If, in these challenging times of financial instability caused by the US mortgage market collapse it is 'no time for a novice'... then it must follow that Gordon Brown believes that the next President of the US should be John McCain and not Barack Obama...
I must admit, when I heard the 'novice' line (which was admittedly a rather good one) I assumed it was a dig at David Miliband rather than David Cameron. To be able to insult both of them at the same time must have been doubly rewarding!
By all means lets have a novice, someone who isn't tarred with the unrelenting incompetence and double speak of this government.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing Brown is experienced at is lying and screwing up.
Gerontocracy in various political systems
ReplyDeleteSuch a form of leadership is common in communist states in which the length of one's service to the party is held to be the main qualification for leadership. In the time of the Eight Immortals of Communist Party of China, it was quipped, "the 80-year-olds are calling meetings of 70-year-olds to decide which 60-year-olds should retire". For instance, Party leader Mao Zedong was 82 when he died, while Deng Xiaoping retained a powerful influence until he was nearly 90.
Chairman Brown would have just loved Chinese Communism
You would expect the leader of the Labout party to have a go at insulting the other side. But it would only be rewarding to someone like Brown simultaneously to have a snide go at one of his own ministers. Compare with Harold Wilson - whatever you think of him, he could at least express an attack on his own side in a humourous way which won people over rather than alienating them still further - something well beyond Brown. 'Get your tanks off my lawn'... 'I know what's going on. I'm going on'.
ReplyDeleteLike the novice in the film (& book) the "Name of the Rose"?
ReplyDeleteGB dreams that he is as good an actor as Sean C., or as wise as the friar played by Sean in the film.
Can't be Dave who is the novice as he's been Leader for some time, and even held down a job in the real world.
ReplyDeleteWhat experience of running anything did Brown have before he became Chancellor?
It's clear from His policies as Chancellor that he didn't have a clue. Haphazard knee-jerk funds, borrowings up to the hilt and pernicious business fees galore. Fiddling with the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise has crippled a pair of departments that were pretty crap to begin with.
Worse, his grip on the taxpayer's purse strings meant he was the Emperor who got to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to everyone else's plans.
McCain is a novice when it comes to the economy- he himself has said previously that he has little knowledge of it.
ReplyDeleteHe is also fairly novice when it comes to foreign policy- he doesn't know the difference between Sunni and Sh'ia
Not saying Obama is more expieranced, but editors of Harvard law review are generally thought to have some game, or at least more than the guy who graduates 4th bottom from military school.
Didn't we all start as novices? I know I've been a novice several times during my years of employment.
ReplyDeleteGB was a novice when he became Chancellor and again when he became PM.
I'm sure you've been a novice too, Ian. Isn't it how we learn?
It was Dave, Dave AND George Iain. And it is a good line.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was thinking that too. Did he think that one out?
ReplyDeleteNewmania - This was not a joke. I remember a talk given in 1982 by Sir Terence Garvey, former Ambassador to Moscow, who explained that it was Kremlin policy when one of the Politburo jumped the twig to replace him (inevitably) with someone even older. Baffled looks were exchanged and someone asked him to explain again slowly as they were not sure they had understood. Yes, he said. That's the way it was.
ReplyDeleteWhat IS that Michael Foot up to these days? Who knows, he might ramp up Labour's poll rating to the levels of, oh, 1983?
This conference, mark my words, is the final nail in the coffin for this motley collection of Trots, commies and anarcho-syndicalists masquerading as a so-called "government".
ReplyDeleteFortunately the Tories will soon be back in power - and the Great British people will once again have their nation back.
It seems as though even Polly Toynbee can't make up her mind about his speech.
ReplyDeleteShe starts her article sounding very positive, but by the end is not sounding as positive.
If GB can't convince her, there is definitely something wrong.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/23/gordonbrown.labourconference5
Not saying Obama is more expieranced, but editors of Harvard law review are generally thought to have some game,
ReplyDeleteObama himself says he thought his position at Law Review was more "affirmative action" than anything else. Certainly he did nothing to show he deserved it either before or after.
Obama wants tax hikes and credits/rebates just like Brown. No thanks. Nobama.
Word verification: ulkinuit
inuit Must be a good omen for McCain !!
It would also mean that he should not have been Chancellor in 1997 and Blair PM. which I would go along with.
ReplyDeleteThe 'no time for a novice' was the worst bit of a despicable display of lying (I won't call it a speech).
