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Brownloather

Listed below are comments made by Brownloather between Thursday, 18th June 2009 and Wednesday, 9th December 2009.

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Ouch! 8:42pm on 09 Dec 2009 Another pathetic blog from Gordon Brown's favourite apologist. To judge from a lot of the comments it would seem that quite a few people share this view. Nick,I suggest you look at Fraser Nelson's (a proper journalist) analysis for the spectator/coffee house and it will become immediately apparent that this PBR is built on fantasy. Darling has 4 years of uninterrupted growth at 3.25% underpinning his estimates. Where is this going to come from? The PBR was a shabby political con from two shabby politicians. They had a choice between pain and shame and they chose shame. They will get pain later. A downgrading of Britain's debt ratings is now inevitable.
The pre-Budget report in which Darling is Darling 2:19pm on 09 Dec 2009 "No flourishing of political dividing lines"!!! He referred to the recession of the 1990s when "twice as many businesses went under" and "Unemployment is not a price worth paying" etc. The whole of the PBR was a political statement rather than a realistic plan to cope with a crippling deficit for the ONLY G20 country still in recession. You could argue however, that with Brown at the helm we will not have to worry about being classified as a G20 nation for very much longer! Nick, even by your own pathetic standards of non-partisanship and blatant ant-conservative bias this blog is a travesty. A red rosette for Mr Robinson please!
Defending a super-tax on banks 10:29pm on 08 Dec 2009 I am sure it makes people feel better to savage bankers verbally and to wish for punitive taxes to be imposed upon them. Sadly this will do little to restore our economy to growth or facilitate the recovery of public money expended to shore up RBS, HBOS and Northern Rock. These bankers are completely mobile and will simply relocate to whatever financial centre (Geneva etc) that will not penalise them financially and insult them and thereby damage the preeminence of London as a global financial centre. No doubt there will be a spiteful knee-jerk chorus of "good riddance" from the financially unsophisticated. The reality however, is that service industries like banking are vital to our recovery and cannot be replaced by wishful thinking about rebalancing the economy towards manufacturing etc.
The fight over a Blair presidency 2:15pm on 26 Oct 2009 I confess that I am not sure what Europe needs or whether or not it should even have an unelected President. I am certain however, that Europe does not need a man whose lazy mendacity and bludgeoning greed caused such terrible damage to the UK during his ten years in power.
Governor snubbed 3:11pm on 08 Jul 2009 It was both predictable and inevitable that the primary considerations would be political rather than practical. The preservation of Brown's reputation (sic) is paramount and thus the FSA, the least competent element of the tripartite system is given more power. We did not have a run on a bank for 150 years when the BOE was responsible for banking regulation and this authority should have been restored. Mervyn King might perhaps resign in protest but that would leave the people of Britain unprotected from these vandals and is thus not a practical option. I suspect that even as we speak, Ed Balls is dipping his pen in the vitriol to further besmirch the reputation of decent honourable men like Mervyn King. We can only hope that in 11 months time we will be delivered from these cowardly, arrogant and bullying hooligans (Brown, Balls and Cypher) who seem so determined to lay this country to waste.
Government not defeated 2:27pm on 08 Jul 2009 It is difficult to feel sorry for Labour backbenchers who wandered through the lobbies like sheep with degrees in docility (BA hons) to facilitate the enactment of this and countless other overtly political measures. None of them, save Frank Field, could muster so much as a speck of foresight for the consequences of abolishing the lower rate. They now find their livelihoods and those of their constituents in the hands of a man whose every decision is political rather than practical. The consequences of which are becoming plain for all to see save family Balls. To be fair, the man from Yorkshire got it right about the need for Brown to take a holiday. 40 years should do the trick and I leave it to you and your readers to suggest a suitable venue.
The PM uses the 'C' word: 'Cuts' 11:59am on 02 Jul 2009 Well said Nick this is a fair assessment and I hope it will be the first of many. The irony of protesting his honesty while at the same time employing/having employed scoundrels like Whelan, McBride and Balls is completely lost on him. His dishonesties are two numerous to list here but a personal favourite was when he told assembled journalists that he never intended to replace Darling with Balls. I think he genuinely believed he was telling the truth.

As to his assertions about growth, this would be hilarious if it were not so serious. He is channelling scarce resources from the productive part of the economy and putting into a grotesque and wasteful public sector. This is a sure recipee for at best stagnation and at worst, financial collapse. His real goal, as we all know, is to protect the public sector vote by showering it with money and making the private sector carry the burdens of recession on its' own. As one astute observer put it: "everything with Gordon is political and that is why he is weak".

When the history of these times is written a good title might be 'An Alternative Reality" (sadly, 'Alice in Wonderland' has already been used).
Liverpool walks on 12:26pm on 24 Jun 2009 Robert, some of your readers clearly do not understand the concept of market capitalisation and suggest that achieving a share price of 70p is a task requiring little if any effort when the share price was say £2.42 around a year ago. You should make it clear that there are now considerably more ordinary shares in circulation, following various 'rights' issues, than there were a year or so ago. The number of shares in issue is a factor in determining price and thus to restore a share price of say £2.42 would make the market capitalisation of RBS well in excess of £100 billion. It was never more than around £65 billion at the height of the boom so suggesting the restoration of the share price to previous levels is a misguided fantasy. In a fair world nobody deserves such excessive remuneration but in the 'real world' this is what it takes. Thus, if Mr Hester achieves a share price of 70p or more for RBS shareholders then I would happily see him paid £50 million for his troubles.
Hester's Royal remuneration 3:27pm on 22 Jun 2009 Robert, Your arguements are, as ever, cogent and reasonable and the numbers involved are huge in the eyes of most people. Sufficient at least to give them something to moan about. That said, if Mr Hester can sort out RBS in 5 years and get the taxpayers money back I would happily sanction five times this sum and think it cheap at the price. It took BP over 70 years to finally divest itself of the dead hand of government so good luck Steve say!!!!
A public element 08:47am on 18 Jun 2009 Have you noticed Nick that whatever the issue, be it failing to call an election in 2007, admitting the need for regulatory change in the banking system, holding a public enquiry into the Iraq war etc etc, Gordon Brown never takes the 'brave' option. As a commentator, you will probably argue that this is being politically canny. I suspect however, that the public is slowly realising that this man always acts in his own best interests and not in the interests of the the greater public. Finally, one has to laugh at the notion of the man who employs/ed and befriends the likes of Charlie Whelan, Damian McBride and Ed Balls 'cleaning up' politics. This is akin to a housewife/househusband offering to do the weekly wash with manure!

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