The transformation of Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown is the personification of of how media driven our opinions are.
He didn’t do too much wrong as either Chancellor or PM, at least in the context of perpetuating a globalized Capitalist economic system.
Blair hated (feared) him and used his media pals to run him down. That same media then had an instant scapegoat when the shit hit the fan.
Now he’s not part of the system any more, the media have no reason to tell us he’s an idiot (which he definitely is not), hence the warmer light he’s being cast in.

Unfortunately, he’ll have to wait for the revisionists before he can expect any credit…

No it wasn’t! He shouldn’t have sold the reserves to begin with

It was a Treasury Plan (civil service) their logic was, we held too much in a volatile commodity. the price of which was far too unpredictable. The Sale generated about 11billion (but cost us in adjusted prices about 3billion) we still have over 300 tonnes in reserve. Plus just for balance, it we’re going to criticize him for the gold sell off, then we have to applaud the 3G auction sell off, which generated 22 billion and the money went straight to paying off debt.

so in balance mild fail on gold, massive win on 3G…we (the public) came out alright.

Australia, certainly, and to a lesser extent Canada have reaped the benefits of an unprecedented commodities boom which protected them from the 2008 GFC

The UK hasn’t suffered anywhere near as much as the other countries that I mentioned.

It’s a myth that only Labour govts mismanage the economy. You’re letting yourself down by perpetuating such a simplistic view of UK politics.

Governments, and especially the Tories hardly ever run surpluses.

Except in periods of exceptional growth.

Gordon Brown – when he was chancellor ran a surplus for 4 consecutive years.

3 I think. 1999, 2000 and 2001. Attributing this to Brown is nonsense as I am sure you know. The following 8 years were ever increasing deficit.

wrecker – Member

No it wasn’t! He shouldn’t have sold the reserves to begin with, never mind the prices AND it was still at it’s lowest for 20 years before!

They announced the sale in advance to drive down the price.

It helped tremendously for those who were short on gold at the time though, so that’s cool. 8)

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-07-10/gordon-brown-sold-britain%E2%80%99s-gold-artificially-low-prices-bail-out-large-ameri

Mostly countries whose economies were also built on imprudent levels of debt

But it was the levels of private and bank debt that caused the issue, it was nothing to do with public debt. Preventing that would have required banking/loan regulation, and the worry was that regulation in the UK would make us less competitive in a worldwide marketplace.

It was, and is, a global problem, and it’s not like the Conservatives supported regulation at the time or have solved the problem since, and neither has any other country, so it’s hardly as simple as a Labour only mismanagement issue

@olde

GB might have done something about blatant mortgage fraud in the period 2005-7, he might have tightened regualtions in particular on those banks most exposed like Northern Rock and Halifax-Bank of Scotland
GB might have better managed the fallout in particular the bailout of RBS (too generous)
GB might not have pushed Lloyds a well run healthy bank into buying the bust HBOS bending the rules to facilitate it
GB might have responded to the crises by reigning in spending in the light of impending collapse in tax receipts

Name me one other major country which sold its Gold reserves at a similar point in time. Gordon took a flier and got it spectacuarly wrong

then there’s the issue over Britain’s gold reserves

FFS! Not the bloody gold reserves again. Who cares? It’s not like you’d ever get your hands on any of it, and it wouldn’t have been used for any public good. And since when did we start judging past governments on their failure to predict the future?

It still ended in near bankruptcy

Did it? When did we nearly go bankrupt? Or are you confusing personal finances with those of a nation state with it’s own central bank?

and shame

I wasn’t ashamed. Why should I be ashamed because public funds had to be used to rescue a corrupt and incompetent industry? Surely it’s a source of pride that we were able to stop it turning into an extended depression?

Just like every other Labour govt we’ve ever had.

Have you been reading the sun?

Gordon The Treasury took a flier and got it spectacuarly wrong

Is what you meant, surely…

I don’t find Brown as offensive as many politicians, he had to live in the shadow of Blair for many years which must of driven him batshit crazy at times.

Absolutely, his need to be in the ultimate job crippled the effectiveness of the government, and then when he finally achieved what he regarded as his destiny, he didn’t seem to know what to do with it.

He was an excellent mp for his constituency…well liked in kirkcaldy by all accounts

I still think he’s an idiot, where this idea that he is clever comes from I’m to sure. Having a PhD in the history of your own party hardly means you are clever, took him 10 years as well!!

He loved stealth taxes and increasing National Insurance was an awful policy. I’m very dubious how well the whole Bank of England / FSA split worked. But then this is a guy who think you can have a 0% increase!!

Only good thing he did was keep us out of the Euro.

3 I think. 1999, 2000 and 2001. Attributing this to Brown is nonsense as I am sure you know. The following 8 years were ever increasing deficit.

You can’t very well criticism him for the ruining the economy and then not reflect on his time as Chancellor.

Goal posts.

1998 too. So it was four.

Except for Blair – he’s still a cock.

Well that seemed so blatantly obvious I didn’t think I needed to say it!