ReplyDeleteDavid Cameron has been a party leader longer than Brown. Who's the novice?
David Cameron actually contested and won a leadership election with more than one candidate. Who's the novice?
David Cameron stamped his authority on his party. Who's the novice?
David Cameron's Conservatives not only have their own policies, they seem to supply them to Labour too. Who's the novice?
David Cameron did do one re-launch, and it really worked: He's been ahead in the polls for almost a year, latterly way way ahead. Who's the novice?
The novice is the disgusting Labour liar who's pretending to be HM The Queen's Prime Minister.
It also means that Sarah Pailin should not be VP. But then as she believes in talking snakes and thinks the world is 5000 years old, she is of questionable sanity and should be disbarred on that ground alone.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev G.... stranger than fiction eh.I was hoping that Callaghan was still alive but I `m afraid he would have to be dug up.Foot is our man
ReplyDeleteThe 'novice' line is just childish, as is to be expected. We were all virgins once, as was one G Brown when he turned up at No11 in 1997. Is he trying to tell me that he has learned on the job at my expense?
ReplyDeleteHe reminds me of the financial salesman of the 80's who flogged financial products to consumers that neither party understood until it was too late. The reps did learn, but at the clients expense. (Hah, what goes around comes around. That was mainly the banks then too - now they have 'mis-sold' to the wholesale market instead. Jeez the banks really are wankers).
Anyway going back to Brown this is where we now are. Impoversihed by the experiment on us of a novice chancellor and arrogant self proclaimed intellectual. An ordinary housewife would have done better. Oh of course I remember now. One did.
@conand. Last I heard Cameron’s been an MP for all of 4 years, was only chosen by the blue rinsers because Davies wasn’t posh enough, the party had to fall into line because it was on the brink, and what few policies they’ve articulated have been rubbished, he’s ahead in the polls due to a naturally unpopular three term govt, and GB IS the Queen’s PM.
ReplyDeleteGet over your silly self.
I have just posted this on Nick Robinsons blog, but the jibe about this being no time for a novice deserves a response.
ReplyDeleteGordon Brown has dithered for 10 years over this problem...
Gordon Brown stakes the retention of his leadership on his claim to be the best person to see the country through the current world economic turmoil.
He argues that the world has changed, that the financial community is now different and that problems in one country can affect another. That better regulation is required to prevent this happening again.
However history is repeating itself, and Gordon Brown is repeating himself too.
In 1998 the world suffered from the Asian crisis. At the time Gordon Brown, as UK Chancellor, was also President of the G7 group of Finance Ministers. What did Gordon Brown say at the time?
The BBC reported at the time:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/the_economy/206409.stm
As president of the G7 finance ministers, Gordon Brown was instrumental in negotiating the package of measures that has now been agreed by central bankers and finance ministers from the USA, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and Canada
"We will not let high-risk hedge fund speculation by the few translate into a wider risk for the many and destabilise the financial system on which we all depend for prosperity," Gordon Brown said.
The Chancellor emphasised that problems in the banking systems of foreign countries could have serious "contagion" effects that could threaten banks in the UK.
A BC Video report of the decisions, which include the then Chancellor Gordon Brown setting out his proposals can be viewed at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/200000/video/_204741_ed_crooks_vi.ram
HM Treasury issued a press release. (179/98)
Significant reforms to strengthen the international financial system were announced today by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown in the UK's role as Presidency of the G7 leading industrial nations.
As G7 President, Gordon Brown has led this process of negotiation, following agreement at the IMF meetings in Washington earlier this month to develop quickly proposals for reform.
Gordon Brown states:
“…the financial crisis that swept Asia last year and has reverberated around the world has served to expose long-standing weaknesses in the international financial architecture and, because by its nature the crisis is international, so too must be the policies to address it.”
“The old way has too often been crisis management in national economies where purely national regulation does not even reach minimum standards. The new way forward for today's global economy, where each economy can affect every economy, is sensible global financial regulation, credible crisis prevention, orderly mechanisms for crisis resolution, with a sure foundation in minimum standards and best practice which all adopt to participate in the international financial system.
So today we announce details of a mechanism for crisis prevention; a new process for global financial regulation; and new proposals for transparency and crisis resolution that each G7 country will now adopt and apply.”
