Tuesday 22 September 2015

Osborne apes Gordon Brown



What a time to go to China. One of the things about having a busy job in life is that you have to plan so far in advance. if you are Chancellor of the Exchequer its likely takes many months to arrange a trip to China with all the flunkies working at it to get the right meetings arranged for you.

This Osborne is reduced, the time now having arrived and at a very in-opportune moment to say this:

"I very deliberately chose to come here, to the epicentre of the volatility in financial markets this summer, to say this: whatever the headlines, regardless of the challenges, we shouldn’t be running away from China.
 
"And so today my message is clear: through the ups and downs, let’s stick together.
 
"Let’s stick together to grow our economies. Let’s stick together and make Britain China’s best partner in the West. Let’s stick together and create a golden decade for both of our countries.
 
"Britain and China: we’ll stick together."

So, just as Chin starts to really suffer from the downsides of the corruption and dystopian effects of the One Party State, Osborne chooses to go and suck up to them. Rather than offering support in building free markets or powerful regulators, we just sign them up to build the most unaffordable powerstation in the world (seriously, for the ludicrous cost we could likely build the as yet uninvented Fusion power station, it will be twice as expensive as using solar, even in the dark UK) for us.

Worse, China is likely experiencing the beginnings of a prolonged downturn in fortunes. It has enough foreign reserves to mask the depths of the crisis for a decade or so and is lucky that it is so tied to commodity prices that would finish the economy off if they rose.

I mention Gordon Brown because of his Jonah status of always backing the wrong horse, but also the habit of our Chancellors to be ill-prepared to deal with the real world and instead seek to shape the world as they see it.

I doubt it will be long before George Osborne becomes unstuck with his own domestic economic policies either.

9 comments:

Steven_L said...

Powerful regulators? Isn't that what they already have with the Communist Party? Powerful regulators just get taken over by the companies they are supposed to be regulating.

An independent and decentralised justice system that punishes fraud and corruption is the better bet.

But then Osborne is picking up where Brown left off, emasculating, centralising and bringing under the control of crawling quangocrat types what little 'independent' regulation there is.

Jan said...

Maybe he decided he wouldn't be around while Dave has his "little difficulty".....

DtP said...

I guess Brown was lucky for a good 8 years before the wheels started to come off but I can't seem to remember him being the luckiest bastard chancellor ever in the history of the world as Osborne's been. I guess luck is made more apparent when everyone else is fucking up around you and Osborne may seriously ape Brown and get the top spot just as the shit starts hitting the fan.

I don't have a clue what people would do if we hit 2008 again and the only option was the Corbynator - geez, that'd be an election with few candidates - 'Hi, vote for me, i'm marginally less of a total twat than the other candidates' - Saatchi & Saatchi should be put on danger money.

rwendland said...

CU, sounds like you won't be liking the Chinese Hualong One reactors Rudd wants built in Essex then (at sunny Bradwell-on-Sea - ironically just along from where former Minister of Technology Benn's remains are interred). A necessary side-deal to get the Chinese to fund Hinkley Point C.

Anonymous said...

If the Chinese build all our reactors, and put in some backdoors in the control software, then they won't need to point any ICBMs at us, will they ? Just instruct all cooling and flux moderation to stop, and wait for a rather dirty bang or possibly 'phut' - but not nice either way. Oh, and there won't be any electricity to deal with it.

(Going up the A1 and off to Lincolnshire I noticed a couple of our mini-power stations - basically a load of diesel generators in a compound miles from anywhere.)

CityUnslicker said...

SL - well made point, I would have been better saying rule of law, slightly more of an outlandish idea in the Middle Kingdom though...

RWEndland - yes, I hate that even more. I am really against new nucelar power that is subsidised MORE than poxy renewables. We have shale aplenty.....

Sackerson said...

From the post title I thought you were suggesting that Osborne had a campaign to undermine whatever-his-name-is, you know, PM, pig-fancier.

Anonymous said...

Sackerson - If the DM (Lord Ashton) reveal the pig-fancying incident and then say "Ah - but he can still be a great PM..." and then the next day, lo - the PM promises the Tory party will be neutral in the EU referendum...

What are we NOT being told about ???

What have they got over him ???

I reckon he used the 'N' word.

You can get a pig to blow you off but you CAN'T use the 'N' word !

(BTW - If this had been Farage it would have been all over the BBC and UKIP would be finished."

Anonymous said...

Anon @ 4:57 - can u give a closer map-ref?