Gordon Brown’s speech at Conference was well staged. In fact, it was hard to notice where the strings were on the above gantry that worked his arms or, indeed, where Lord Mandelson’s arm was, as it was so far up his backside that you couldn’t actually see it and you couldn’t see him move his lips either as the puppet Brown spoke. Remarkable.
There was plenty for the feint-hearted New Labour activists – lots of reminders of what might or might not have been achieved and lots of rather desperate rally calls. Then the inevitable happened. Fully 12 years after the Conservatives were last in power, and longer for the hapless Mrs. Thatcher, the entire blame for the credit crisis and recession was landed at the Tory door. Apparently it was their belief in free market correctionism (or some techno speak similar) that caused the whole damn thing.
Clearly in the intervening 12 years, Gordon Brown has not heaped praise on himself for being a financial genius or for how well he has managed our economy and its marvellous growth. He also has worked ceaselessly, albeit unnoticed, in trying to rectify the situation caused by the Conservatives. Right-wing fundamentalism (the reference was fundamentally unintelligible) was the root cause and free markets has caused that whole mess.
To be honest, I had to listen twice to get what he was saying. He basically said that in his whole 12 years in 11 and 10 Downing Street, he was opposed to everything around him. The growth he so (apparently) relished (and took the credit for) must have actually hurt his very soul as he alone knew it would heap doom on us and, clearly, he was powerless to stop it or to tell anyone. In retaliation, the very people he knighted in the City, like Fred Goodwin, are now to be vilified for their greed and money-making as they did it all behind his back so he had no idea what was going on and had no power to stop it. He alone wrestled with the terrible problem of informing the British public that this crash was inevitable yet......
He did absolutely nothing to stop it. Zip. Nada.
He just sat by, congratulating himself, sipping champagne as Hedge Fund managers, bankers and businessmen took tax free profits out of the country as banks made £billions in profits that have now been identified as immoral and illicit. He did nothing to curb bonus culture or to stop banks making deals on risky products. He did nothing to curb the outrageous and unfounded rise in house prices or stop us withdrawing equity from our homes – he did nothing to warn us our average household income was rising lower than inflation and we were saving negatively for our future. None of it. He had 12 years, not just one year or 5. He had more than enough time to have reversed the situation or impose his own doctrine or left wing fundamentalism or whatever he pretends to believe in that would have avoided it all.
It was a monumental and bare faced lie – it was also a stupid, cack-handed attempt to fool an already ‘fooled-weary’ public that he actually was always against what was going in the City and hence the British Economy. Yet in his speech he was proud to pat himself and his Party on the back for the very things that the economic growth brought about. To be absolutely frank, it could have been one of those spoof speeches you see from the desk of Supreme Leader Brown in Private Eye so howlingly morally bankrupt the whole speech was.
Meanwhile, Darling and Mandelson are now waging war on the very people they actually had ‘no issue with if they earned tons of money’ – words from the very mouth of the real Supreme Leader, Mandelson himself. It’s as if they have been swimming in beautiful azure seas and suddenly realised there is a floating turd in it.
Well that’s our Champagne Socialists for you. They ditched the old Labour because they couldn’t sell it to electorate – that served them well. Now that the proverbial has hit the fan, they have found solace and inspiration in the old values and trooped them all out again. Suddenly, the very people they adored and sipped cocktails with on expensive boats and allowed not to pay tax, have become the villainous enemies. They will be curbed, taxed and hounded for their greed.
Of course, next year in Corfu is still on isn’t it, Nat? I take that as a no then.
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