Brown Should Face Death With Dignity

Watching Brown and the sad spectacle that used to be called the Labour Party conference, smacks of the Wizard of Oz. A horse by any other colour is still a horse. Someone should humanely put them out of their misery. All Brown and his ministers can do is look for a brain, urge delegates not to lose heart and hold their nerve. 

Prescott was doing what he has been doing for years, trying to rally the troops. Only no one was listening to his tired, old rant. Campbell tried not to sound like a bully and gave a few empty words to camera, cruelly captioned as the "former spin doctor" by Channel 4 News. 

Ministers try to sound fresh but just regurgitate the spin and hype set out for them in craftily worded press releases. 

Miliband, in his cliché ridden leader-in-waiting speech, tried to appear a bit more Brown but came across as a Blair schoolboy.

Doomsday Darling repeated the economic warning of hard times ahead and then proceeded to do what the government has always done and borrow itself out of trouble. 

The side-show of a Blairite leadership challenge is just that - a side-show.

The government's overarching strategy is to cling on to power until the bitter end. Any successful challenger would have to call an election sooner rather than later and face a wipe out. So the strategy is to limp along for the next 18 months. 

Even the grandee of the Labour Party, Tony Benn, has given up on conference and taken his bat home. Writing in the Sunday Times, Benn hit the nail on the head. "It’s Labour’s policies that the voters don’t like." Now that's from a guy who knows a thing or two about Labour Party politics!

Brown made his appearance on Sunday, wearing what at first appeared to be a hair shirt, admitting he'd made a few mistakes and telling the BBC "he will do better". But the wizard in sackcloth and ashes soon turned out to be the same bloke behind the curtain. 

Brown tried to play the sympathy card. He was a "pretty ordinary guy". Only the last person to try that on with a "pretty straight sort of guy" defence was Blair, after being exposed in the Bernie Ecclestone scandal - and that 'pretty straight guy' is now wanted for war crimes. 

Then, as always, Brown went and spoilt it all by saying something stupid and droning on about everything being the fault of global this and that and again he's just "getting on with the job". 

Brown must realise that voters have seen through the light touch decade and the smoke and mirrors of the economic mess which is actually his fault.

Sun political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, echoed the views made here on Friday, that it is Brown who should shoulder the blame for the economic mess. 

Unlike here though, Kavanagh doesn't call for Brown to face death with dignity - because in his view, he is already dead. 

"They are ready to pretend the corpse in Labour’s shop window is still alive and kicking. Gordon is already a dead man walking. The trouble is that, as Chancellor, Gordon ran the economy in much the same way as the bosses of troubled companies such as HBOS and Northern Rock. While preaching “prudence”, he doubled spending and borrowed like there was no tomorrow. Mr Brown blames America for the global economic crisis. But none of this came out of a clear blue sky." 

So it will be a "keynote" speech full of flats in Manchester later today, because no one is really coming to his Party.

It is a just a huge trade fair, as Benn put it. Sucking up to anyone who may wield a bit of power and influence. And a few speeches from the thick skinned, selfish and arrogant government ministers and hangers on. 

The trade union movement showed some teeth at the TUC conference, only to be put in its place by the New Labour bosses firmly entrenched in the movement. 

The same is happening at conference, packed with a grace and favour New Labour mob and a craftily rewritten Blair Rule Book which will stifle any debate on any issue of importance. 

So where is the debate on whether we should be wasting billions of pounds on a pointless and unwinable war in Afghanistan? When exactly will the troops be pulled out of Iraq? Where is the policy stand on Trident? 

Where is any debate on the merits of bringing some strategic utilities and services into public ownership for the public good? And where is the demand for a windfall tax on the greed energy companies?

These were thrown out at the same time as Walter Wolfgang was manhandled out of the 2005 conference by New Labour's thugs, for daring to utter the word "rubbish". These people have short memories. 

Those debates centring on true Labour values are still going on but have been forced out into the cold in the dozens of fringe meetings surrounding the main conference.

What is needed from a prime minister and leader of the dying Labour Party, is strong leadership and real policies to tackle the rising inflation, creeping unemployment and the spiral of the debt culture. 

Brown cannot hope to raise the spirits in Manchester today. Deep depression is now deep-rooted. Even electric shock treatment would just blow a fuse.

If Brown only had a heart, a brain, some nerve and went with honour, he could go the way of the tin man, straw man and lion and return home with some dignity. 

And the irony is that if Brown did have the courage to own up to fact that the current mess is of his own making and do the honourable thing and call a snap general election to let the people decide - his popularity would probably soar.

