Bankers Say Sorry So What's The Big Deal?

They came, they got grilled, they mumbled the S-word through clenched teeth, in a pointless PR exercise in double standards, wallowing in self-pity and remorse. Greedy bankers have been exposed as a bunch of greedy bankers. It's all a bit too little to late.  

The BBC's Common Purpose business guru, Robert Peston and political pundit, Nick Robinson, are both on hand to explain it all to the nation. The media and politicians are having a field day, forcing the former bankers onto their knees in a day of shame.

Sure it's good to watch the bankers get a roasting, though it's a pity Vince Cable's guillotine was meant as a joke.  

Former RBS bosses Sir Fred Goodwin and Sir Tom McKillop, closely followed by Andy Hornby and Lord Stevenson of HBOS - all bar one rewarded with a K or a P thanks to their pals in government. 

Now it seems all quite happy to face the music, as the banks play musical chairs while the country slides into a deep downturn, recession,  depression depending on who you want to believe.

It seems the government is taking its own blame culture just a tad too far, treating the ex-bankers like naughty children. Shame on you, a slap on the wrists, say your sorry. That's it. After a spell on the naughty step, off they sail into the wild blue yonder with their fancy titles and a wad of pocket money. 

How they must be laughing all the way to their banks. A quick apology to Parliament and a lesson in damage limitation for the next time someone screws up big time. 

It all must serve a purpose, apart from watching them squirm but the Orange Party cannot think what. Everyone knows the lessons to be learnt. It's called greed. 

The charade is certainly not for ordinary folk who're scared stiff about losing their jobs and making ends meet while the debt-fuelled boom takes its toll on every aspect of their lives. 

Meanwhile two homes secretary, Jacqui Smith, is doing the rounds of the media, wriggling around her homes scam using the pathetic excuse that she's done nothing wrong and was only following the rules. Isn't that just the same old corrupt excuse the bankers have been making? 

And back in the other big boy's world, Brown is trying to upstage Cameron as the new Mr Angry. Cameron is blaming borrowing Brown for the economic mess and quite right too but the Tories were not exactly shouting warning from the rooftops during those bloomin' booming years. 

Now if this was Brown and his bunch of economic morons who were being brought to book and made to apologise to the nation, people would sit up and take notice. 

But it's not. It's this month's Mr Nasties, the bankers, who're in the firing line. Not the home secretary, not the deluded prime minister, not the rest of the parliamentary elite who can hide behind the rules when it suits them and milk the system and bleed the nation for all it's worth.

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Brown Says The D-Word And Says It All

Deluded Brown let slip the D-word during PMQs, leaving voters again bothered and bewildered but not bewitched, highlighting the confused state of the State and the state of his mind. Iconic images of strikers, bankrupt Britain and soon more troops for Afghanistan. Welcome to the crazy world of Gordon Brown, cross-over politics and the rise of economic nationalism. 

Telling MPs: "We should agree as a world on a monetary and fiscal stimulus that will take the world out of r... depression ...",  the saviour of the world and banks said it all. How depressing for him and the country.

For so long Downing Street in collusion with the BBC has tried to play down the looming recession, clinging onto a soft landing of the downturn to mask incompetence. Now the world is latching onto Brown's Depression, thanks to US site Drudge featuring the Times take on the 'slip'.

The Orange Party is heartily sick of the silliness of this spinning strategy, as the recession turns into a full blown depression. Brown has dug a deep hole and now he's fallen in it. Trying to sprinkle a bit of fairy dust on a deepening problem for fear of panic only made matters worse. 

Strikes over foreign workers are now being deliberately played down as just another 'industrial dispute' with talks of a "breakthrough" and "calling it off", to take off the heat. As if it was that simple. 

At the heart is the age old issue that in times of hardship, what may be good for the country in the long term isn't necessarily good for people now, struggling with debt, scared about their jobs and how to make ends meet. 

Economic nationalism is rising, as highlighted today by David Cox, while the government buries its head in the sand, hoping it will all go away. It won't. Brown and the gang are living in the past with ideas suited only to the failed and false 'boom' years, hopelessly out of date and out of touch with the fears and anxieties of ordinary people. 

