ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

G20 needs optimists - and she's been seeing green shoots for ages and ages.

Did she spot the looming crisis as clearly as she's spotted those 'green shoots'?

Brown is and has been monumentally stupid, that is his legacy.

What a hagiography.

Why should the other 19 nations of the G20 wish to be advised by someone who, it is said, the Cabinet Secretary refused to allow across the threshold of Number 10 as Brown's policy enforcer? Much of what she bulldozed through on Brown's behalf was plain wrong, and would have been shown to be wrong had she and Brown been able to accept the idea that there are minds in the world at least as acute as theirs, and actually far more capable because of their openness to contrary opinion.

That she should appeal to Brown is not surprising, as she seems to share his unwillingness either to show any respect for other human beings, or to abide by the conventions of adult negotiation. But that she could appeal to anyone else is mystifying.

Isn't this all getting a bit top heavy?

The G20 leaders are set to agree a so-called "framework of sustainable and balanced growth".

I don't believe the growth in Britain has been sustainable and balanced. That's why this pair are perfect for the job? Whatever happened to getting your own house in order first...

Just what we need, in the G20 - someone who's job it is to massage figures and mask the real economic problems because it's politically convenient. This fills me with confidence for our new era of financial stability.

Anyone care to hazard a guess at the real level of government debt in this country?

Not a bad move as now the world's economy can be screwed up rather than just our's alone. Let's unload all these `socially useless' people, not my adjective, onto the world stage where they can exercise their egos to their hearts' content. Then we can just go back to being a simple, decent country where the people know what they love and love what they know.

For the sake of repose: ship them all out! I am all for exports!

Gordon Brown putting Shriti Vadera in charge of preventing future bubbles at the G20 is like inviting the burglars round to fix your locks after they broke into your house.

Brown was happy to ride the bubble while it ensured his position of power and reputation as the country's greatest chancellor.

He has already assured himself an ever lasting monument: his Canute like phrase "An end to Boom and Bust" will echo throughout history as a prime example of hubris.

Is this appointment of Gordon's henchwoman to a key post dealing with global finance a good move ?

The seeds of the UK's financial decline were sown with the excessive borrowing when Paw Broon was in Number 11.

Not content with bringing Britain to its knees (more so than many other countries affected by the global credit crunch ), are we to stand idly by while this duo take control of world recovery ?

I hope the water in this moon dust is extractable.
If so I'm packing my togs and moving heavenwards

This simply confirms my suspicion that the G20 et al is nothing more than an excuse for a holiday binge by World Leaders, if it mattered, do you REALLY think that a Brown Apparatchik would be given power within it?

I'm not saying anything new, I don't think, if I say I hope the financial institutions that the G20 eventually have will be more farsighted than the institutions we ourselves had. If this dynamic duo were able to create our own watchdogs who sleepwalked us into this crisis, then there is some credibility in the idea that they may do just the same again for the entire globe.

However, let's hope not.

I think the picture says it all, smug self satisfied fat cats in politics. Go Gordon, and take her with you. Or is this just another Labour β€˜very nice earner thank you very much’ which seems to be the only wealth creation they have achieved.

Mr Peston

Agree with # 8. Another analogy might be foxes and hen-coops.

Does anuone know who will be paying her salary? The UK taxpayer?

BTW - is this your own personal view? it reads like a Government briefing document!

"... Gordon Brown would love his legacy to be monumental G20 institutions that became the first bulwark against the kind of bubble that precipitated our recent economic woes ..."

Marxist fantasy.

If it works as well as Gordon's efforts to put the UK on the socio-economic fast track, standby for another complete and utter disaster.

The guy's a barnpot.

"No member of the government is closer to Gordon Brown than Shriti Vadera."

Yet another unelected member of government - found a job for being a staunch ally before the ship sinks then

Lets hope its employment at will

this government is incapable of being straight with people..it is obvious that she realises come the election she will be out of a job so will want to return to the lucrative world of investment banking, However she will be required to seek the advice of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointment, which is almost certain to recommend a lengthy β€˜cooling off’ period between her time as a government minister and a private sector job. In leaving the Government now, she will effectively be serving at least some of this period of purdah in her new role.... So the whole G20 thing is a non job designed to cover the fact that she is leaving the sinking ship..