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Brown Must Shoulder Blame For Economy Mess

The distaste for the lies, spin and deceit of the New Labour government, particularly over its smoke and mirrors handling of the economy and who is to blame for the current financial mess, has been highlighted here on a number of occasions. We are living in economic cloud cuckoo land.

Time and again Brown and the cabinet, who just toe the line, hide behind the only excuse they have and blame the global economy for all our ills. 

That neatly side-steps the reasons why we've got in the mess in the first place but no-one is fooled. 

What exactly was 'global' about Northern Rock or HBOS? The only global factor here was when the borrowing and lending model built on greed and fat profits came unstuck, because the global markets refused to prop them up and lend them any more cash.

It's all part of a deeper malaise created by the government's 'light touch' and the spin and hype over a 'strong' economy. 

As observed before, this light-touch has created a soft-touch Britain. This has left the fat cats in the City getting richer and the poor getting poorer.

Fear has gripped the financial markets in a selling frenzy, after years of been driven by greed and fat profits. But behind the scenes, it has been Brown, presiding first as chancellor and the government with its light-touch over any kind of regulation, which has caused the problem.

Jeff Randall in today's Daily Telegraph puts it well:

"There’s no contrition, no admission of fallibility, no recognition of blunders – and most certainly no apology. This isn’t clever. It insults the electorate’s intelligence and helps explain why, like AIG, he’s doomed."

To talk about the current economic mess, as if it suddenly popped up out of nowhere, is quite unbelievable. For more than ten years, the goverment has presided over a 'light touch' economy with little will or effort at regulation and that is at the centre of why the government is to blame. 

There has simply been no regulation of the money lenders. But it kept the crooks and the spivs in the City very happy. 

Richard Brooks, writing in The First Post, is much more insightful. He charts the reason for this lack of regulation from the late 1990s and in particular the useless and toothless Financial Services Authority (FSA). Brooks concludes:

"Brown’s light touch turned into a decade of leaving ever more avaricious bankers to their own devices."

There's talk now from Brown and the government of tougher regulation. No one, particularly the voters, are taken in by this. 

Once again with Brown, it is too little too late and that seems to be the watchword of the government. Too late shutting the stable door now, old pal, the horse has well and truly bolted. 

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MRSA Spin Kicks Off Labour Conference Hype

The Labour Party conference hasn't begun but the spinning and hype has. Today's offering is a pathetic attempt to cover Brown's and health secretary, Alan Johnson's back, over MRSA. 

The announcement that hospitals are getting to grips with MRSA is designed to get them of the hook, after the disasterous £50m gimmick of the hospital 'deep clean' that never was trumpeted at the beginning of the year. 

Brown has got in on the act saying what a "tremendous achievement" it all is.

In the world of hospital targets, nothing is what it seems. The managers have learnt how to play the game. Just move the goalposts a bit and everything looks good. Introduce a few gimmicks and brush it under the bed.

Of course the overall rate has fallen - the way MRSA is reported has been fiddled with, to make it look better than it really is. 

And even the positive spin could not hide the fact that in England, from April to June 2008 there were 836 cases reported. Why start at April? Why not February or March? Or were the reported cases too bad to be included.

And what hospital really wants to admit that its wards are still filthy and people are more ill when they leave hospital than when they go in? 

Not surprisingly, the figure announced are just for MRSA. They don't include C.difficile. Those figures won't be out until - after the Party conference. 

Where's the routine screening for everyone, before they are admitted on to a ward? Where's the bank of single-bed isolation rooms, for anyone suspected of carrying the bugs? Where is the army of dedicated non-contract cleaners, on a decent wage, needed to keep this in check? 

Hospital staff are trying to tackle an embedded problem with few resources and only hard work and dedication. 

Instead we just get a few hospital managers massaging the figures because they're worried about their jobs. And a government happy to go along with it.

Expect more of this spin in the days ahead and treat it all with a pinch of salt.

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Windbag Clegg Puts Wind Up LibDems

It was all going so well for Blair-boy Clegg, a-huffin' and a-puffin' around a stage that was clearly too big for him, wowing the crowds with talk of 'this is not a Tory tax cut', all without notes and only huge teleprompters to help him. He'd got them eating out of his hands. Then he went and spoilt it by delivering the final rousing rallying cry. 

"I can't tell you every step on the road... but I can tell you where we're headed - government," he bellowed.

You could smell the fear as the audience descended into a deathly hush and grown men and women turned pale and looked visibly shaken.

Government? That's not what we do. All those decisions. That's not what we're here for. We are an issues party. We just protest. Government - our MPs will be lucky to keep their seats. We're going to need more than Vincent Cable if we are going to pull off that one. 

