1. They are very rattled by it.
2. Their explanation for it indicates they think we are stupid.
Do they really think we will buy that it's all to do with internal German politics, and troubles within the CDU/SPD coalition. Steinbruck is a left winger, and is criticising his British comrades for their lemming-like policies. What on earth has that got to do with internal German politics. The clip on Sky which Guido has, where Eamonn Holmes interviews Balls is astonishing - both for Balls' words and secondly for the fact that Holmes doesn't seem to express much incredulity at what he is told. But Brown was suitably impressed by
UPDATE: Peer Steinbruck's (for it is he) Newsweek interview, which caused all this fuss canbe read HERE.
Browns/Balls spin is aimed at the average guy in the street, many of whom may very well buy that line. That's why they do it.
ReplyDeleteYes Colin and sadly many do.
ReplyDeleteBut why?
Could it be because the tabloids have bombarded them for years with lies and spin about Europe? That Germany is a depressed, poverty-stricked economy? That if only the French could be more like us, they would be better off? That the EU and the Euro are a total failure?
Being slaves to Murdoch is getting us where he wants us to be. Poor, stupid and under his Royal Australian Thumb.
If UK voters are not "stupid" how, would you explain three terms in office for New Labour?
ReplyDeleteI rest my case.
Just reading the interview makes it crystal clear it has nothing to do with German politics. It's not Keynesian policies that that Steinbruck is objecting to - it's crass Keynesian policies.
ReplyDeleteSpending £20bn is one thing, but spending £20bn to little or no effect is quite another.
What is wrong with the stimulus proposals?
"The speed at which proposals are put together under pressure that don't even pass an economic test is breathtaking and depressing. Our British friends are now cutting their value-added tax. We have no idea how much of that stores will pass on to customers. Are you really going to buy a DVD player because it now costs £39.10 instead of £39.90? All this will do is raise Britain's debt to a level that will take a whole generation to work off. The same people who would never touch deficit spending are now tossing around billions. The switch from decades of supply-side politics all the way to a crass Keynesianism is breathtaking...
...When in doubt, I'd say the risk is greater of burning money without significant effects and in the end having a budget weighed down with even more debt. For me the only stimulus measures that make sense are those that create jobs and have a positive structural effect beyond the economic cycle..."
The Bank Bailout has misfired - and has burndened the banks with the eye watering 12% interest rate charged when they want the banks to virtually give money away themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe VAT change has failed and is a laughing stock.
Never mind saving the world - Gordon can't even save Woolies ( who can forget his self importance when he went on TV after Woollies went into receivership - going on about how the government was helping ).
Now his debt kamikaze dive to save his election chances by destroying our future and condemn the whole nation to debt slavery is coming unstuck.
Balls is desperate as without his protector he has no support in any political party.
I've said it before and I'll say it ad nauseam, I just do not understand the mentality that says 'Spend your way out of a recession'.
ReplyDeleteIf you've got no money then it's monumental stupidity to borrow.
You have to do what I've done and cut-back on your spending.
This all has to mean he is going to cut and run next June if not earlier . Why are interest rates so low the pound is disappearing ?Why the token tax giveaway , why the light legislative programme and the clear shimmies right on welfare immigration , even the HRA.
ReplyDeleteThis article is well worth reading about how few options are really open
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/hamish-mcrae/hamish-mcrae-the-idleness-of-debating-statistics-1059357.html
Brown knows this , He has to run for it next June with an enginerred little boomette .
Mark my words I have never been wrong . June (or earlier)
Man in a Shed said...
ReplyDeletePerfectly said.
3 prime examples of why this mentalist is such a failure in everything except announcements.
Newmania..
ReplyDeleteIt will be his Waterloo.
One final push. Destabilise his enemies using the last vestiges of his once mighty financial power.
Economics be damned. Victory at any price. Even bankruptcy.
But the polls will be against him in March/april and the planning will secretly keep being moved until July..then October..then November.. then its just a case of finding the last possible day for an election and filling in the date on the calendar.
Slightly off topic, but it's interesting to hear Harperson calling Broon "our Superman", and comparing him to "The Joker" (Cameron).