Gordon Brown, ...................I stopped reading right there!

If he smells like a bampot, looks like a bampot and acts like a bampot - He probably IS a bampot!

No 1 "G20 needs optimists - and she's been seeing green shoots for ages and ages. "

Seeing things that don't exist is a sure sign that she needs psychiatric help !! In any case, if she was any good as a banker, she'd have been out there making loadsadosh like the rest of them instead of being Our Glorious Leader's lapdog !!

And Gordon Brown's monumental legacy will be as the man who oversaw Britain's greatest boom and bust !! The man who will not say it in one word when a million spins will do !!

No 5 "I don't believe the growth in Britain has been sustainable and balanced. That's why this pair are perfect for the job? Whatever happened to getting your own house in order first..."

Of course they are perfect. Now that they have screwed up the British economy, they're off to screw up the rest of the world's !!

No 9 "I hope the water in this moon dust is extractable.
If so I'm packing my togs and moving heavenwards"

I'd wait a while more until they've done the testing, if I were you. It could be the aliens using our moon as their toilet !!

Robert -- you seem to be falling into the same "facade" as Nick R. Too focussed on rolling out the No 10 spin rather than analysing the issues.

Re focus before it is too late.

All Browns talking of G20 is just another of his spins and to divert the focus off his and his partner in his reckless actions.

He is trying to blame everyone else for his catastrophic policies.

Britain is in a worse financial crisis than the late seventies.

Another disasterous Labour administration

This is boring.

Where is the significant business content in any of this? This blog should have been written either by an economist or a politician. You are the business correspondent Mr Peston.

More than that, this blog entry was thin on message and thin on content.

Extremely bad value for money.

This lady was Gordon Browns' adviser during his many years as chancellor?
I don't find that very impressive.
Perhaps he should have asked Vince Cable to be his adviser, then we probably wouldn't be in this mess.

#25 concur completely.

Its a horrible indication that the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ is supporting political means. There is quite literally no business relevance in the posting, and the message it carries is merely trumpeting King Brown. Its not even dressed up in a much larger posting to try and disguise it.

sad, sad, sad.

Just finished watching "Love of money" on bbc2. Explaining the event documentarties seem to be getting produced sooner and sooner after the event itself these days, probably increasing viewing figures but definately severely compromising perspective and impartiality. Although not wholey imbalanced this at times felt like a forum for participants to justify/explain actions and the Brown/Darling pieces certainly felt close to a party political broadcast.

Not sure if they themselves believe it but Brown/Darling seems to view the world through the following prism. It was a global problem born in the USA. Firstly not all the problems were global in nature (Northern Rock, B and B) and losing money on US subprime risk is like losing money on any other asset. If we were to buy gold and see the value halve, I am not sure we would feel confortable blaming gold producers for our woes, as opposed to poor asset allocation decisions. We can blame the system itself for the propagation of risks, but then we have to place a huge amount of fault at the feet of the London centre which has been endorsed by Labour for the last ten years. In fact we could say that this is a London/NY problem (aig financial products was based in London) which spread globally. I certainly don't believe many outside of the Brown inner circle believe the heavy implication in this programme that blameless Britain led the policy charge in solving a global problem. In light of this not sure whether the Uk administration is overestimating Shriti Vadera's ability to impact global policy, especially when interests between countries are so poorly alligned.

Since we seem to have imported a great deal from the US including a supreme court, I would like to suggest confirmation hearings of any unelected political appointee

I hate to point out the obvious, but if there is tighter regulation that corrects the lop-sided balance of surplus money, then we, the UK consumer, will not be able to borrow so readily and will go into a deeper recession than we are currently in. And if that surplus cash doesn't come to the US and UK consumer then it is not likely to be spent here, boosting our economy. It will be spent on infrastructure projects and investment in the fast-growing economies, thereby boosting their wealth and their competitiveness quicker than would otherwise be the case. Not only that, it may go to other countries as investment, who, following the China model, will develop and provide greater competition in export and domestic markets.