It's a far cry from the rallying call by David Steel, who after a deal with the SDP could tell delegates at the Liberal Assembly to "go back to your constituencies and prepare for government." He had something to shout about.

With the current track record in elections, Clegg and the LibDems are just not in the same league. 

Clegg's speech should be seen for what it is - just one unpopular man's posturing to stave of any grumbles of another change in leadership. 

So if you are one of the lucky 250,000 who get an automated cold call from Clegg, ask him just which talent he plans to put in his government, what hard realistic policies they have and what they are actually going to do, when they get there.

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Psst Brown, Wanna Buy An Airport?

Without so much as a by-your-leave, Gatwick's Spanish owners put a For Sale sign up at the airport. It's now going to the highest bidder. 

The crafty move by Ferrovial will side-step competition fears from the competition commission. 

A major part of the country's infrastructure has just been put up for sale, with no one even bothering to look at what this means for passengers or the UK airport industry and no comment from government.

Businesses are sold off to foreign firms who raise billions on the global money market to finance the deal, to make a fast profit and then the government can wash their hands of them.

Airports should not be something that can be sold and resold like a used car. No one cares about passengers or the airport workers - it's all driven by profit with a supermarket pack 'em in and pile 'em high philosophy. 

But airports are not like supermarkets - the more you pack 'em in and run to very tight schedules, the more the Heathrow effect kicks in, where even the slightest disruption can have a chaotic knock-on effect down the line. 

The competition commission was right to call for the break up of BAA's monopoly. But how was this one company allowed to own so many airports in the first place? 

Gatwick is one of seven owned by the Spanish company, going by the cosy sounding name of the British Airports Authority (BAA). But the money-spinning Heathrow, with its huge retail revenue and lucrative transatlantic business traffic, apparently is not up for grabs.

Gatwick is clearly one of the easiest ones to off-load, without a thought for "putting the needs of customers first".

Now, the hope is another foreign firm will take it over, borrowing the cash from global investment banks and it will be sold on again. Only these days, no one wants to lend the money.

Airports and railways, are an integral and strategic part of the country's infrastructure and, as such, there's a case for public ownership without an eye on profits or shareholders. 

Maybe the government should 'listen to those customers' and create a not-for-profit airport model. If they can spend billions on wars and waste billions on useless IT systems, why not a few bob on an airport?  Or is that too much Labour and not enough New Labour? 

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Don't Panic, Financial Frenzy Won't Last

Fear has gripped the financial markets in a selling frenzy, after years of been driven by greed and fat profits. But at least we won't have to suffer mountains of junk mail, tacky leaflets and TV ads. 

Cheap loans, dodgy insurance and ridiculously low-interest mortgages made us feel good for a couple of months, until the rot set in and we worried how to pay for it all. 

Calm down dear, it's only a commercial re-adjustment. Political Profits of Doom have a vested interest in talking up a crisis for political advantage. 

Borrowing on the global market, which got out of hand, will be reigned in. Debt, wrapped up in unfathomable packages, will be controlled. Regulation will be the new buzzword.

Reassuringly,  the financial markets have finally woken up to reality. For the first time, financial experts and analysts are saying what only a few years ago would never have been uttered. 

For years the banks been living off easy credit, borrowing ultimately from the Chinese banks to get out of debt and the bubble has burst. What we are going through is a period of adjustment. Painful for some but a necessary adjustment, nonetheless. 

Lloyds TSB and its £12 billion takeover/merger with HBOS is an example of the good and the bad. Here we have a conservative bank that's weathered the storm, because it didn't expose itself to the risks of dodgy borrowing and the sub prime housing market. Unlike HBOS that got too big for its boots. 

Lloyds TSB's prudence, shunning the get rich quick route, for a more traditional economic model has paid off. The bank has been given a once in a lifetime chance without competition rules kicking in, and they've taken it.

There will be huge casualties as the market adjusts. Bank staff will suffer as the axe falls on jobs. A big merger of this sort can only happen with thousands of job loses. 

Government has a responsibility to step in to help those jobless and protect the savers. But that should be as far as it goes. Taxpayers money should not be used to prop up the greedy directors and shareholders. 


And who's to blame for this mess? Well not the poor saps who were duped into taking out ridiculous unchecked loans. And not the thousands of bank workers who'll be out of a job. Greed fuelled the market and someone would always be on the look out to make a fast buck. But in the end, it's the government which just sat back and let it all happen.