When times are tough, it's human nature to circle the wagons, man the barricades, protect yourself and no fine words about 'for the good of the country' will help. 

It's throwing left, right and pseudo liberals into a tizz. Free trade for goods across national boundaries is a good thing for the economy and the country. But ignoring the realistic fears of people worried about their jobs, struggling with debt, is a bad thing. 

The government is on a high-horse urging voters to shun protectionism and avoid a US-style Great Depression but it's the intensity of the argument which is disturbing, performed with an almost fanatical religious zeal.

The only way to prevent protectionism is to lessen the pain and hardship, so it will triumph over the vested interests of individuals. There's no evidence of that in the government's misguided and confusing rhetoric. 

Whatever the outcome of the 'jobs for British workers' dispute, the fine balance between government and people has been crossed. It will flare up again in another time and another place.

Fighting the corner is Brown's unelected deputy, Mandleson, from the safe sanctity of the House of Lords. Waving that flag of anti-protectionism and stoking the fires of anger, he's already backed the bosses and now trying to play the xenophobia and racism card. 

That pale pink hankie is like a red rag to a bull for backbench Labour MPs and workers on the picket lines, thankfully swiftly put down by Labour backbencher, Jon Cruddas and angry workers.

Traditional political divides are all over the place and no more so than in the confused and double standards of a once "Labour Party" now left with pseudo-liberal left-overs from a bygone age. 

Jamie Oliver's messianic and highly laudable food campaign to "Bring Home the Bacon" throws it into perspective. Supporting UK pig farmers and condemning vile EU pig rearing practices for profit is a good thing. But buying British bacon as a cure all, er, where does that fit in the weird world of protectionism? 

The current mess will not magically go away with the odd bail-out, debt guarantees and printing money. It's impossible to run up a budget deficit big enough to keep all the people in work. 

Over in Obamaland, the great Messiah is having to back track over his 'Buy American" clause in the trillion dollar bail-out rescue package because it smacks of that dreaded word 'protectionism'. 

Yet the clause was inserted deliberately by his own Democrat Party as they used the rescue to bundle up and push through all Democrat pet policies in one fell swoop. The BBC got its knickers in a twist over that one - but hey there's a get out clause. Apparently he was showing his "sensitive side". 

Meanwhile MoD spinners are hard at work as round the corner is a massive US troop surge for Obama's war and Brown set to be the new president's poodle in the bloody, hopeless and unwinnable war in Afghanistan.  

The spinners will have a hard job convincing voters. How strange that Bush, Blair, Iraq and invisible WMDS = Bad Thing. Now Obama, Brown, Afghanistan, invisible Taliban = Good Thing? 

The depression recession has been a wake up call for the left, right and pseudo liberals, all trying to come up with solutions. 

As the arguments rage, it's  difficult to make sense of a crazy, mixed up political and economic world. But the occasional political polemic sure as hell helps. 

Picture: Private Eye front cover,  Issue 1229 

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Recession Will Turn To Depression

The doom and gloom of recession is finally on us but it's time to move onwards and downwards. It won't be long before the recession turns into a deep Depression and then we'll really have something to worry about. Time to dust ourselves down, pick ourselves up and start all over again - with a new government.

The Orange Party has never bought into this recession definition - two or more quarters of reduced GDP. When you are up against statistics, it's so easy to sprinkle a little bit of financial fairy dust around to stave off the day of reckoning. 

A recession is easy to spot. The country’s economy enters a period of negative growth, real income declines, unemployment rises and industrial production wavers. Sounds familiar? It should. It's been happening for ages, probably since last April. 

Brown's BBC has been a bit too keen over the months to ram a downturn down our throats. And when those two get together, you can smell a rat. 

So today we finally got used to the R-word and the BBC finally changed its downturn logo and used 'UK recession' - something ITV News has been running with for weeks. 