I know there will be light-headed people who think this is a good thing; but as we've never actually partaken in a world of free trade, and unlikely to do so, and Ricardian trade theory is just wrong, then why would we think that this is a good thing for us? A fair thing, yes, but it means that the jobs drain will continue. Unless...

Unless we do the one common sense thing that will inevitably happen anyway - protect our economies. Countries that don't protect their economies end up undergoing a form of economic primitivization, not privatisation, PRIMITIVIZATION; like Mongolia losing its industry and going back to yak farming (having followed IMF advice); or in SE Asia fisherman using spears and nets because it is more cost-effective than outboard motor trawler fishing. Yes, it has happened.

Remember! We are coming off the largest boom in human history where outright fraud and unbelievably stupid and lax lending were essential to the binge. There is not one single method currently proposed that will do anything other than nothing or accelerate the contraction of the economy, aside from printing money (QE) and dropping interest rates, or re-indulging in massive, outright fraud, and stupidity, again.

"No member of the government is closer to Gordon Brown than Shriti Vadera."

Perhaps should could do us all a favour then while his back is turned.

I saw someone driving a car (BMW 3 series I think) on the M25 today (nr to J14) with signs on all 4 sides of his car saying 'Make the Bankers Pay'.

No kiddin!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

His legacy will be the humourists fodder for generations.
His battle cry 'End of boom and bust' will surely be on his grave stone.
He walks the green mile a lonely broken and dejected man, surely the most guilty man ever of the sin of over ambition. He fell victim to his own ego over-arching his weaknesses and exposing his failings.

I'm sure Shriti is an extremely capable lady, so perhaps this is a logical move; even the best move under current circumstances. I'm not qualified to judge. But she's clearly "establishment" to the core.

And that's why I can't respect any of them now; not even the allegedly capable ones (who I used to cut some slack for). I frankly don't even *WANT* to hear 'good stuff' about them now - even if it's true! They're all part of a collective 'elite' that I've come to bitterly and utterly detest!

Government is the engine. The engine is broken.

You can hold individual components up to positive scrutiny if you like, but the engine is still broken!

We don't just need a new engine, we need a new *KIND* of engine!

He is going to be sooo sumg when he comes back and does his next press release....

His apointee is now in charge of the G20 reorginization.

I think I will have a weekend off TV, Radio and Internet.

Not just any old Boom and Bust this is a Grodan Brown boom and bust.

Robert,

It might be the case that the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ's "Love of Money" programme was way off base but if not then we have an awful lot to thank Brown/Darling for in terms of stopping the world falling over the financial cliff. This is by no means advocating that they were not partly responsible for it but the programme gave the impression that the likes of the French, Germans and Americans were asleep at the wheel and then froze when all hell broke loose. It seems it was only the British who sat down for a 24 hour period, rolled up their sleeves and came up with a plan.

Of course, the downside to all this was that at the time, Brown/Darling could not demonstrate the extent of the financial calamity to the public but could only give assurances that things were alright. Their legacy is that they staved off a financial calamity that the public did not and will never fully appreciate the scale of.

The parallels of James Bond saving the world from another lazer satellite and only getting paid his civil servant's salary while all the time being able to tell no one, seems quite apt.

enigmajx

You just cant fail in banking can you! If she was there all that time and so important why did she not stop the boom bust? The inmates at monkey world throwing darts would be a better bet.

Fellow bloggers, respectfully I think you are being quite unfair and your frustration / wrath misdirected on this topic.
The use of the words green shoots were a failing of delivery of spin rather than substance. The words were clearly deliberately taken out of context by the media and opposition parties. This would have been clear if the media could ever be bothered to report the full statement rather than a sound bite. The statement was made when a lot of people felt the complete doom and gloom reporting of the future of the UK was overly dire. If you want to judge people purely on who can deliver spin better then good luck to you!

With reference to the comments on whether RP should report on this issue I can recall fellow bloggers directly requesting this and I don’t think for a moment that he though he could dictate opinion or that the vast majority of comments would have been of a negative nature. I think it would also be very unfair for RP not to report on issues that may also have a political aspect given that most comments bloggers make on all topics are clearly heavily politically influenced.

