Gordon Brown is in the US and today becomes only the 5th Prime Minister in history to address Congress. Of course, he will get a warm welcome there after all the good behaviour in that 'Special Relationship' but he has a new word to chuck at them - 'Protectionism' and it is probably not what they want to hear.
In an interview in the US, Brown has sort of echoed Alistair Darling's call that Ministers should show 'Humility' and a 'Collective Responsibility' for the economic crisis we are in. Brown seemed to echo this saying he would not shy away from his responsibilities but he was quick once again to say that current economic woes were not pertinent to Britain but were caused but a global financial freeze up.
Previously he has put the current woes down to sub-prime mortgages in the US but, of course, in present company that would not go down well. Besides, I think even he has heard the excuse enough to know it's untrue. Britain built its economy on a flawed business model and we are now victims of it. That many other countries did the same is neither here nor there - we knew it was not sustainable so we should not have pursued it. Consequently, the policies and vast monies to put the situation right has only endeavoured to sustain the failed business model. It is good money after bad and has compounded the original error massively.
No matter what Brown says, the problem has got bigger from his ineptitude to deal with the basic problem - the flawed business model.
Protectionism Is Not Nice
In the US Congress they recently passed a Bill which would stimulate the economy but it had the nasty caveat that as much as possible, US steel, iron and manufactured goods should be used in the process. This has set Brown on a path to warn of a global fight on the recession and that protectionism will not help stimulate the world markets. To the fiercely patriotic Americans this will be like a whisper at a football game - they will not hear it and are not interested. It is protect their own time.
It's pretty rich from a man whose first reaction when Iceland's banks failed and the country slid toward bankruptcy was to threaten legal action to recover the funds British people had in them. Let's actually be honest about it - he meant British local authorities who had around £1bn in the banks. While it was a good thing no depositor lost their money, if you invest in foreign banks then surely you do it at your own risk. What Brown should have been doing was making sure that Icelandic deposits were protected by the FSA rather than kick a country in the teeth when it was down.
Brown will, in his speech to congress, liken the fight against the global recession as akin to fighting the Nazis in the 1940s. That should twang the heart strings of the Americans who rescued we British from the clutches of Hitler. The analogy falls a little flat as the enemy is unseen, is not preaching hideous ideology, isn't slaughtering Jewish people and is not firing bullets at or invading countries. That's the sort of the thing the US and UK do to Iraq. Brown writes books on courageous feats and he clearly likens his mission to some night time, low level bomber like Leonard Cheshire, taking out V2 rocket launchers so that we can all live safely.
Sadly for Gordon, there is no war. It's just a long clear up process of the financial disaster he and others walked us into. There is no 'Virtual Hitler' just the spectres of the dumb politicians and avaricious bankers who brought the mess on us. He is fighting people like himself.
The Story Continues
Meanwhile, back at home, we await the next round of the Goodwin Pension Fiasco. It threatens to run longer than Peyton Place and is at least as interesting. Will Sir Fred have to give back part of his pension entitlement? In the left corner is Harriet Harman who clearly senses there are votes and popularity to be won if she can be party to it by mentioning it. On the right, Fred Goodwin himself stoically sits atop his vast pension pot waving two fingers in the direction of the Government.
If you send monkeys to solve the problem, give them peanuts and they will go away happy. When Brown et al are considering what they should be showing humility about, failure to negotiate directly with Fred Goodwin should near the top of the list.
Just behind fouling up the economy and making us liable for £1.3 trillion of bad debts.
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