How do I know this ? Well listening to Steve Richards’s first edition [link only valid for a few days] of his programme on the Brown years in No 10.
We hear ex-minister talking about the lies with the election that never was.
We know that things were terrible in No10, with Brown moving between despair and rage - and that was on a good day. We also know that none of the narrow minded selfish careerists put country before their own ambition and tried to do anything about it.
We know that factions briefed and lied against each other.
We know that Brown lied directly to the camera about the election that never was and that it was the middle class of southern England who saved the country ( I think those of us in that category can all have a little pat on the back for that one. )
Combine this with the cowardice that all the main candidates except perhaps David Miliband have show over the massive crippling debt they run up and the structural deficit Brown introduced just ( remember this ) to make it hard for the Tories at the general election. ( This is on record when Brown was talking to a Clinton adviser who asked him why he was running a deficit in the good times and Brown answered to make life difficult for the Tories at the election ).
Brown and co got of lightly over their tactical attempts to copy the Conservative inheritance tax proposals, which they then shamelessly tried to attack latter. ( My guess is that the thing that scared Brown and his Labour skivvies was the impact on the key voter group they were denying was tipping their election date considerations ).
No one who was in Brown's government is morally fit to run this country and unless Labour have a strange turn and election Diane Abbott then it means the next Labour leader is already damaged goods.
Sometimes we have very short memories in politics - but the moral corruption of the last Labour government should be a memory many of us keep alive for a very long time.
I need to get on today, but given all the news about Greece and the IFS's warning about all parties plans to deal with the rising national debt let me recommend reading the article "Farewell free stuff" in the Bagehot column of the Economist a few weeks ago ( I flagged it then - but its worth a read given today's headlines ).
I heard David Miliband repeating Gordon Brown misinformation campaign on the economy on the radio today. Labour will keep on doing this - but look to the quotes I have on the right of this blog to see the eventual consequences.
Lets be clear - the next few months need a strong government to sort out the economic crisis that most people are keeping quiet about.
A hung parliament held to ransom by Lib Dem triple lock internal party wrangling won't do it, and will most likely lead to a political and economic crisis. ( The only question will be which destroys the resulting government first ).
Yesterday the gap year student who is interning as the Foreign Sectary, David Miliband, indicated that the long awaited Iraq inquiry would start after UK troops are pulled out of Iraq in July.
The BBC reporters hinted that the main issue here could be the general election, and Labour wanting to set the terms of the inquiry but not have it report till after the election.
This would achieve two things: 1) The stop a Conservative government giving the inquiry its terms of reference - which could be disastrous for Labour. 2) It avoids the inquiry concluding before a general election.
But I was just wondering if in fact some in Labour might like it before and general election and to report before that election, to avoid any fall out during the leadership election in Labour that will follow their impending defeat.
After all its Labour party members who are some of the angriest people about the decision to go to war with Iraq.
Its been a busy day or two, so little blogging. But hearing the gap year student on the radio taking a strong and principled stand against paying ransoms ( specifically relating to the sailors kidnapped with the oil tanker of Kenya and now in Somalia ) just sounded too hypocritical and / or naive to let go.
Maybe Mr Miliband hasn't been aware of this but in some parts of the world kidnap and ransoms are big business.
As someone who has worked in the oil industry and travelled to places that involve some risk of this I can tell you its not far from your mind. Indeed I've refused to go on a job where I was asking myself the question of would the boss pay my ransom or would he have a rush of Mr Miliband's principles and decide to make a stand. I have a young family and have to think these things through.
Many companies have kidnap insurance and people to sort these things out. Its a cost and risk of doing business in some parts of the world.
Its just misleading to say we don't pay ransoms - we do. It might not be the government paying, but one way or another it usually happens.
And if it didn't then more skilled engineers would take the same decision I once did and just refuse to work in some locations. The result would be the Chinese and others would take over the business and Gordon Brown would have even less tax income to play with.
I'm not saying its right - I'm just saying the risk is all piled onto a few people when the politicians decide to make a stand.
Lets not forget how the Royal Navy behaved when a few of the sailors lots their ipods in the Gulf. I don't think Mr Miliband's Government are the people to give lectures.
Of course kidnapping is wrong and must be discouraged, but that is often a symptom of wider dysfunction in the states where it occurs. Deal with those issues and the police can then deal with the kidnapping.
Mr Miliband would do better to make credible statements, rather than ones to play on the radio.