Finally I can’t see why ALAXANDER CURZON should seemingly continue to be banned. I’m sure his comment would be completely different to mine but why can’t differing views be made on the issues people talk about

"The former banker was an adviser through his many years as chancellor"?
"Personal investment banker"?

We just had the biggest financial and banking disaster for most of us. For a few people it was a colossal windwind and loot.

Gordon, creating G20 institutions that provide a bulwark against asset bubbles and economic woes? Er...apologies Robert but, have you been drinking, you can't be serious?

He who created the tripartite system of financial regulation in Britain, the one that blew up in his face? And, against that experience, he thinks he's qualified to set up a global version? He, who uses redacting in a set of accounts, to cover up the embarrassing bits?

When we ticked over into 2009 on the 1st Jan, were we all meant to become completely delusional or something? (I must have been "out to lunch" because I missed this bit.)

So, the person who has been his personal banker and advised him to keep PFI details etc off the books so we have no idea of our true debt, and advised him througn one of the biggest boom/bust situations is going on to G20 to ensure his legacy.......right. Couldn't believe you think/wrote that Robert!

Good to see such robust responses to this panegyric posting. I had feared Pesto had been cut off from his source recently but this return to form makes me think that young Murdoch may after all have a point about the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

Surely a blog should be a bit more personal and a bit more interesting than just a series of articles? Does Robert really beleive this stuff or is he putting out press briefings? The news page can do that.

#28 & #37 ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ2 'the love of money'

I watched this programme, hoping for a hard-hitting, objective analysis.
False hope, just some more talking heads trying to position themselves in history.

In the US, the FED -bankers to the core- told Bush he could keep out, side-lined the two presidential candidates, and held control of the situation as long as they could brooking no alternative solution. They cared about their friends in the banks most of all -and planned for a return to the status quo.

In Europe, most governments reckoned their voters would throw them out if they sold the future.

Only in the UK did a Prime Minister think he could do whatever came in to his head first, without fear of parliament, the mainstream media, or the voters.

So Brown just pulled out his credit card, maxxed it to the limit, and paid the bill for the decade long banquet. He didn't solve the problem, he didn't extort any deal from the bankers, he didn't re-write the rules, he didn't put in place a new system. He just passed the bill to us, destroyed the savings, the pensions, and the future.

All for 'World Statesman of the Year'.

Don't believe the spin.
We don't pay for WSoY to have the right motives, we pay him to make the right decisions. None of them have been right, especially the other big 2 decisions he had to make.
1 -Stay or go (the correct answer was go!)
2 -Do nothing until the election about the debt, or start immediately (the correct answer was no time to lose)

Denis Healey used to have a saying about Geoffrey Howe 'like being savaged by a dead sheep'. Mervyn King may have been trying to say the right things for the past year or so, but it is all so ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ-Counties polite. He needs a makeover, some dark shades, and a Quentin Tarantino script to get this message across.

Regards,

Agree with the comments that this article by Peston reads like a government briefing paper.
Where is your analysis and opinion Robert? The only point you make of interest is that "In a way, she's his personal investment banker . . . " Love to know where she advised Gordon to invest his prudently earned funds over the past few years. Presumably Goldman Sachs.
Sorry, but this was a boring article.

#14 is bang on
Brown has shown his true Marxist leanings and sought to spin them into modern day economics. The result is catastrophe for UK plc.
With debt so monumental no one can appreciate how awful it really is.
Banks are still horrendously underfunded against the pending bad commercial loans, credit card loans and Private equity disasters still to show. Assets as we know them are now dire liabilities yet Brown still trundles on about growth.
The man and hs government not only have blood on their hands for all those unnecessary wars but the economic disaster they have put the Uk into.
This really is a case of lunatics running the asylum, our only light at the end of the tunnel is that Brown and Co will be unceremoniously booted out in 8 months.

"Gordon Brown would love his legacy to be monumental G20 institutions that became the first bulwark against the kind of bubble that precipitated our recent economic woes"

What as opposed to being the first Chancellor to put an end to boom and bust...

Gordon is getting his exit strategy in place - simples!

