"I will not allow house prices to get out of control and put at risk the sustainability of the recovery."
Gordon Brown's 1997 Budget Statement
"Under this Government, Britain will not return to the boom and bust of the past."
Pre-Budget Report, 9th November 1999
"Britain does not want a return to boom and bust."
Budget Statement, 21 March 2000
"So our approach is to reject the old vicious circle of the...the old boom and bust."
Pre-Budget Report, 8 November 2000
"Mr Deputy Speaker we will not return to boom and bust."
Budget Statement, 7 March 2001
"As I have said before Mr Deputy Speaker: No return to boom and bust."
Budget Statement, 22 March 2006
"And we will never return to the old boom and bust."
Budget Statement, 21 March 2007
Hattip to the anonymous commenter who provided these.
UPDATE: Guido reckons Treasury officials are doctoring their website to remove these quotes from it.
Well, he's certainly abolished the boom bit...
ReplyDeleteMy god Gideon is doing it again – being monosyllabic
ReplyDeleteNot a day for triumph Not a day for triumph
Not a day for triumph
Not a day for triumph …externinate
If you add in the 'Prudence for a Purpose' one, you could have just provided the Tories with their entire poster campaign for the next General Election...
ReplyDeleteJust imagine, a 'super-size' picture of Gordon's 'mugshot' so that it is bigger than the rectangle of the poster-site, and the votes would just be ripe for harvesting..
In fact, I'm sure that there are some bright sparks out there in the Iainshire Dales who could knock one up in Photoshop this evening...Ooh er, missus...
I also read that the Speaker is to investigate Blair over the Ecclestone affair.
ReplyDeleteThis means that Blair will probably be awarded £5 million (or is it billions these days?) from the public purse.
Sorry and all, that I have just realised I should have said the Speaker is investigating 'Lynton' - or more precisely 'that ex-public schoolboy Lynton'.
ReplyDeleteTha's me all over - I am always behind the current fashion.
Peston is doing politics:
ReplyDelete"Chances are that this is the moment when future historians will say that the tide turned decisively against almost-anything-goes, laisser-faire financial capitalism (what I described yesterday as an important strand of Thatcherism) - which has been the prevailing ideology for almost 30 years."
Over the weekend we were told that the BBC vets All his blogs before they go public in order to make sure they represent the BBC's viewpoint.
it should return us to a world of simpler, safer banking.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteYour making him sound like Basil Brush ... Boom Boom.
ReplyDeleteNote that it was 'no return to the OLD boom and bust'.
ReplyDeleteJames Brown has given us a NEW boom and bust.
(yes, James is his first name and he doesn't use it, so since some twerp Labour posters keep referring to Osborne as Gideon, I shall start using James)
"Your making him sound like Basil Brush ... Boom Boom."
ReplyDeletelool this just made my day..
Thx for the post keep up the good work!!
Josh Ptasinski
Ben Brogan has this quote from Brown today...
ReplyDelete"In future regulatory systems there will be both greater attention to issues of solvency and liquidity and probably a pro-cyclical attitude where in a period of growth you have got to lay aside more for the possibility that there will be contractions."
Isn't that a doozie?!
He's writing the Tories campaign for them.
The key phrase is 'old boom and bust'.
ReplyDeleteTrue to his word we have had the largest credit bubble in history. A new boom from new Labour.
And now comes the new bust. We are now shareholders in banks whose business models were no better than Robert Maxwell's as it turned out. We have bought into a bank that in May raised £12bn in a rights issue. All of that burnt faster than rocket fuel. As did the other profit generating businesses flogged off in a vain attempt to keep afloat. Normally this probably would have done the trick. The question is why not? What liabilities does RBS have on its books? Why were these not made public? And crucially to what extent as taxpayers are we going to pick up the tab for RBS' bonds, options and other liabilities? The sums here could be enormous. Consider for example the total value of CDS etc at $46trn. OK not all of it will go bad. But some of it will. How exposed are we? Darling didn't answer this question on Today. I wonder why. I fear it could bankrupt the nation. The new bust. Labour's legacy an economic wasteland.
Well done Iain. Should be used by all opposition parties, particularly Tories whenever Gordo opens his mouth and starts pontificating about the economy.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing the New Labour does not have is SHAME.
By golly, Gordo and Darling to the rescue of the world.... who would have thunk it!. =]
ReplyDeleteThe cynical spin now peddled by New Labour foot soldiers deployed by Lord Sleaze et al. is that this is good bye to Thatcherite economy as if superman Gordo has just landed from planet pluto bringing the magic formula! It is as if Evening Standard says Gordo has set up a war room in No 10. He is now both Hitler
ReplyDeletethe villain and Churchill the great leader!
Tragic thing is, soon we'll have an opinion poll saying Labour has pulled ahead. But it could come out right in the end if Brown starts believing his own publicity and calls an early election. Then he'll know what the public really thinks.
ReplyDeleteWow Iain you have stung them . All the links to the quotes of no more boom and bust have been deleted from the Treasury website. All gone. History revised. It never happened. Honest.
ReplyDeleteWhat about a PQ asking:-
1 who removed them
2 who decided they should be deleted?
3 why?
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:F3KdZm955AgJ:www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_2001/bud_bud01_speech.cfm+site:www.hm-treasury.gov.uk+%22we+will+not+return+to+boom+and+bust.%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=uk&client=firefox-a
ReplyDeleteAnd it's not there anymore. But look here.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/4060.htm
"Mr Deputy Speaker we will not return to boom and bust"
Basically, they've changed the link. Nothing's been deleted at all. No Winston Smith, no memory hole. Just web redesign, probably for less messy URLs, looking at them. What a non-story.
I found the new links on google.
In a brilliant bout of post-modernist comedy though:
http://www.order-order.com/2008/10/no-more-boom-and-bust-double-plus.html
"Sorry, the page you were looking for in the blog Guy Fawkes' blog of parliamentary plots, rumours and conspiracy does not exist."
No more boom and bust, but LOTS more boom and boast
ReplyDeleteFrom 1997:
ReplyDelete"When I spoke to you last year we were also agreed that responsible public finances are the cornerstone of stability. And our two year ceiling on public spending is not a one off measure but it is now part of a five year deficit reduction plan that will not only bring public borrowing down from an unacceptable 22 3/4 billion Pounds last year to 5 1/2 billion Pounds next year, but will also allow us to meet our priorities for education investment and health. Sustainable public finances: our aim, your aim, in place of taking risks with inflation, long-term fiscal stability."