The BBC is trying its best at political bias with a sycophantic interview with Brown on the Today programme and BBC on-line "news" doing its best to avoid political balance with hardly a Vince or Dave to be seen. 

What next for the spinners to try to wriggle out of? They've already got their eye on the D-Word, Depression, which strikes fear into the heart of the government. That will have to be handled with kid gloves. 

So for a  goverment so beloved of its tick box culture, here's a handy check box for a Depression: 

Abnormal increases in unemployment, restriction of credit, shrinking output and investment, numerous bankruptcies, reduced amounts of trade and commerce, highly volatile currency devaluations, price deflation, people forced to dispose of tangible assets to fund every day living, declining business activities, falling prices, public fear and panic, despair and despondency.

And all that too sounds eerily familiar. We're heading for a Depression of gigantic proportions.

The most infamous Depression was the Great Depression, which began in the US in the 1930s after years of a debt-fuelled boom. Recovery took decades.   

Then the public's spirits were lifted by the stars of the silverscreen and feel-good musical movies. Fred and Ginger tried to pick everyone up. Obama cribbed Dorothy Fields' lyrics for his inauguration speech:

Nothing's impossible, I have found,


For when my chin is on the ground,


I pick myself up, dust myself off,


Start all over again.

Don't lose your confidence if you slip,


Be grateful for a pleasant trip,


And pick yourself up, dust yourself off,


Start all over again.

The best cure for recession depression is a breath of fresh air, a change of scenery and a large dose of confidence. Or in this case, a change in government, which the country can confidently unite behind, to start to get us out of this mess. 

If there was ever a time for a general election, to dust ourselves down and start all over again, then this is it.

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BBC Lifts Brown's Recession Spirits

The BBC is doing its bit to lift Brown's recession depression, kicking off with a toadying Today interview by one of New Labour's luvvies. 

At the stoke of midnight, Brown's downturn turned into a recession pumpkin, so the deluded prime minister gave a party political broadcast, aided and abetted by the Beeb's Evan Davis.

The recession is finally official as GDP fell by 1.5% in the last three months of 2008 after a 0.6% drop in the previous quarter. The biggest quarter-on-quarter decline since 1980.

A time for tough questioning one would have thought. Instead, with no signs of John Humphreys, Brown and the BBC's former economics editor cuddled up for a cosy early morning chat, leaving many to choke on their cornflakes.  

In a well-staged interview, Davis had the gall to say: "I don't want to blame you for these problems ... I am not going to blame you..."

And, reading from his Downing Street briefing paper, Davis continued : "A lot of people credited you with the recovery plan - I think that needs to be recognised - around the world..."

The recession figures were much worse than forecast. Analysts had been expecting a 1.2% decline in GDP which would be the worst performance since the third quarter of 1990 but the fall in GDP was much steeper.

Mistakes? Did Brown have a few? Well if he did they were too few to mention - he blamed it all on the banks:

"But what we didn't see - and nobody saw - was the possibility of complete market failure, that markets seized up across the world".

So that's it then. Blame it on the banks, blame it on global warming, blame it on everything and everybody except the fact that Brown has presided over the UK economy for the last twelve years. One would have thought he could have seen it coming? 

Any growth and the government gets the credit. Recession? That's down to everybody else. Boom and bust? That dear, mere morals was a different sort of boom and bust.

In a week dominated by bad economic news with ministers scrabbling around vainly searching for elusive green shoots, yesterday the Orange Party warned that with a bit of financial fairy dust, the UK has only narrowly avoided the technical recession definition. Now  they cannot continue to bury their heads in the sand.

In Downing Street it's spun as confidence boosting. In the real world it's called vote boosting and for the BBC that should mean political balance. 

But in all the doom and gloom there is some good news. The BBC has been forced to finally removed its cute little downturn logo and replace it with a UK recession (above).

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Get Ready For The R-Word

At the stoke of midnight, the 'downturn' so beloved of Brown and his BBC turns into a pumpkin and a nightmare recession. With a bit of financial fairy dust, the country has narrowly avoided recession depression. Now they can't bury their heads in the sand.