Isn't it great to see one of the people seemingly responsible for the whole mess, and very much an advocate of the banks, getting a cushy new job to tidy up the mess they created.
And no doubt if Brown has his way, a job that will probably last longer and pay much better than a ministerial role in the current government.

I can see it now, Blair as EU president and Brown as head of the World Bank.

How can anyone associated with the mess and legacy of monumental debt and destruction of the UK economy e considered as credible for a larger role on the world stage - unless of course they're being pushed by the banking establishment to protect their interests and the status quo.

@ #45 by allmyfault

While most of that is true and I would certainly agree the problem has not been solved. There was a point last year in October when come Monday morning, the following things were going to happen:
1) Share markets crashing
2) Fear spreading as people start queueing outside banks wanting to get their money out

It takes little for such things to start. A brief comment at work that Bob has popped to the bank to check on his savings account, the high street branch of Halifax has just closed ... ... Confidence is a brittle entity.

Our entire society could be brought down in a week if people cannot get access to their money.

The Brown/Darling deal with the banks over that weekend staved off this nightmare (for the moment).

There was a tome when things were done differently, we voted in an mp who debated issues and then voted on them in parliament

UK 2009...... the Prime Minister has a chat with a couple of mates writes the gist of it down on the back of a fag paper and then announces policy

Trident, we'll scrap one of the boats, Supreme Court? seems like a good idea lets have one, new world order structures set in place via G20? yeah another good idea Ill get one of my mates the gig

Its a joke

Gordon Brown's monuments?
1) Monumental public debts so large that our grandchildren will still be paying them off.
2) Monumental areas of the West Midlands left as wastelands after he acheived what even Margaret Thatcher couldn't do by destroying the automotive industry. The whistled while MG Rover was given to a bunch of people several of whom he had appointed to quangos; he sat on his hands for months over LDV and Jaguar Land Rover whilst having billions to bail out banks run by people he had appointed as advisors or had done reports for him many of whom he had given even given Knighthoods to.
3) A monumental brain drain as young professionals and businesses who see their income and profits massively taxed seek better climates both financially and weatherwise.
I could go on but I doubt it would be good for my blood pressure!

Brown's answer to everything is to create a new layer of public sector bureaucracy.

Post 32 re the BMW.
You never know he may have been a successful businessman who's business was ruined by his bank calling in a loan; cancelling an overdraft arrangement or withdrawing credit at a moments notice.

# 53 Ian,

I agree with #51 that they have only staved off this nightmare for the moment. I'd also say they have absolutely no self-interest and therefore no interest in facing up to the basic problems.

The sooner you get the grandchildren off the island the better, before they are forced to become illegal immigrants to anywhere other than Britain.

The view Dianne Abbott gave on ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ last night was that she (Shriti) is like a rat leaving the ship as she is moving to a job with the banks in the not to distant future and this is the break that is required to fulfil the issues of Minister to regulated business in one go. Any comment.

Robert,

I'm glad you took my advice from yesterday, and from the number of posts I'd say it's a pretty good bet this woman will become "the face of recession".


45. At 09:41am on 25 Sep 2009, allmyfault wrote:

#28 & #37 ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ2 'the love of money'

What made me laugh about this program is the interviews with Darling and Brown. They were talking about the crisis in the past tense like it's all over.

Oh they have much to learn - where do they think the new growth is coming from once the QE money and interest rate cuts run out?

Are you borrowing more? - nope, nor me
Are you going to move house (if you don't have to) - no didn't think so.
Are you still going out at the weekends now that you've had a pay freeze / cut or redundancy? - me neither.

All we need now is for the Tories to win the next election, make savage public sector cuts and we'll be without refuse collection and electricity by the end of 2010.

Looks like the Olympics will have the worlds biggest candle lit opening ceremony!

Post 57. That seems highly possible.

Come the day of the revolution she would be one of the first against the wall so it makes sense for here to get her time outside of cabinet started ASAP.

I just noticed this bit in the piece.

"In a way, she's his personal investment banker - the woman who co-ordinated last year's rescue of Britain's biggest banks"

So the Baroness is now implicated in the Biggest robbery in HISTORY

....and I thought it was Baron Greenback who was Dangermouse's greatest enemy - but it appears it's Baroness Green-shoots.

