What is his justification for hanging on? As Leo Amery famously
quoted Cromwell to Neville Chamberlain in 1940 in the famous debate
that made Churchill our wartime leader -----
“You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing. Depart,
I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, GO!”
xxxxxxxxxx cs
=========================
TELEGRAPH 30.1.09
Gordon Brown is a busted flush – and he's taking us down with him
Tony Blair timed his exit from No 10 perfectly – Machiavelli would
have approved, says Jeff Randall.
Jeff Randall
You have to hand it to Tony Blair. As the foundations subside beneath
the New Labour project, rocked by a crumbling economy, the timing of
his exit is looking more and more like a chronometric masterpiece.
Throughout his occupancy of Number 10, Mr Blair held what the City
calls a "put option" on Gordon Brown. This meant that he alone would
decide when to hand over the keys to a frustrated chancellor.
As any experienced trader will tell you, calling the very top of a
market is almost impossible. Those who manage to do so are either
satanically gifted or divinely lucky. I'll let you decide which
applies to Mr Blair.
Either way, his departure from Downing Street on June 27, 2007 could
not have been more finely tuned had it been left to a Swiss
horologist. Having wrung every drop of glory from the Bubble Years,
he slipped away just as the debt-fuelled boom was about to go
spectacularly bust.
June 28 is the only date in the calendar when both the month and day
are perfect numbers. For Mr Brown, however, it signalled the moment
when the clock began ticking on some explosive imperfections.
Within weeks of his moving next door, Northern Rock blew up,
presaging an avalanche of bank failures and economic turmoil. While
Mr Blair is collecting a fortune on the black-tie dinner circuit in
America, his old ally is being buried by bad news at home.
When a leader's preferred courtiers are Alastair Campbell and Peter
Mandelson, he invites comparison to Machiavelli. In the case of Mr
Blair, it is deliciously appropriate.
Machiavelli's best-known work, The Prince (written in 1513), is still
the handbook of choice for political schemers. In it, there are lines
that might have been scripted by Mr Blair solely for Mr Brown: "A
prince makes himself odious by rapacity, that is, by taking away from
his subjects their property."
Or, as Mr Blair said at the 1997 Labour Party conference, where
members celebrated a return to power after 18 years: "This country,
any country today, will not just carry on paying out more in taxes
and getting less." Allelulia brothers! Hear the truth.
Unfortunately, the other half of the double act wasn't listening.
This, in part, helps explain why Mr Brown's administration is 11
points behind in today's YouGov opinion poll. I don't believe the
country is hugely enthusiastic about David Cameron's Conservatives.
They are simply the default position for voters who are nauseated by
Labour's incompetence.
With Britain about to be lashed by the worst recession for 60 years,
the coping classes have had enough. The penny is dropping, even in
some Labour strongholds, that for all his crude social engineering,
stealth taxes and raids on pensions (with the likelihood of yet more
punishment to come in the Budget), the Prime Minister has over-
promised and under-delivered.
Improvements to the health service reflect only a fraction of the
extra billions that have been poured in. Value for money exists as a
concept in ministers' briefing notes, but nowhere else.
Education standards are going down. The gap between private schools
and state comprehensives is widening. Last week, I dined with half a
dozen teachers and professors from one of the country's best
universities, all of whom insisted that A-levels had been debased.
Worse still, our Armed Forces are expected to police the world's hell
holes on a budget (£33 billion) that is just one fifth of what we
hand out for "social protection" (£169 billion). The military is
showered in warm words, but suffers from a freeze on real (inflation-
adjusted) spending. Of all Labour's wicked deceits, this is the one I
find most offensive.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the house that Brown
built is more rickety than any other among advanced nations.
Britain's economy is forecast to shrink by 2.8 per cent this year,
compared with 1.5 per cent in the US, 2 per cent in the eurozone and
2.5 per cent in Japan.
Yes, we are the worst placed among industrialised countries to cope
with upheaval. In terms of bald numbers, it will be more painful than
either the Thatcher recession of the early 1980s or the Major debacle
of the early 1990s.
