Tuesday 20 January 2009

Ken Clarke - Land Some Punches, Quick


The world is falling around our ears, but somehow no-one lays a fist on Gordon Brown. At C@W we have often bemoaned the ineffectiveness of the Boy Osborne: but if he’s been big enough to recognise it and bring Clarke into the tent, then credit to him.

It’s equally appropriate that Alan Duncan has given way, because he’s made no impact on the returning Mandelson in the Industry (sorry, BERR) brief.

There’s a back-story here. In the mid 90’s, when Duncan and Mandelson were newly-minted backb
ench MPs, they were noted for their frequent playful Parliamentary exchanges, and clearly had high regard for each other. This relationship seems to have made Duncan unable to muster the necessary verve in attack.

In case anyone imagines I am suggesting anything untoward, let me also remark that Tony Benn and Margaret Thatcher have a similar mutual regard (dating from the days when they jointly campaigned for the admission of women to membership of the Oxford Union), and they, too, could never bring themselves to take off the gloves.

No time for niceties, Ken, this is urgent. Brown is leading with his ample chin. Get in there and do some damage.

ND

6 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:03 pm

    Watching our economy get destroyed around our ears reminds me of working in Germany as the wall came down. The Russians I met in "die ehemalige DDR" were telling each other this wonderful joke:

    Q. How do you tell if a Russian is an optimist, a pessimist, or a realist?
    A. The optimist is learning English, the pessimist is learning Chinese, and the realist is buying a Kalashnikov.

    We're fucked & getting Snotty "Cyclops" McDoom out by 9am tomorrow wouldn't make the slightest bit of difference.

    I do wonder if the prime mentalist is on some kind of psychotropic medication. He certainly appears to be delusional.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You know what, I've been thinking, dangerous I know, but nevertheless...

    All these people trying to make us believe the UK/Us taxpayer is shafted for a generation - are these the same people that have oodles of cash in the bank (a lot of them foreigners) and stand to lose the most if it collapses and there's no-one there administer it all?

    After the next write-downs, shouldn't the taxpayer try and call their bluff here and threaten to put it all into administration and send everyone home unless all these rich foreigners cough up a few billion between them to keep it going for them?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, I've reassessed the situation, I think NATO holds all the cards here.

    Maybe Bush wasn't stupid after all? If UK/USA get their act together we're in the perfect position to hold the world to ransom surely?

    ReplyDelete
  4. dangerous, dangerous and dangerous !

    ReplyDelete
  5. Think about it Nick, once it's all nationalised (both sides of the pond seem to be going that way) what we will be left is the financial equivilent of a nuclear bomb.

    Look at what they've done. Leaked rumours, driven down confidence, formented public distrust, anger and confusion, nationalised the banks (in other words chained them to their desks) demanded more capital, demanded they buy government debt, next they are going to issue uncosted credit default swaps covering the entire mess, then print money to buy up assets.

    Surely this will only fix that banking system if we pay more in cash than the assets are worth on the banks accounts to reduce their leverage. When you bring different currency denominations into it it becomes even more complicated, we can't print dollars.

    Printing money could lead to big inflation, wiping out the debt. If they go down this route then once the leverage is reduced enough surely they'll have to raise interest rates sharply and wring out the inflation?

    Do think this is the plan? Do they even have a plan? Or is the plan really US global domination through weapons of financial mass destruction - in which case we are well placed as their staunchest ally in a similar economic situation surely?

    ReplyDelete