fat”. It would be better if he did call an election without being forced. We need tough measures to save the British economy — such as cuts in the bloated state budget — not money-blowing tactics to save Labour seats. Worry ... Gordon Brown Ministers don’t expect to win an election whenever it’s held. What they fear now is a thrashing that would condemn them to a political lifetime in Opposition. They are desperately searching for those fabled green shoots, a light at the end of the tunnel. Well, there is one, but they won’t like it. The silver lining to all this gloom is that Labour has been well and truly found out. When this Government is ditched, as it so richly deserves, it won’t be able to complain it never had a fair chance. After 12 long years, Labour can’t say they had too little time to make back-door Socialism work. Having used landslide majorities to bully their experiment in social engineering into every nook and cranny of our daily lives, they cannot pretend they had one arm tied behind their back. After inheriting a robust economy, they cannot claim they had no money. They could have used that time, power and cash to carry out all their 1997 election vows. We would have a superb education system providing the skills and talent to drag us back to prosperity once this slump is over. The NHS would have poured untold extra billions into world-class frontline services and eliminated murderous superbugs, instead of hiring more overpaid managers. We would have reduced welfare rolls and helped the poor with real tax cuts instead of credits, which are welfare by another name. That way, two million new British jobs might have gone to well-educated British workers instead of energetic migrants. We’d have had an economy-boosting transport system — instead of John Prescott’s barmy rail renationalisation scam which set us back decades. There would be real policemen fighting the rising tide of street violence instead of useless PCSO “scarecrows”. And we would have a strong economy which did not rely totally on a corrupt banking system and an unsustainable consumer bubble. We would have a properly regulated banking system and some cash in the kitty for what has turned out to be a very rainy day. Gordon Brown was in charge of all these big spending programmes throughout the Labour years. Most of that time he was basking in glory as Labour’s finest Chancellor. Mr Brown is not immune to such flattery. It will be hard for such a proud man to be rebranded as the worst Chancellor ever. THE BBC won’t screen a charity appeal for bomb-torn Gaza’s children in case it is accused of pro-Palestinian bias. The uproar is as loud as it is justified. This appeal is not for Hamas terrorists, it is for terribly wounded civilians. The Beeb is so desperate to avoid offending anyone that it ends up offending EVERYONE – just as it did over Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand. Humiliatingly, they caved in. It was too late then – and it will be too late again when they capitulate on Gaza.
ANGRY Icelanders rattling pots and pans have just forced crisis elections over their bankrupt economy.
Riots
Monday, 26 January 2009
KAVANAGH
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