The liberal economist and author, John Kenneth Galbraith, was in no doubt who was to blame for past economic mess - government deregulation and reckless bank lending:

"Careless deregulation of giant corporations and reckless lending by banks posed great risks as well ... because financial markets would overheat, then crash, even as self-interested managers – who in truth controlled the corporations – lined their own pockets while emptying those of others."

Like history, global economics has a nasty habit of repeating itself.

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Darwin Foe Quits, Thank God

A nutty professor who thinks creationism should be taught in school science lessons has quit his job with the Royal Society, which has distanced itself from his crack-pot  views.

The reverend professor Michael Reiss, who does not have a background in either physics or chemistry, has a reputation for his creationism but faced a backlash when he made his comments as director of education for the auspicious Society.

His views were reported by the Orange Party  here on Sunday, where it was pointed out that Reiss is well-known in government for his creationist views and efforts to dumb down science teaching.

The Rev Reiss' reactionary views put him in direct conflict with well-established Darwin evolutionary science.

The Royal Society has reiterated its position that creationism had no scientific basis and should not be part of the science curriculum.

"However, if a young person raises creationism in a science class, teachers should be in a position to explain why evolution is a sound scientific theory and why creationism is not, in any way, scientific."

Professor Chris Higgins, vice-chancellor of the University of Durham, said: "There should be no room for doubt creationism is completely unsupportable as a theory, and the only reason to mention creationism in schools is to enable teachers to demonstrate why the ideas is scientific nonsense and has no basis in evidence or rational thought."

Blair's Academies have been accused in the past of indoctrinating and manipulating children by creationist evangelists and being run by his creationist pals and obscure establishment orders. 

Writing in the Spectator, Melanie Phillips believes the removal of Reiss has damaged the reputation of the Royal Society but it's difficult to see how. 

Creationist pundits like Reiss are welcome to dwell on the subject but not force their beliefs on innocent and susceptible children and not in a school science lesson. 

The loss of Reiss to the Royal Society will be no loss to science.

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Nightmare On Downing Street

As the nightmare on Wall Street unfolded, attention switched to the nightmare on Downing Street, in the whodunit, 'Who killed Gordon Brown?', with Blair's bruiser, John Reid's name now in the frame.

Cabinet ministers traipsed out of their meeting trying to pretend they were focussed on the global economy - until insider briefings made it clear a lesson in 'unity' had been delivered and everyone had been told to toe that line. 

But with the two cabinet front-runners now seemingly taking back seats in public and any backlash from a true Labour left looking unlikely, any leadership challenge is, for the moment, being put on the back burner. 

The attacks on Brown continue, the latest claiming he's more unpoplular than Neville 'pieces in our time' Chamberlain.

It seems they could hold fire until after the Labour Party conference and until the Glenrothes by-election is out of the way, giving a straight run to a general election in the spring. 

The Blairite plot has its origins in Blair's Progress group with Miliband and Johnson emerging as cabinet challengers. 

But Brown's Downing Street nightmare got worse yesterday when scottish minister David Cairns became the first government minister to quit in protest over his leadership.

Many of the Brown protestors have links with former home secretary, John Reid. His former parliamentary private secretary, Siobhain McDonagh, was the first MP to go public. She was joined by Joan Ryan, who served under Reid as a home office minister. And Cairns's first job in Westminster was as a researcher for McDonagh. Joan Ryan, another 'rebel' MP, was a junior minister under Reid at the home office.

Reid is no friend of Brown and diappeared off the political radar after Brown was crowned leader last year.

Reid has experience at the top of many government departments and would be quite capable of mounting a leadership challenge. 

He’s been careful to distance himself from the Brown government and could hold his own, for however long Labour can clings on to power. Even if he lost the next election, he can just go back to his beloved Celtic FC.

(Thanks to comics artist, Nick Miller, for his 'Judge John Reid' trying to lay down the law at the home office)

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Palin Smears Exposed In Edited Interview

Further evidence of a media biased towards Obama and obsessed with attacks on Palin, is exposed in the full transcript of an interview she gave to ABC News, which shows how it was edited to deliberately mislead viewers.

The Newsbusters blog shows how ABC News edited the transcript of its interview by Charles Gibson, to create the misleading impression that she was an "ignorant warmonger wholly out of her depth." 

Melanie Phillips, writing in the Spectator, one of the few political commentators over here who have got underneath the spin and hype of the Obama machine, observes that "the unedited transcript of that interview shows the truth to be quite different."

The Orange Party here on Sunday, posed the question why the media is so mad at McCain and Palin in particular. It seems fanatical Obama supporters in parts of the media, will stop at nothing to prop up their Chosen One. 

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