Good to know that once again the norm has returned, bankers promote their failures - and so do Government.

Has anyone considered the eventual outcome of this strategy? Could it be a world run by buffoons and imbociles? - maybe some will argue it already is.

It's clear they already think they're presiding over people less intelligent than themselves - I mean read this:

"Her role will be to advise on the design of the new institutions that must be created to make a reality of the G20's determination to better co-ordinate the economic stewardship of individual countries."

What does that actually mean? I mean really mean.

She will advise (unspecified person or persons) on the design of institiutions (I presume they mean banks) that must be created (assuming we need more banks) to ensure all countries can be 'steered' in the direction the G20 determines economically.

I don't know about you - but it sounds very much like they're going to create some new type of banks that will tell countries what to do with their Economies.

Proper Isaac Asimov stuff.

#57 see my post #16
it is obvious she wanted out so this "job" was designed to allow her to continue to work in the Cabinet office but not under ministerial rules... I mean has anyone asked the Koreans if they need "help" with the handover, they did manage to organise an olympic games without her help! of course Gordon has to think of his future...so Director General of G20,basically organising a few photo opportunities, seven course meals and some shopping for the wives, would give him a job where he can strut the world stage without damaging the world economy...

# 60,

I think I read she was being sent to North Korea.

To plant some seeds..? Whatever - adds a little je ne sais quoi to the same old boring equation.

Throughout his time as chancellor, Gordon Brown promoted binge borrowing, goverment, corporate and individual, and was an advocate of off balance sheet accounting on a scale that would dwarf most banks. He still thinks that nobody saw the crash coming. What chance has this new institution got if its to be manned by the likes of his advisors? Britian is well into the next asset bubble -equities trading on earnings multiples not seen since just before the dot com crash. I suppoese he didn't see that as the inevitable consequence of interest rates so low they force people saving for their pensions or pensioners living off their savings to risk their hard earned cash in this ridiculous casino.
His stewardship of the British economy has been and remains a scandal - perhaps he should waste more of our taxes by instigating a public enquiry into it.

Evening Robert,
it would appear that my posting concerning last nights program about "The Love of Money"..........


Dear ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Blog contributor,

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I am no Brown nor Blair supporter. Their main gigantic error was to follow without change the financial system initiated by Reagan and Thatcher both of whom embraced the ideas of the economist the late Milton Friedman. When he won the Nobel prize that for me labelled that institution. What we are seeing now is the culmination of 30 years of the unregulated system they introduced. This system was not followed by the EU and that is why they want more control over faceless individuals who have been running wild in the USA and the UK and why the later cannot agree because are deep in the mire of the free financial unregulated system from which they cannot dig themselves out and cannot make the changed even if they want because they have destroyed the only base for recovery and that is strong manufacturing. The only way open to us is to restrict (not stop) the export of capital and force a reconstruction of our once strong manufacturing base and effectively put tariff against low labour rates and tax incentives of third world countries which makes the globalisation playing field totally unbalanced. The so called globalisation has been nothing but a return to the cruel and callous laissez faire, laissez passe of the 18th,19th, and early 20th centuries with third world people the victims. To make the playing field flat is to help the third world develop their own economies for internal consumption as well as for export. At the same make some effort to put some control over what is produced to reduce the level of CO2. Uncontrolled production is the main cause of CO2 and that is why the UK media is campaigning against the fact of global warming.

14. At 8:45pm on 24 Sep 2009, moraymint made reference to 'marxist fantasy'. Maybe she/he would explain where anything written by Marx has any relevance to this subject.

#65 At last a post on this topic that actually uses common sense. I have never liked or trusted the actions of Gordon Brown but I am fed up with the emotive and useless comments that are more worthy of red tops like the Daily Mail (a.k.a. Daily Hate).

I found the 'Love of Money' series useful in that they offered a bit more information on the origins of our current woes, in particular the post 9/11 measures taken by Alan Greenspan.

It seems that President Obama may be good news for Britain if only by deflating the 'Special Relationship' nonsense that GB clings to and IMO was made far too much of during the Thatcher/Reagan years and ever since. If we believe that the USA does anything other than for itself then what fools are we.