This will come as a shock to many voters, though not, I suspect, to a
majority of Daily Telegraph readers. It may surprise, too, some of
the Prime Minister's colleagues who, in Rent-A-Crowd style, used to
cheer his vainglorious chicanery, especially on Budget day.
Mr Brown's final performance as Second Lord of the Treasury, in March
2007, was a classic of its kind. The opening section was nothing less
than a paean of praise to his own genius, a tribute to a decade of
micromanagement by a chancellor whose idea of improved productivity
was to crank up the output of self-congratulation without asking for
a bonus.
Unencumbered by humility or wit, Mr Brown boomed: "We will never
return to the old boom and bust." He had, of course, said it before.
But this time, I suspect, he really believed that he had cracked it.
He genuinely thought that he had found a way to halt the waves of
free-market activity.
He went on to explain how (thanks to him) we were doing much better
than Johnny Foreigner and to predict that Britain's economy would
grow between 2.5 per cent and 3 per cent in 2009, all of which would
be underpinned by "monetary discipline" and "fiscal discipline". Oh
dear. It was nearly two years ago, I grant you, but it feels like
something from an ill-judged comedy sketch.
Getting Mr Brown face-to-face with reality is no easy task, but the
Institute of Fiscal Studies did its best this week with a damning
analysis of the country's prospects. At the rate we are going,
Britain faces a £20 billion-a-year "double whammy" of tax rises and
spending cuts to restore order to public finances. It could take
until 2029 for government debt to recede to "normal" levels.
Nobody is saying that the world has not turned sour. The
International Labour Organisation fears that global unemployment
could rise by 50 million. But this Government's flawed stewardship
has exacerbated Britain's problems. Mr Brown continues to bet the
bank, but without a mandate beyond the fawning of paid advisers and
encouragement of close relatives.
Machiavelli's assessment of the dangers for those who inherit power
is a warning for Mr Brown. It will be "a double shame to a hereditary
prince, if, through want of prudence and ability, he loses his
state". One wonders what Teflon Tony thinks of that.
----------------------------------------------------
'Jeff Randall Live', a news programme focusing on business and
politics, is broadcast on Sky News at 7.30pm, Monday-Thursday
quoted Cromwell to Neville Chamberlain in 1940 in the famous debate
that made Churchill our wartime leader -----
“You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing. Depart,
I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, GO!”
xxxxxxxxxx cs
=========================
TELEGRAPH 30.1.09
Gordon Brown is a busted flush – and he's taking us down with him
Tony Blair timed his exit from No 10 perfectly – Machiavelli would
have approved, says Jeff Randall.
Jeff Randall
You have to hand it to Tony Blair. As the foundations subside beneath
the New Labour project, rocked by a crumbling economy, the timing of
his exit is looking more and more like a chronometric masterpiece.
Throughout his occupancy of Number 10, Mr Blair held what the City
calls a "put option" on Gordon Brown. This meant that he alone would
decide when to hand over the keys to a frustrated chancellor.
As any experienced trader will tell you, calling the very top of a
market is almost impossible. Those who manage to do so are either
satanically gifted or divinely lucky. I'll let you decide which
applies to Mr Blair.
Either way, his departure from Downing Street on June 27, 2007 could
not have been more finely tuned had it been left to a Swiss
horologist. Having wrung every drop of glory from the Bubble Years,
he slipped away just as the debt-fuelled boom was about to go
spectacularly bust.
June 28 is the only date in the calendar when both the month and day
are perfect numbers. For Mr Brown, however, it signalled the moment
when the clock began ticking on some explosive imperfections.
Within weeks of his moving next door, Northern Rock blew up,
presaging an avalanche of bank failures and economic turmoil. While
Mr Blair is collecting a fortune on the black-tie dinner circuit in
America, his old ally is being buried by bad news at home.
When a leader's preferred courtiers are Alastair Campbell and Peter
Mandelson, he invites comparison to Machiavelli. In the case of Mr
Blair, it is deliciously appropriate.
Machiavelli's best-known work, The Prince (written in 1513), is still
the handbook of choice for political schemers. In it, there are lines
that might have been scripted by Mr Blair solely for Mr Brown: "A
prince makes himself odious by rapacity, that is, by taking away from
his subjects their property."