It's not as if the recession isn't already with us. The US and Germany are already in recession. Here the official name has been spun around for "technical reasons" and used by some and not by others - as if the mere mention of the word 'recession' will send down a plague of locusts and frogs.

The public are big enough to take it. Indeed most folk would welcome someone who gave it to them straight. We can only all pull together when everyone knows which direction and just how hard to pull.

So why be so coy? The answer lies in borrowing Brown's dogged determination not to own up to anything and that includes his part in creating a debt culture and getting us into the economic mess in the first place.

To admit recession is to admit failure, as the country officially slides into its first recession since 1991.

Downing Street in collusion with the BBC in dreaming up the downturn, would have us believe talking down the economic crisis would undermine confidence. International investors could pull the plug on lending. So a 'downturn' is a soft landing.

But the international money-men have a bank of plasma screens all showing the state of financial markets around the world, including this from Bloomberg on Wednesday:

"Britain had a 14.9 billion-pound ($20.5 billion) budget deficit in December, the second highest for any month since records began in 1993, as the deepening recession pummelled tax receipts and jobless claims climbed."

At home it's spun as confidence boosting - or rather vote boosting - from a prime minister and his deputy Mandleson who live and breath the election.

Cameron in a speech today hit the nail on the head: 'This recession doesn't vindicate big government; it hammers the final nail in its coffin."

The recession is due to be confirmed tomorrow when output figures for the fourth quarter of 2008 are released. A 'technical' recession is defined by two successive quarters of negative output, as anyone with an Oxford First in economics will tell you.

The contraction in the UK economy for the final three months of the year follows a 0.6% decline in GDP for the third quarter.

Some economists are forecasting a 1.2% decline in GDP which would be the worst performance since the third quarter of 1990, some much steeper.

The week has been dominated by bad economic news. Inflation as measured by the government's Consumer Prices Index (CPI) down again to 2.6% in December, leading to further fears over deflation.

Unemployment as measured by government's benefit claims in November was 1.92 million, highest since New Labour took power in 1997.

This week has left ministers scrabbling around looking in vain for elusive green shoots.

Now presumably the BBC will have to scrap its downturn logo and replace it with ... "UK Recession". That's something ITV news has been running with for weeks.

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Ministers Mull More Confidence Cons

Ministers are softening up voters with confidence-boosting con tricks, ahead of more signs of bad times to come. As a deluded Brown wanders around with the economy foundering around his ears, ministers are crawling out of the woodwork with positive spin.

Mandy's side-kick baroness business eats shoots and leaves after her ludicrous statement that she could see some "green shoots of economic recovery", prompting many to ask what is this woman on? 

Now caravan-loving housing minister, Margaret Bucket, has told the Sunday Times she sees signs of an "upturn in the property market". What a wag. That must have had the house builders rolling around in suicidal mirth. Apparently her optimism centres on a few more wannabe house buyers registering interest with estate agents. 

Bucket certainly wasn't thinking of mobile homes, where the UK's Hull-based UK caravan manufacturing industry faces extinction.

What next? Gloomy jobless figures are out this week (Wednesday). So will employment ministers, with a warped sense of humour, tell voters there are signs unemployment is levelling off - at a staggering three million? 

Brown certainly needs some help. Trying to micro-mange government and jetting-off saving the world is taking its toll. His hapless band of ministers are more than happy to join him as they lose touch with reality and face losing their seats.

The 'Brown bounce' has finally been blown out of the water with the latest poll giving the Tories a 13 point lead. Political strategists will turn to an early election before the government slides into oblivion. 

This week sees a string of government measures to try to get the economy moving, with reports of yet another bank bail-out, saddling voters with more debt. And that can only be sold to voters if there are signs the previous failed measures are working. 

But more importantly, the deep recession is due to be confirmed with output figures due out this week (Friday). At last the BBC will have to hang up its downturn logo and admit defeat. 

Just at it was all starting to get hunky dory, at the stoke of midnight the cute little downturn, so beloved of Brown's BBC, will turn into a full blown recession pumpkin. And that wouldn't do.