I would construct one monument to Gordon Brown and it would reflect his conduct over the LLoyds TSB/HBOS deal that he brokered. It was his deal, agreed at a dinner engagement between himself and the Chairman of Lloyds TSB, Sir Victor Blank. Effectively, LLoyds TSB saved HBOS from collapse, and with it the whole banking system. And how does Mr Brown repay that act of supreme sacrifice? He says nothing as the clammy hand of Neille Kloes descends on Lloyds. The same regulator who said nothing from the date of that dinner in September 2008 until late January 2009 when the deal was finalised. Was she asleep? Did she go along with the bid because she thought it made sense? Was she, like our regulators unaware of how many branches Lloyds would have post the takeover? Did the word monopoly not figure in her dictionary?

Neille Kroes is about to rule that Mr Brown's own (and our) bank LLoyds Banking Group has to shed branches. Nothing wrong with that, and something that any competent organisation would do when it looked at the extreme duplication we have on our high street. The key is timing, and allowing management to do it rather than some sleepy European or British regulator.

It is time for Mr Brown to say to Neille Kloes (and the FSA, the MMC or whatever it is called now and the Treasury) that we, the British public, own 43% of this bank and we want our money back. And a bit of profit in the process, thanks to my (Gordons) foresight and acumen in saving the business world, in putting together a sensible arrangement, and in letting management, with my guidance, see Lloyds back to where it was before the bid, ie successful, prudent and a monument to my (Gordon's) prudence and stewardship of the British (and world) economy. I wont get that if the same sleepy regulators force a fire sale of assets at my bank.

In five years time you can put up a monument with me (Gordon) astride a horse (black of course).

"47. At 10:05am on 25 Sep 2009, proman53 wrote:
#14 is bang on
Brown has shown his true Marxist leanings and sought to spin them into modern day economics. The result is catastrophe for UK plc."

I read Marx 60 years ago and at the time had difficulty understanding what the hell he was on about but one thing for sure I can say that there is nothing Marxist about the way we have been going the last 30 years. For Marx read the late Milton Friedman would be spot on accurate. This guy actually won the Nobel prize in economics and was the theoretical(?) driving force behind Thatcher, Reagan and Blair. His history and CV can be read on Wikipedia. In particular read his influence on the after math of New Orleans.

The majority of contributors to this blog seem to forget that Gordon Brown is 'World Statesman of the Year'. No doubt they would prefer Bruce Forsyth, Roy Chubby Brown or Nick Griffin as PM. Perhaps the Socialist poor can't afford PC's or broadband and are thus prevented from rising to GB's defence.. I personally have nothing against Mr. Cameron as a substitute. As Mr. Toby Rees-Mogg said some time ago, the minimum qualification to be an MP should be education at Eton and Oxford. Mr. Cameron is following this precept with his shadow cabinet. When he reduces the number of MP's to 500, it will be a great opportunity to sling out a goodly number of semi-educated redbrick alumni and replace them with Etox worthies.

bertsprocket

I dont know which school you went to but Cameron's name was probably put down for Eton before he was born. He had absolutely nothing to do with the decision.

I came from a working class background and went to Stanford Road Primary in Brighton. I had no choice in the matter.

I dont begrudge Cameron his education because, unlike some, I dont have a jealous or biased streak in me. If Eton taught Cameron how to behave then he will be worthy of consideration come next May. I will listen to what he has to say before deciding who to vote for. However, on a human level I saw how he behaved when he lost his son. I suspect it meant much more to him than losing the next election would do.
My advice to you is dont fight the schoolboy - fight the man.

#70 majorroadaheadagain

No doubt your excellent school taught you well, but you don't understand the content of #69. You should listen to Mr. Rees-Mogg. As someone who was educated at Eton and Oxford, I understand where Mr. Cameron and his shadow cabinet are coming from. As a genuine Etox (the antonym of which I understand to be Detox), I can see what needs to be done to put this country on the right track. The well-to-do won't need to spend three-quarters of their time fiddling their expenses and will be able to concentrate on politics. This blog is about GB. Labour may have their 'World Statesman of the Year', but in Mr. Cameron we have the 'Universal Statesman of the Millennium'.