Or, as Mr Blair said at the 1997 Labour Party conference, where
members celebrated a return to power after 18 years: "This country,
any country today, will not just carry on paying out more in taxes
and getting less." Allelulia brothers! Hear the truth.
Unfortunately, the other half of the double act wasn't listening.
This, in part, helps explain why Mr Brown's administration is 11
points behind in today's YouGov opinion poll. I don't believe the
country is hugely enthusiastic about David Cameron's Conservatives.
They are simply the default position for voters who are nauseated by
Labour's incompetence.
With Britain about to be lashed by the worst recession for 60 years,
the coping classes have had enough. The penny is dropping, even in
some Labour strongholds, that for all his crude social engineering,
stealth taxes and raids on pensions (with the likelihood of yet more
punishment to come in the Budget), the Prime Minister has over-
promised and under-delivered.
Improvements to the health service reflect only a fraction of the
extra billions that have been poured in. Value for money exists as a
concept in ministers' briefing notes, but nowhere else.
Education standards are going down. The gap between private schools
and state comprehensives is widening. Last week, I dined with half a
dozen teachers and professors from one of the country's best
universities, all of whom insisted that A-levels had been debased.
Worse still, our Armed Forces are expected to police the world's hell
holes on a budget (£33 billion) that is just one fifth of what we
hand out for "social protection" (£169 billion). The military is
showered in warm words, but suffers from a freeze on real (inflation-
adjusted) spending. Of all Labour's wicked deceits, this is the one I
find most offensive.
According to the International Monetary Fund, the house that Brown
built is more rickety than any other among advanced nations.
Britain's economy is forecast to shrink by 2.8 per cent this year,
compared with 1.5 per cent in the US, 2 per cent in the eurozone and
2.5 per cent in Japan.
Yes, we are the worst placed among industrialised countries to cope
with upheaval. In terms of bald numbers, it will be more painful than
either the Thatcher recession of the early 1980s or the Major debacle
of the early 1990s.
This will come as a shock to many voters, though not, I suspect, to a
majority of Daily Telegraph readers. It may surprise, too, some of
the Prime Minister's colleagues who, in Rent-A-Crowd style, used to
cheer his vainglorious chicanery, especially on Budget day.
Mr Brown's final performance as Second Lord of the Treasury, in March
2007, was a classic of its kind. The opening section was nothing less
than a paean of praise to his own genius, a tribute to a decade of
micromanagement by a chancellor whose idea of improved productivity
was to crank up the output of self-congratulation without asking for
a bonus.
Unencumbered by humility or wit, Mr Brown boomed: "We will never
return to the old boom and bust." He had, of course, said it before.
But this time, I suspect, he really believed that he had cracked it.
He genuinely thought that he had found a way to halt the waves of
free-market activity.
He went on to explain how (thanks to him) we were doing much better
than Johnny Foreigner and to predict that Britain's economy would
grow between 2.5 per cent and 3 per cent in 2009, all of which would
be underpinned by "monetary discipline" and "fiscal discipline". Oh
dear. It was nearly two years ago, I grant you, but it feels like
something from an ill-judged comedy sketch.
Getting Mr Brown face-to-face with reality is no easy task, but the
Institute of Fiscal Studies did its best this week with a damning
analysis of the country's prospects. At the rate we are going,
Britain faces a £20 billion-a-year "double whammy" of tax rises and
spending cuts to restore order to public finances. It could take
until 2029 for government debt to recede to "normal" levels.
Nobody is saying that the world has not turned sour. The
International Labour Organisation fears that global unemployment
could rise by 50 million. But this Government's flawed stewardship
has exacerbated Britain's problems. Mr Brown continues to bet the
bank, but without a mandate beyond the fawning of paid advisers and
encouragement of close relatives.
Machiavelli's assessment of the dangers for those who inherit power
is a warning for Mr Brown. It will be "a double shame to a hereditary
prince, if, through want of prudence and ability, he loses his
state". One wonders what Teflon Tony thinks of that.
----------------------------------------------------
'Jeff Randall Live', a news programme focusing on business and
politics, is broadcast on Sky News at 7.30pm, Monday-Thursday
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