The conversion of David Miliband to the cause of Gordon ( as he keeps calling Mr Brown ) is sudden and striking. Not long ago he wrote his Guardian article, gave those impromptu interviews appeared on the Jeremy Vine show - and here's the clincher the Brown camp went into spin / smear over drive to do him down (showing they thought it was a real challenge ).
Now about a week ago we had David Miliband paraded as a prize by the Brown camp in Birmingham - repeating that he loved Big Brother and only Big Brother could be PM.
I'm just watching his performance on The Politics show, which may be the end of his political career as he loses all credibility, and again what sounds like a forced conversion comes over.
Its like seeing Winston Smith under the chestnut tree listing to the view screen for the latest news on the battles and victories of Airstrip One, having finally realised he loves Big Brother.
Just what David Miliband found in room 101 may always be a mystery, but the Brown camp will have been very well informed about any unfortunate incidents in his past. The public humiliation and punishment of Ivan Lewis by who knows whom has made it clear to ministers the fate that awaits those who cross Big Brother.
Apparently young David think it would be rather fun to have Russia, Turkey, North African and some middle east countries in the EU ( do you think he means Israel ? ).
The odds on this happening are rather low.
What do they put in his coffee at the Foreign Office ? ( Perhaps he shouldn't be allowed to drink any.)
As part of Gordon Brown's carefully crafted plan to decieve the public about his true nature the Brownian spin machine is now in running at full tilt.
Supercasino - just say no. ( Can anyone remember Gordon I want to save my job and lack the courage of my convictions Brown objecting before ? ). American (We're not going to be slavish friends but give the yanks the benefit of our half baked socialism and naive view of the work that gave you CND amongst other things - but then the boy Miliband is on TV saying we didn't mean that at all - after pocketing the support from the public.) Housing (re-announce loads of things - make brief statements. Start trying to blame the financial industry for the coming house crash - does anyone remember Gordon Brown boasting about interest rates in the last 10 years or fixing the bank of England by measuring inflation in a different way ? ) England ( or in NuLabour spin speak the British Regions - and all the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish MPs will be busy legislating on Gordon Brown's priorities that apply only in England. )
So let no one doubt spin is back - in fact you have to start wondering if Gordon Brown wasn't the force behind Labours spin and character assassination campaign at the start ..... Maybe thats why we have Ed Miliband giving out his Meme's about David Cameron having to shore up the right etc ...spin, spin and more spin.
If only they took their responsibilities in government half as seriously as making sure they continue to have access to all the goodies and money that government brings them.
I've just watched the latest edition of the UK version of The Apprentice and I'm wondering - didn't Katie's eyes change from green to blue during the final board room scene ?
That seems to have coincided with a change of heart on her part - I'm wondering what was edited out ?
Also just see the boy Milliband on Newsnight - what is growing on his lip ?
The leader after next - David Miliband - has somehow led the BBC to announce he's not standing for the leadership of the SS Labour Party, as it steams full speed towards to ice berg of the May elections.
The BBC love Mr Miliband even more now - and have a wonderful grinning picture on their web site.
The much maligned Nick Robinson ( including by myself a while ago ) spots the wrigle room. Could it all be spin ?
Why do we even wonder ?
Only a idiot and/or a Labour party supporter could believe Miliband hasn't been eyeing up the top job. MiaS spotted his campaigning earlier on. If he wanted to crush speculation getting your mates at the BBC to give you lots of headline grabbing publicity isn't the way to do it.
So perhaps he's got the balls and the brains after all....
Brown seems to have 'secured' Jack Straws loyalty - in a move to perhaps warn others not to enter the race.
Now Miliband's anonymous friends are setting Brown up to take the fall for the local and regional elections in May.
It won't be Blair taking a bullet for Brown by staying on, but taking him down with him. Brown - who might have thought May's elections would see off Blair may find they see him off too.
The quote in the DT is:
Friends of the Environment Secretary suggested that he had not completely ruled out throwing his hat into the ring.
But they said he would only do so if Labour went into freefall in the elections in England and polls for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.
That phrase has all the haul marks of Blairite spin ... Setting up in peoples minds how they should think about and react to things (the people princess etc) is a Blair signature manoeuvre.
Gordon Brown was never going to let David Milibandstart a potential election campaign address the Labour party, without getting his say also. Heres the email to Labour supporters - its just turned up via the usual channels - and here's my response - in blue this time.
Over the ten years I have been Chancellor, the priorities of families across Britain have been my priorities [ that's why social mobility is down and Britain is one of the worse countries in the world to be a child. Marriage rates are down and we have undermined the basis for the Christian family.].