The BBC's downturn decision came in for a lot of flack at the time, with the BBC coming up with this lame and patronising excuse:

"We may well be in a recession but we won't get any official confirmation of that for a while yet. A recession is two quarters of negative growth and as soon as we're in one you'll hear it from us."

The Orange Party can't wait. This down-sized downturn turned into a turndown and that turned everyone off. What people do want to know, however, is what happened to their £37 billion pounds, in the first round of the bank bail-out? 

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Set For A Barrow Full Of Banknotes

With the Bank of England slashing interest rates to an historic low, speculation is rife the government will print money to get it off the hook. Brown and his hapless chancellor are losing control of the country's finances and their senses. 

Floundering in economic cloud cuckoo land, their only way out is a barrow full of banknotes. 

The Bank of England's cut to 1.5% is a welcome last-ditch bid to kick start the economy. The Orange Party has predicted before it may well have to come down to zero percent. But with that cut comes the fear of deflation. Printing wads of bank notes is a short-sighted and short-term way to reflate but will help get the government off the hook until after the general election. 

Where the US leads, sadly the UK follows and printing money is exactly the option now being considered by Obama's incoming administration, as faced with a trillion dollar debt, attempts are being made to fool some of the people some of the time. 

It's clear the government hasn't a cat in hell's chance of funding its ridiculous borrowing binge but printing money is fraught with long-term dangers.

Anyone who takes a scant look at economic history can see that. Japan tried and failed. Mugabe prints worthless banknotes. Debt ridden Latin-American countries have become a laughing stock, as they tried the same trick. Germany tried it in the Twenties, leading to rampant inflation, the Nazi Party and people needing wheelbarrows to carry the cash to buy a loaf of bread. 

Brown and Darling have steadfastly buried their heads in the sand, refusing to shoulder any blame for the current economic disaster. The Orange Party has warned time and again the government is in denial about the scale of the economic crisis as it colludes with the BBC to label the recession a 'downturn', in the vain hope one day it will all go away. It won't and the government is fast running out of options.

Bailing out the banks with £37 billion of taxpayers' cash has failed. Now the banks want more money pumped in. Unemployment looks set to rise well beyond three million. Even using the government's smoke and mirrors way of fiddling with off balance sheet accounting, national debt has risen far more than the 44% of GDP, as Brown was forced to rip up his fiscal rules.

For Brown and the government, the solution is even more reckless, short-term fixes. But the political prognosis doesn't look good. 

The Tories are having a hard time getting clear and simple economic messages of thrift and good housekeeping across, as Brown spin goes into overdrive. For the LibDems, Vince Cable, seems to be getting perilously close to a deal with the government, which the Orange Party has previously predicted could happen. 

Slashing interest rates and printing more money is a quick fix which would release a flood of extra cash but there's no guarantee that would find its way through to businesses and families as people tighten their belts and hang on to any cash to pay off debts and hold off for better High Street deals.

There are realistic ways out of the recession, apart from massive government borrowing and reckless spending, if only the government and the BBC would have the guts to admit we are in one. 

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3% Isn't Enough For Deep Recession

Slashing interest rates to 3% is a desperate measure for desperate times. But it won't go far enough to stave off a deepening recession. The Bank of England has seen sense but it could be too little too late. 

Both the government and the BBC made a big mistake by flagging up the economic crisis as a cosy little global "downturn". 

That gave people a false sense of security and sent a confusing message when everyone, except the Bank of England, could see the economy was falling around their ears. 

But spinning that soft line, helped to deflect criticism away from Brown's 'boom and bust' and the guy who caused the economic mess in the first place. 

Now the stark truth has dawned and at last the Bank of England has seen some sense. It is not inflation that's the economic bogy man for the moment - it's that recession where everything grinds to a halt. 

The message sent out today by the Bank of England was loud and clear but in the past it's been confusing. At least now there's a clear signal to cut the rate to its lowest since the 1950s. 