Hansard, for 2 November 1998 quotes Gordon Brown as saying…
“Our predecessors had to meet the challenge of ensuring economic stability in an era of national economies. Our generation must meet the challenges of ensuring stability in the era of a global economy, in which each economy can directly affect the prospects of every other.”
“For 50 years, our policies for regulation, supervision, transparency and stability have been devised and developed for a world of relatively sheltered national economies with limited capital markets. Now that markets transcend national boundaries, we must create for global markets systems for supervision, transparency, regulation and stability that are as sophisticated as the markets with which they have to cope.
“G7 Governments have therefore concluded that the international architecture devised in the 1940s for the economies of the 1940s is no longer adequate for the challenges of the 1990s, and that we need new rules for the global financial system. In the statement, each G7 country has now agreed to adopt and apply codes of conduct founded on minimum standards and best practice.”
“In the G7 statement, we also commit ourselves to strengthening the regulatory focus on risk management systems and prudential standards in financial sector institutions, and, in particular, to examining the implications of the operations of leveraged international financial organisations, including hedge funds.”
“A fundamental problem has been a lack of transparency and poor standards of disclosure by some financial market participants.”
“We will not allow high-risk hedge fund speculation by a few to translate into wider risks for the many, and destabilise the financial system on which we all depend for prosperity.”
“The G7 countries have also agreed on the need for a better long-term mechanism for international authorities to work with the private sector and national authorities in handling debt rescheduling at times of potential crisis.”
“Globalisation has happened. We must now make it work in hard times as well as good. As we have shown, we need not new institutions, but new rules and disciplines. I want to thank other G7 Ministers and central bank governors, and Heads of Government who have backed this work all along, for working through this new agreement.”
It is clear that as President of the G7, Gordon Brown was instrumental in negotiating the world regulatory regime that has now failed. The risks were well recognised, more than 10 years ago. But the measures taken, negotiated by Gordon Brown as President of the G7 were inadequate.
Yet he claims he is the best person to resolve the current crises.
He uses the same language now, as he did 10 years ago… He talks of new global markets, transcending national boundaries, just as he did 10 years ago. He even set out 10 years ago what he had to do “Our generation must meet the challenges of ensuring stability in the era of a global economy”.
The current crisis is not a crisis caused by a new global economy, it is a crisis caused by a failure to meet challenges identified over 10 years ago. Throughout that time Gordon Brown was best placed to meet the challenge – he failed. Having failed over those 10 years he is clearly not the person to resolve the crisis now.
Better the problem be dealt with by somebody that is new to it than one who has had 10 years to deal with it but failed.
Good be Gordie was referring to the experience of hillary Clinton, especially if he is aware of the court case being heard in Pennsylvania that alleges Obama is not elegible.
ReplyDeleteBerg vs Obama update
It seems like a crank thing but I've been following the story (links to all Jeff Schreibers articles on it at the page) and the evidence at least give us "grounds to suspect" there may be something in it.
Step up Mrs. Clinton.
Now don't you go applying logic to a situation Iain
ReplyDeleteInteresting that he name checked almost all his cabinet except David Milliband.
The novice line is just vacuous spin. Actually what we want is someone who is good at their job. Experience for incompetents like Gordon is just another word for time spent consolidating bad habits.
ReplyDeleteAnon 5.17 Brilliant. Nails the lies.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 5.11:
ReplyDelete"@conand. Last I heard Cameron’s been an MP for all of 4 years"
Seven years actually but, hey, what does the truth matter to Liebour trolls.
Brown makes more mistakes than a novice.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the media upto, building him to take it all away again?
The media cannot actually be taken in by Brown can they?
Makes the mind boggle!
Fortunately the Tories will soon be back in power - and the Great British people will once again have their nation back."
ReplyDeleteMaybe so John, but by then it will be too late!
By then , the UK will have unravelled once again into its component parts-all courtesy of, by the way, the two cretins who have run the UK for 10 years and-dont forget, who YOU LOT voted for in your droves!
Sorry, but thats the way it is-and NOTHING is going to alter that simple fact!
Re Tayto:
ReplyDeleteIn GB's defence There's a first time for everything), Milliband did get a name check.
Can't remember the details but something to do with foreign policy.
LOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooOL
ReplyDeleteBrown treated like a Novice at the seat of econmic power in the the US:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3074014/US-Treasury-Secretary-Hank-Paulson-rejected-Gordon-Brown-meeting.html
OK let's deal with anon@5:11
ReplyDeleteanon@5:41 has dealt succinctly with your first point, I thank them.