Whether by keeping mortgages low[not my responsibility since I outsourced it straight away], providing the economic stability to deliver record employment[by growing the state sector to a size you can't afford - but they'll all vote for me and that's what matters isn't it ?] and sustained investment in schools[where the few improvements have been due to the previous Conservative governments focus on basics in primary schools - the rest is a massive mess.], this Government has worked hard to support hard working families[there are no marks for effort here - only success, which you've been lacking in].
Living standards have risen, thousands of children and pensioners have been lifted out of poverty and there are over two million more people in work[ combined disability and unemployment rates are at about 3 million [link may need subscription] - as bad or worse then the darkest days as Mrs T saved Britain from people like you].
So I was determined today to continue to put families at the heart of the Budget[unless they earn little in which case their tax went up - ho ho ] with more support for children, for pensioners and for schools.
When Labour came to power in 1997, child benefit was just £11. We've already increased it by over 50 per cent. Today I announced that over the next three years it will go up to £20 a week.
And nine out of ten families also now receive child tax credit, introduced by this Government[ and a spectacular mess - badly administered and taking unnecessary control of peoples lives], to help families with the cost of bringing up children. We are also going to increase this by a further £150 a year.
And to continue our attack on child poverty[as this is a relative measure - MiaS doesn't see how this can get better], the maximum amount of child tax credit will be raised to £75 a week.
These changes will lift another 200,000 children out of poverty.
There's more money for schools as well. Thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils - and record investment in education[investment produces a return - what return has been shown ?Maths and the Sciences have dropping state pupil rates at top Universities] - we've seen dramatic improvements in school results over the last decade[or a massive slip in standards - which do you believe?].
We'll keep increasing investment in schools so that by 2010, spending per pupil will not be the £2,500 a year it was in 1997 but £6,000 a year[so it will be over 100% more effective eh ? No ... ].
There's more help for pensioners[voters] as well as we move[haven't done it yet - waiting for wage rise inflation to drop the cost of this - but I want your credit now], as we have promised, to restore the link between the basic state pension and earnings which was broken by the Tories.
By increasing pensioner tax allowances, we will lift 600,000 pensioners out of tax altogether. We also announced plans to raise the threshold on inheritance tax[ see here for what a dirty double deal this really is].
But I also know that [David Cameron is making all the running on the environment] families want more action to help reduce pollution and tackle climate change.
So we are making sure that those motorists who drive cleaner cars will pay less in duty while those with the most polluting vehicles pay more.
We are going to give more encouragement and advice as well to families to help them cut energy bills at home.
All this is only possible, of course, because of the strength and stability of our economy [What no mention of "Tory Boom and Bust" this time - wonder what you know that we don't ?].
Under this Government, Britain continues to enjoy the longest sustained period of economic growth in our history[ This is a devious bit of writing - what he actually says is that Labour have come after the Conservatives set a successful economy and haven't totally screwed it up yet - but if you look at national borrowing and the size of the state you might wonder if they haven't already.].
Unlike the misery - 15 per cent interest rates [which were there for one day as Britain was forced out of the ERM - a policy Gordon Brown supported, but the rest of us have learned from. Brown no doubt thinks that Labour supporters are just too stupid to know this.] and three million out of work [Not that different from today] - caused by the deep recessions of the Tory years [Caused by the disaster of socialism and trade unionism and failed national corporations - all of which you supported you ... going to turn into Devil Kitchen at this rate- calm down and drink less coffee.] , our economy has grown every single year.
And to help business continue to prosper and create jobs,[ I have increased corporation tax on small companies where all the future of our economy comes from - but it pays of the big corporations who don't like the competition] I have cut corporation tax by 2p.
There are already over two million more people in jobs than in 1997 but I want to go further to reward work.
So our economic stability has enabled me to simplify the tax system for families by removing the 10p starting rate of income tax and cutting the basic rate by 2p to just 20p - the lowest basic rate for 75 years [ except for the one I just abolished - and also introduced earlier, but being a Labour supporter you to stupid to know that].
As a result of the changes announced yesterday, a family with two children earning £27,000 will be £500 a year better off.
That's why I believe today's Budget was a Budget for [my campaign to be Prime minister] Britain's future and a Budget for Britain's families.
Yours sincerely,
ps - Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms will be answering your Budget questions next week in a podcast interview.
Update: This from the 18DT gang just fits in too micely ( via Iain Dale and Iain credits Dizzy thinks for first making the link ... )
Gordon Brown is Macavity
This is 18 Doughty Streets take at T.S Eliot's Macavity The Mystery Cat poem with everyone's favourite Chancellor Gordon Brown in the part of the famous Feline.
