Friday, October 10, 2008

Gordon Brown bullies Iceland - "have my poll rating lifted yet ?"

The old obsession with headlines and how your seen is back at No 10. Spin rules !

So we have Gordon Brown (or Gordon as Labour would like to re-brand him - must be some focus group conclusion there ) taking on Iceland a country with the population of Coventry.

In doing so he is forcing them into the hands of the Russians, who probably can't believe their luck - or von Brun's stupidity.

Yet again the fevered tactical urge to get himself ahead is being put before the long term interests of the country. There were other ways of doing this - but none that would have helped his poll ratings so Gordon put his interests first.

Its a shame because I'd been thinking of taking the family for a Summer holiday there next year, but the way things are going we won't be welcome.

PS To all those Labour supporters who think that this is Gordon Brown's Falklands moment let me warn you that a real war, in the Falklands, which will result in British Troops being humiliated due to Brown's defence cut backs and over commitment is a very real possibility right now.

Update: Daniel Hannan agrees in comment over at the Times. He points out that Gordon Brown effectively destroyed one of Iceland's banks. Its a disgrace.

Further about the backlash Gordon Brown's short term opportunism has created.

4 comments:

HenrĂ˝ said...

As an Icelandic person, I'm quite interested in whether Gordon's ploy worked. Where do the brits store their polls?

Man in a Shed said...

Conservative home here usually reports the latest polls.

Political betting is also a good site.

What's the view in Iceland on all this ?

HenrĂ˝ said...

I think there's a large consensus Gordon Brown used this ploy to strengthen his position in UK.

We sympathize with Britons who are upset at Icelandic bankers. We too are upset at their greed and deception.

But these swindlers already have gotten their cash out, as can be seen here.

Using anti-terrorism acts to seize Icelandic assets and Broon going on and on generalizing our rotten nature and talking our businesses into default has irreparably affected our already low self-esteem and destroyed our reputation to the world. It is also patently untrue that our nation is bankrupt.

I'd like to note his gutless behavior in speaking in peacemaking tone to our administration but in warmongering tone to your citizens.

I also don't think he would have had the guts to invoke this act on Saudi-Arabian businesses or speak in this way about arabs had islamist extremists attacked Britain.

Alas, we are a nation of a few nordic (white) privileged people. Noone has our back.

Man in a Shed said...

I'm afraid Brown is a bully. There a very serious issue about the bank failures, but there are civilised and diplomatic ways of dealing with them.

Its not so long ago that the UK went effectively bust, under a Labour govt, and had to beg the IMF for a bail out. He should have shown more grace. But I'm afarid its naked politics in the Uk at the moment.

Our Labour party MPs will hate the idea of joining the dole queue in a recession, given their lack of marketable skills. They are desperate to cling to power and its high salaries and gold plated pensions.