The monstering he received by the press was quite impressive, even Milliband didnt come in for that much bile (apart from the DM nazi dad guff)

His belief in ‘the market’ was his downfall, his golden rule was very good, if only hed stuck to it and keeping us out of the Euro was something Major had set us on the road to, so he did well there.

The gold sell off was poorly handled but way overhyped and lapped up by the easily led.

Ultimately his inability to manage (the press, PR, his cabinet) the way Tony did was what really stuffed him including not turning your mic off after encountering a biggot 😉

I think he was a more conscientous politician than hes given credit for…
the Minimum Wage, Sure Start, the Winter Fuel Allowance, the Child Trust Fund, the Child Tax Credit and paid paternity leave all under him
He and his wife also do a lot of charity work around pregnancy education in the developing world etc
Thats set against him being a very Tory chancellor, deregulate away, dont like pensions as they keep money out of the economy way of doing things that Nigel lawson started.
Its fairly obvious that had Osborne been in power at the time of the crash he’d have done no better and probably much worse, considering how hes managing to not handle the debt and still crush the welfare state

He also saved Cameron’s bacon in the Scotland referendum, but that cost labour dearly

Ultimately his inability to manage (the press, PR, his cabinet) the way Tony did was what really stuffed him

And his belief in the failed Iraq adventure and 42 days detention didn’t help…when even the Lords tell you it’s anti-democratic you should know you’re onto a loser…

He also saved Cameron’s bacon in the Scotland referendum

This is jurno revisionism, there is no evidence he made any impact.

Gordi had a game of two halves – pretty good IH then hubris set in (“end of boom and bust”) and it all went pear-shaped for him and for us. Sad but not atypical story.

Let’s not forget that he is on record for single-handedly saving Scotland (2015) and the World from the Global Financial Crisis (2008). That’s some achievement that few others have achieved.

You could call him the British Hasslehoff 😆

This is jurno revisionism, there is no evidence he made any impact.

Who can say what led people to vote how they did , but some polls the day b4 had shown the first lead for no, his speech had over 1/4 million views that day just on youtube.
(This was all debated at length on the Scot Indy thread, there’s graphs n everything on there, but no way I’m trawling thru all that).

oh go on

Your average Scottish voter must really despise Cameron and co, they keep voting in the SNP after all !!!,the No camp were in dire straights b4 super gordie stepped up, he reached parts of the electorate there that your average Eton Tory couldn’t touch with a king size deep fried mars bar

Gordon took a flier and got it spectacuarly wrong

And with your Jambafacts on here the same can be said of you 😆

History will record Brown as a very competent manager, but not really a leader. Great when the problem is clear but not great at identifying the problem.

Read all your pluses and minuses about him back through that filter and you’ll probably get most to fit.

And I also know someone who knows him and reckons he’s a very decent human being. The same guy is rather less complimentary about Blair.

PS – isn’t Jamba one of the money men who caused the financial crash? Sure he was bragging about his financial deals a week of two ago.

History will record Brown as a very competent manager, but not really a leader. Great when the problem is clear but not great at identifying the problem.

+1

He did handle the aftermath of the 2008 crash very well.

The gold things is just noise, wouldn’t make the slightest dent in the current national debt…

Try Australia or Canada.

Isn’t Australia in the process of going into downturn as their entire economy for the last 15 years has been based on exporting raw materials to China?

the idiots among us who just seem unable to grasp this simple fact, the Labour party did not cause the economic crisis !!!

At least you know you’re dealing with an idiot when you hear that trotted out. Some people believe what they want to. Facts don’t seem to make any difference.

I’d be really pissed off at Gordon Brown if I was Greece, what with him and his party causing the global economic crisis… 🙄

Brown played his part in turning labour into new labour /red tories. Hubris certainly struck after his successful early spell as chancellor. IMO he became very out of touch and could be seen as a symbol of how “Scottish” Labour took its supporters completely for granted and treated them with disdain. His interventions in the indy ref antagonised as many as they encouraged, and we are still waitng on that “almost federal” parliament. The great klunking fist has become a great klunking twit.

Gordon Browns tripartite system for deregulating banking was found to be one of the key reasons for Britain being so heavily hit in the last recession, according to a report by The House of Lords Economics Affairs Committee. Those claiming it was down to the Conservatives are plain wrong.

Gordon Browns tripartite system for deregulating banking was found to be one of the key reasons for Britain being so heavily hit in the last recession, according to a report by The House of Lords Economics Affairs Committee. Those claiming it was down to the Conservatives are plain wrong.

It was a contributory factor along with many deregulations which started under Nigel Lawson in the 80s.

Those thinking you can blame it on any one PM / Chancellor are just idiots.

Ultimately if the banks hadn’t deliberately set out to mask poor quality loans and sell them as AAA debt, you wouldn’t have needed better regulators…..

Ultimately if the banks hadn’t deliberately set out to mask poor quality loans and sell them as AAA debt, you wouldn’t have needed better regulators..

Regulation of the Debt markets increased under Lawson, it was the equity markets that were deregulated.

Isn’t Australia in the process of going into downturn as their entire economy for the last 15 years has been based on exporting raw materials to China?

Yes