Just watched David Cameron giving a solid reply, under the difficult circumstances of a Brown disingenuous budget speech ( as always the bad news is hidden so his little spin merchant trolls can get out to brief the media on the message they would like to be on TV and in the papers ).
The bit I picked out from his reply ( before the BiasedBC BBC pulled the plug on Cameron ) was his suggestion that David Miliband was standing next to the door to get out quickly to launch his leadership campaign. The camera cut to Miliband who did his best student politics look of disgust - he protested a little too much - aka over acted - in my opinion.
Can't say anything about Brown's budget yet, as we have all learned to ignore what he says and pay attention to what he has actually done. Accept to say he's still up to his old tricks of announcing things many years of - but wanting the credit for them now.
Full reaction when the media accountants and economists have had proper time to spot where the money's coming from (aka who gets screwed. )
It's David Miliband here - Labour's environment secretary.[ In case you've no idea who I am - and need to vote for me soon]
I wanted to drop you [a hint] a line about the draft bill on climate change and Government's climate change strategy that Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and I published yesterday [ see were all on the same level - Tony before Gordon also]. Climate change is one of the biggest issues today and it needs our values of internationalism and belief in social justice.
The debate on climate change has shifted from whether we need to act to how much we need to do by when [eh - no it hasn't David - perhaps you should have worked harder at School then you won't just have a 'D' in A Levels physics to make these sort is mistakes with ], and the economic implications of doing so. The time is therefore right for the introduction of a strong legal framework in the UK for tackling climate change. The draft Climate Change Bill is the first of its kind for any country[ MiaS will give credit where credit is due - to David Cameron here ].
The Government has shown consistent leadership in the field of climate change by setting bold targets and pursuing ambitious policies [but delivering raising CO2 emmissions - not that I mind that much] . We are committed to securing a strong multilateral agreement beyond 2012, and within the EU, we are pushing hard for ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, and to move to a low-carbon economy over time. At home, we have already shown progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and are set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly double our Kyoto target.
In summary the Bill: · makes challenging carbon dioxide reductions targets for 2020 and 2050 legally binding;[ When we will all be enjoying our generous state funded pensions and won't be responsible for the mess that results from these decisions.] · introduces a system of 'carbon budgeting' capping emissions over five-year periods; · creates a new independent body to advise on the setting of carbon budgets and to report on Government progress;[ Yes - the climate needs more committees !] · contains enabling powers to make future policies to control emissions quicker and easier to introduce; and · introduces a new system of Government reporting to Parliament including on climate change adaptation policies. [ MiaS predicts this will never last more than 2 years ]
[And gets me a last chance to address all of you potential party voters members before the leadership election.]
Taken together these measures create a coherent framework that [I get a higher profile] will ensure we achieve reductions in emissions [well no they won't] whilst maintaining a strong and growing economy and high levels of social welfare [losing jobs and ruining the economy helps here how ? And don't bother with that leading the low carbon economy bullshit stuff - that's just "The White Heat of TEchnology" rebranded green. It was dishonest then - its a down right lie now ].
Yours truly, [Vote for !]
David Miliband Environment Secretary
ps if you'd like to ask me a question about the Climate Change Bill click here>>.I'll be answering your questions via podcast interview on 20 March so make sure you visit labour.org.uk/labourspodcast to hear my response. [Sorry links removed to avoid NuLabour tracking]
A Conservative since 1973 when I learnt that socialism makes the lights go out. An independent since 2011. Signed up to UKIP 2012 and helped win our freedom in 2016.
2020 moved to The Heritage Party to reverse the cultural marxist destruction of our society.
"We used to think that you could spend your way out of a recession and increase employment by cutting taxes and boosting government spending. I tell you in all candour that that option no longer exists." James Callaghan
“The trouble with theoretical economists is that they don't understand that when you have a deficit, you can only finance it by borrowing, and you've got to persuade people that it's worth lending money to you and that they'll get their money back... there's no way of escaping it.” Dennis Healey during the 1976 Stirling Crisis.
"Lenin is said to have declared that the best way to destroy the Capitalist System was to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens ... Lenin was certainly right. There is no subtler, no surer means of over-turning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction, and does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose."
John Maynard Keynes, 1920.
"To preserve [the people's] independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude."
Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States of America,1801-1809.
Inflation is taxation without legislation ..
Milton Friedman