'was only chosen by the blue rinsers because Davies* wasn’t posh enough'
The 'blue rinsers' as you call them, in various times and forms enjoyed the leadership of Thatcher, Major, Hague & Howard none of whom went to private schools unlike various senior members of the Labour party and cabinet.
'what few policies they’ve articulated have been rubbished'
Rubbished by the Labour party and then adopted by the Labour Government in several cases.
'a naturally unpopular three term govt'
We were told before the 'Brown bounce' of last year that the unpopular Labour government was the one led by Blair and Brown was going to save it. He then became very very unpopular too. Keep playing those old tunes, I guess it might work.
'GB IS the Queen’s PM'
To really deserve to be called the PM you have to be a very skilled politician. Brown isn't.
*It is spelt Davis. How arrogant are you? At least try and get our names right.
So, when the cowboy builders screw up do you get them back to put it right? Or do you look around for a competent builder?
ReplyDelete"who's pretending to be"
ReplyDelete"deserve to be"
No. Listen to me - HE IS THE PM.
Iain - Alert!
I know you occasionally have unfortunates, and some who suffer from delusions of grandeur posting, but sad to say, there's a couple here who profess to follow politics, and stubbornly refuse to accept that we do have a PM and his name is Gordon Brown.
Do the decent thing Iain and have a kind word.
Back to reality.
Davies/Davis? Whatever. Who remembers him now anyway?
Another nonentity
The disappeared freedoms hero.
Oh dear, the third sad case.
I'll try to get over it.
that would be John McCain who is suspending his campaign to work on the economy???
ReplyDeleteMore like McCain suspends campaign to UNDERSTAND the economy.
Wouldn't be the polls that were released this morning would it?
What a joke.
Davies/Davis? Whatever. Who remembers him now anyway?
ReplyDeleteAnother nonentity
That's a bit of a harsh comment about one of the most principled politicians of recent years.
Shame about the religion though - he did after all vote against the abolition of blashpemy as a criminal offence. And as they say, blashphemy is a victimless crime....
'what few policies they’ve articulated have been rubbished'
ReplyDeleteFew policies is right. The only ones the public have latched onto so far is
bringing back fox hunting and Inheritance tax.
Hardly applicable to the majority.
Still, when we get down to the real nitty gritty campaigning for the GE, and the public who will by then have lost jobs due to the credit crunch are informed, that Tory assistance means being handed over to charity, cleaning up dog shit from playing fields for welfare, and single Mums sent to any old sort of work when their youngest is four or else, and when all those many thousands (80,000 at the last count) of alleged waste of space pen pushers realise they’re threatened with the boot under the tories, resulting in homelessness, charity handouts, the knock on loss of tax revenue to the country, and the unemployment register soaring…
Yeah. Looking forward to campaigning on those tory policies. A lot.
Either I'm practically the only person who actually listened as Brown was speaking or I'm practically the only one who misheard... but either way it seemed clearly to be a comment about George Osborne.
ReplyDeleteI think G. Broon thinks everyone else is a novice and has an inflated opinion of his own competence, reminiscent of Mugabe. Perhaps he will ignore the result of the General Election and just stay in power running the country single-handed.
ReplyDeletetroymolloy said "Either I'm practically the only person who actually listened as Brown was speaking"
ReplyDeleteYou almost certainly were mate, you and all the fawning labour sycophants in the arena. The rest of us struggling along in the real world had better things to do than listen to that lying halfwit go on about tractor production figures for an hour..
Zorro.
ian thorpe
ReplyDeleteI've been doubtful of all these Obama birth cert stories but yesterday they filed a Motion to Dismiss Berg's suit.
Wouldn't it be easier to just show the requested document(s) ?
andy c
ReplyDeleteMore like McCain suspends campaign to UNDERSTAND the economy.
McCain returns at both the invitation of Bush and the insistence of Treas Sec Paulson.
Obama carried on, saying he had told Senate leader Reid to "call me if you need me" - until Bush himself called BO and reminded him he was a Senator and was needed in DC. Of course BO has spent so little time in DC he's probably forgotten where it is let alone the fact that he's one of the biggest beneficiaries, along with Sen Dodd etc of contributions from Fanny & Freddy in their heyday. He learned his lessons well in Chicago.