I blame Sir Ralph Ramsey – after 1966 things haven’t been the same 🙂

A global recession doesn’t explain why the pound has lost 30% of it’s value over the past year.

Pretty sure that if you track through the issues you find that it does, especially given that a very significant part of our (post Thatcher) economy is dependant on the Financial Institutions which appear to be right royally fecked by the global situation.

Soz Duplicates TJ’s post, with the exception of the bit about exports, where I’m not sure I agree, given that our manufacturing base has been so seriously eroded, (again possible hand of Thatcher involvement).

El-Bent

“He will indeed, whether its wholly justified is neither here or there, the British public need scapegoats to cover up the fact that they(we) were complicit in creating this mess also”.

Don’t be saying that, people don’t like the truth. Cheap loans and credit today and bu66er the future.

IMO the lower pound is a good thing anyway – makes our exports much more profitable.

Er yeah but imports cost more so we’ll soon be into high inflation and interest rates followed by more house reposessions no doubt.

TJ – Do we have any exports left?

Right now come on you lot, this getting really boring. By now we should be insulting each other, what has gone wrong. Perhaps I’m on the wrong thread I was sure this would be the one that the angry white middle classes would be getting it out of there system. When you need that rudeboy chap he is never around, typical thread shy socialist not got the will to defend the indefencable. Perhaps it’s time that we all owned up to the fact that we need a Winston Churchill or a Margret Thatcher to lead us out this depression.

Oi mt, work out how to spell ‘indefensible’.

There. Grammar Nazi started. Please continue…. 😆

It doesn’t really matter does it, they are running out of steam, in a similar way to the Tories, he’s Labours John Major although I suspect he’ll go and Labour will hang on for another term with the Foreign Secretaty having his turn at the ‘Run your country’ game, then they will implode, we’ll get a Tory government, a surge of optimism will lift the country, it will run for 7 or 8 years before the corruption allegations start to hamstring them la la la la la la la, and so it goes.

AdamW – Sorry about the spelling dyslexia I’m told but the truth is I’m a bit thick.

Nick – Your right that democracy so it’s thread closed.

alexhilton Thu Apr 30, 2009 at 08:33:59 AM GMT

“Gordon Brown last night lost an opposition day motion on rights for Gurkhas. Tonight he faces stiff opposition again, this time on parliamentary expenses.
A former Cabinet Minister is rumoured to be prepared to stand as a stalking horse candidate to trigger a leadership election if Brown loses the expenses vote tonight.

I have phoned this MP seeking confirmation of his position but he has not yet returned my call.”

Looks like it won’t be long now.
Odd though it may seem, I have some sympathy for Brown as an individual. After all those years of backstabbing and muckraking to get to be PM (His only real aim in life), he got there only to find out he really wasn’t cut out for it.

I find the Gurkha business a bit funny. Mrs Thatcher is actually quoted saying that she thought the way this Government treated them was scandalous.

If that is so, why didn’t she doing anything about it when she was in power?

Too true el bent. Thatchers immigration and nationality reforms made it harder for the Gurkas to settle in Britain, Blairs Government made it clear, the issue here is those who served pre 97 not those who are serving now.

What I cannot understand is why this government who used to be so good at spotting the public mood and doing the populist thing got this so wrong.

Odd though it may seem, I have some sympathy for Brown as an individual. After all those years of backstabbing and muckraking to get to be PM (His only real aim in life), he got there only to find out he really wasn’t cut out for it.

I have no sympathy at all . He spent 10 years as Chancellor undermining what Blair was trying to do and then intimidated anyone from opposing him in the leadership contest, only to find that he’s a crap leader and no one likes him. Maybe he should have thought more carefully about his skills before he started.

He also had a huge amount to do with Britain’s current situation – we are extremely badly placed to weather the global recession and he ignored a number of IMF warnings over the past few years which would have allowed us to prepare. While he was chancellor he allowed and encouraged house prices to go crazy by removing them from the inflation measure used by the Bank of England and deepened our dependency on financial services. Trying to blame Thatcher or America requires one to ignore a lot of facts which are rather inconvenient for Brown supporters. I expect that many in the Labour Party are bitterly regretting the decision to force Blair out and install Brown.

I blame Sir Ralph Ramsey

Alf, even

What I cannot understand is why this government who used to be so good at spotting the public mood and doing the populist thing got this so wrong

Maybe cos Brown is a total tool, whereas Blair was a born politician?

grumm – Member
People are so easily swayed by the tabloid media. They’ve decided its time for him to go, and all the sheep are following.

Sorry, did you say Murdoch?

What I cannot understand is why this government who used to be so good at spotting the public mood and doing the populist thing got this so wrong

Signs of a siege mentality ? When everything you do gets critisised, the defenses go up and it’s probably hard to pick out the bits that truly matter.

whereas Blair was a born politician?

what a slimy, lying, power mad, ego maniac on a mission from god?
yeah id say thats about right

Trying to blame Thatcher or America requires one to ignore a lot of facts which are rather inconvenient for Brown supporters.

first of all i dont think brown has any supporters left

and exclusively blaming brown and ignoring thatcher and americas role in the financial crisis is equally stupid

brown and nu labour were just a continuation of the torry policies of thatcher and her move away from manufacturing to a financial services economy, something that america followed her lead on certainly in banking dergulation