ReplyDeleteBTW
ReplyDeletethe colin @1:41pm is not me. I'm the real Colin.
I agree with him though.
Some pertinent Goebbels quotes:
ReplyDelete“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
“The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly - it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over”
So they are learning from the best propagandists that history has had to offer!
Thank god for the internet where such spin and hypocrisy can be unwound ... too bad the uneducated and misinformed sections of the public are all too busy watching soap operas to notice :(
Despite his loyalty to the party leadership, he is not afraid to put forward his own ideas. The "Government should, he says, consider cutting VAT to 15 per cent in the Pre-Budget Report on Monday - an idea that is certainly not Tory party policy. “If it's possible to afford a fiscal stimulus I would go for VAT because the only case for a fiscal stimulus is to stimulate spending and consumer demand, so the tax on spending is the one to go for. But it should be temporary."
ReplyDeleteKen Clarke, Times interview Nov 22nd
But I'm sure Osborne knows better.
For some reason I can't help but think of this quote,
ReplyDelete"He's not the Messiah, He's a very naughty boy!"
The German Finance Minister knows this, when will the UK public call it
Peer Steinbruck was absolutely spot on with his comments. When Brown's time in power is over, I'll be interested to see how high up the rankings of all-time economic vandals he comes.
ReplyDeleteThe most telling part of the interview, much like all the others, is that Balls could only mention America and France. And, (poor grammar I know), another slip of the tongue was the phrase "Braitain is with" rather than "Britain is leading".
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be surprised if a wholesale confiscation of bank deposits is being considered somewhere in the midden of this god awful regime, as I write this.
ReplyDeleteBefore anyone scoffs, just bear in mind what happened in Argentina.
Given that all brown's schemes have so far either turned to dust or yielded miniscule benefit, his options are limited and narrowing.
As Eamonn Holmes, he is a lightweight! but I am damned sure the editorial directions ARE to give Labour a soft ride and the others a difficult time.
ReplyDeleteI have complained time after time but it gets nowhere!
But treat people like idiots and they will react unkindly!
"Holmes doesn't seem to express much incredulity at what he is told"
ReplyDeleteThat's because he is a mindless twat and Balls consented to the interview for that reason and that reason only.
You wouldn't get him with Paxman that easily, would you?
Iain, that shower have ALWAYS considered the population as stupid. They are Socialist, for crying out loud. It is their M.O. The sheeple are just clay in their hands. The Fabians realised that the public would need softening up and so they have been busy for over 100 years softening brains, resolve and spines.
ReplyDeleteIt looks increasingly likely that the tories are on their way out in Canada, leaving Steinbruck on his own. Even Merkel seems to be rowing back.
ReplyDeleteSoon it'll be just him and Osborne.
When the Germans come out of recession without saddling their children with mountains of debt whilst we are left deep in the brown stuff I expect the meaning of the term schadenfreude to be exploited to the full.
ReplyDeleteOf course, at such time, Superman's abortive rescue plan will be renamed (by BBC and Sky) as the Swedish rescue plan, and Brown will wash his hands of any involvement whatsoever.
ps Holmes is just a glory hunting Manc supporting twat, who seems to be popular with housewives. One bloke out of his depth interviewing another out of his depth is indeed riveting TV and well worth the extortionate Sky subscription by itself.
Remember the Blair/Brown punch-ups all staged managed to act as a news blanket, distracting you from mass immigration, European sell-outs and the creation of the client state.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to Phase 2, carefully stage managed international fall-outs between Brown and Germany, this time disguising Brown's sell-out of sterling for the Euro.
In both cases the narrative of Brown as a battling genius remains constant, once presented as the saviour of Britain's economy, now of the world's. And still people are falling for the false story and missing the real one.
Brown has proved that you can fool all of the people all of the time. He is a political genius. He has clearly demonstrated the superfluousness of truth to politics. He indeed does lead the world - in deceptiveness, and is the greatest European leader since Hitler.
The interview in Today programme with Miliband was interesting, he wasn't allowed just to spout the party line for a change. Got rather flustered at times and refused to comment on the state of the pound.
ReplyDelete