But even a one and a half a percent cut won't do the trick. The downturn/recession is starting to bite hard. A much deeper rate cut may be needed and, if coupled with properly funded tax cuts, that may give people and the country the break they need.

Reluctant banks will have to be forced to pass on the rate to existing home owners, credit card and loan customers. Those looking for a mortgage or credit still have to find someone willing to lend the money and take on the risk. 

The key to economic survival is UK manufacturing. But that has been decimated by the government over the past decade as it saw the future in a now discredited financial services industry based on the City. 

Cutting the interest rate will give a much needed boost to manufacturing and small businesses. But only if rates come down and GDP increases in tandem, will the economy start to speed up. This rate cut will take an age to work through, while GDP just gets worse.

With any cut in interest rate there's a big downside. In the past, it's meant easy money and a borrowing boom, but now people are keeping their belts tightened. Any sign of rising inflation has to be tackled immediately. Savers will be hit. A lower rate means it's more expensive to buy goods and services from abroad. 

The whole of Brown and New Labour's economic model has been based on buying in cheap goods and services from such places as China and the Far East, helping create the mythical boom years and the feel-good factor. 

Just how far interest rates will have to drop is a sure sign of just how deep and long lasting the recession is going to be. 

If banks can be given a huge bail-out why not use some of that borrowed cash for tax cuts and breaks to help the pocket. Just how any tax cut is funded is the billion dollar question.

It will take more than this one and a half percent cut to get things really moving again.

Some economists believe it will have to go much, much further to kick start the domestic economy. The days of zero interest rates may not be too far ahead.

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Are You Downturner Or Recessionist?

A civil war of words between Downturners and Recessionists is looming, as Brown and his government try to get their economic message across. That darn word "downturn" is turning up again, as part of the government propaganda. 

The government is using its state broadcasting arm, the BBC, to deliver the biased message but no one is fooled by Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

The whole of the country knows and feels we're on the brink of a recession, but the cosy use of the word 'downturn' has a reassuring ring about it. 

Using 'downturn' is rather strange and surreal. No one apart from Brown, the BBC, and the New Labour lackeys are using the word. Political journalists and commentators, for sure, but only to take the p*ss. 

On Friday, the BBC devoted a whole day's news coverage to what they euphemistically called the "downturn". BBC editors were forced to defend their choice of the word with this priceless piece of condescension over recession: "as soon as we're in one, you'll hear from us."

The Orange Party could smell a rat. The BBC does not just come out with a word "downturn" without first checking with its political masters - and its business editor, Robert Peston. 

And so it was. On Sunday, full page newspaper adverts from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) appeared and sure enough that word 'downturn' popped up. 

Using words like "in these times of economic downturn" and "even in these difficult times", the advert read like a piece of Brownspeak. 

The ad was signed off by the usual suspects of government lackeys and hangers on, including the chairmen of BT and M&S and of course New Labour's favourite trade unionist, Brendan Barber of the TUC.

Today all was revealed. In a startling piece of party political broadcasting ahead of the Glenrothes by-election, the BBC reports a speech by Brown to business leaders in which he tried to justify his reckless borrowing. 

And yes, there it is. That darn word 'downturn'. In the report introduction, as a Brown quote, in a stumbling and stuttering droning video and a party political broadcast.

According to the BBC: "Gordon Brown has defended his plans to increase government borrowing ... to tackle the economic downturn."

And the great man is quoted: "The very moment in an economic downturn ... is no time to slow down welfare reform." 

Brown and the government are staking their reputation and political futures on the outcome of the Glentrothes by-election and the prime minister is taking an active but not unprecedented part in the campaigning. 

So, just to remind voters in Scotland, the BBC's supposedly economic report still manages to slip in a party political broadcast: 

"Over the weekend, Mr Brown paid a brief visit to Glenrothes in Scotland as part of a by-election campaign and made predictions food and fuel bills would begin to come down next year."

So it will be interesting to see who else drops the word "downturn" into the conversation. 

Downturner or Recessionist? You pays your money and takes your choice. 

The Orange Party has a word of its own to describe the effects of Brown's economic mess - Disaster.

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