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- Add comment | Back to Daily Blog Written on 10-Nov-2008 by SamTRThe spectacle of our three party leaders all claiming to be Barack Obama’s new best friend during Prime Minister’s Questions last week resembled the politics of the playground, where everyone wants to hang out with the cool new boy. Gordon Brown highlighted the triumph of “progressive policies” while David Cameron sought to co-opt Obama’s message of ‘change’ and Nick Clegg tried to link the new President’s tax policies with his own.
Since Obama’s victory all the talk has been on what lessons it has for British politics – and Kieron alluded to some of those lessons on the blog last week. In this vein, it is striking how everyone agreed that McCain’s campaign went seriously off the rails when the financial crisis exploded in September. It was not just due to his erratic response but also the fact that he was unable to disassociate himself from the blame being heaped on the Republicans’ economic record.
Ironically, McCain failed to break free of Bush’s unpopularity even though he was not involved in the Presidency, yet here in Britain Gordon Brown has shown a startling ability to disassociate himself from his own economic record – so far. Somehow he feels able to talk as if he has had nothing to do with Government fiscal and monetary policy over the last decade, and as if the regulatory system was designed by someone else. As we enter a recession it seems unlikely that Brown will be able to continue to get away with it – people are not fools and can see that his claim of ending boom and bust now looks culpably hollow. And the national polls, notwithstanding the result in Glenrothes, still point to a significant Tory lead despite all the talk of a 'Brown bounce'.
The danger now though, as Fraser Nelson has noted, is that Brown borrows another lesson from Obama – and seeks to steal a policy of tax cuts from under Cameron’s nose. With Nick Clegg already having shifted Lib Dem strategy on the issue and the Conservatives set to announce their own proposals this week it is clear that all the parties are going to be claiming the tax cutting mantra for themselves. So the political question now is whose plans are going to stand up to public scrutiny - and who will reap the benefits in the polls of a new economic strategy as we enter the grim times.
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written on 11-Nov-2008
ATFlynn [http://www.atflynn.co.uk] says:
Like so many other people, I tried to change the Political Direction, starting from 1996 or earlier. I have correspondence from quite a few Banks and on the 12th. of November 2001, I wrote to Daniel Kruger at the CPS. The subject even then was almost the same as it is today. The absolute mess Politics, both Westminster and Whitehall have made of the whole Economy.
And at the same time, I was writing to Sandy Bruce-Lockhart OBE., now Lord Bruce-Lockhart, on the same subject. His Lordship had asked how this fraud with the Taxpayers money was carried out. I pointed out that for a start, three asylum seekers or immigrants, once put into accomodation, received £957 Housing Benefit each week, paid to the Landlord. And I also pointed out how simple it was to introduce false claims for benefit payments if you worked for the DSS.
Another area of fraud that requires examination, is the secrecy attached to the payments made to the EU. in Brussels, on the 1st of every month and again on the 19th. of every month. I have for some years been going over these Payments and looking at how the monthly payments are adjusted.. And the only conclusion I come to, is the fact the Government is terrified that the Taxpayer will demand to know just what the total amount paid, is. I can tell you now, that in my opinion, the Taxpayers of Britain are handing over to Brussels some
£2,000,000,000 EACH WEEK. I also have in my possession a letter from the Treasury stating that there is NO record kept of any money that is repaid to Britain. How it is supposed to work, is that any surplus is removed from the next annual budget and monthly payments are reduced.
In fact, the way the system is set up, you can even work Miracles that would confuse the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury at the same time.
Enough for now, Kind Regards, ATFlynn, "Norfolk's Mutineer"
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