Is the Bank blaming Gordon Brown? - Here is Chris Giles‘ shrewd take on the Bank’s analysis of the dramatic fall in sterling. The MPC came to no conclusion over the cause, but it certainly did not rule out chronic indecision at the heart of government.An increasing number of economists think sterling’s decline represents a global lack of confidence in Britain and [...]
Gordon’s Glorious Indian Summer - “Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer”. Or something like that.Ministers/MPs/activists up here in Manchester seem to be basking in the fact that Gordon Brown has at last done something tangible to tackle the credit crisis. At last there is a script!(Or perhaps they’re just feeling buoyant because the sun is shining.)But [...]
Play that record again, Gordon - When markets violently move against Gordon Brown and undermine his carefully planned policy positions, he has shown no hesitation in kicking City spivs.When he was caught on the wrong side of the ERM debate (Mr Brown enforced an unpopular anti-devaluation line within the shadow cabinet), he took a swipe at the “handful of shirt-sleeved speculators” [...]
Is it too late to regulate? - There was an unmissable letter in this morning’s FT:“Mr McCain also promises a ‘fix’. What does that mean? Deleveraging? Unwinding? All those using these scholarly-sounding phrases should take a cup of tea, stir a spoon of milk into it for several seconds, and then try to regain the pure milk…If they succeed, maybe they have [...]
Milliband shows off his “hinterland” - Some highlights from the excellent David Milliband interview in The Times magazine*:- He is an atheist: “I don’t believe in God”.- But he does believe in Gordon Brown’s “hinterland”.- He sleeps on planes (I can hear the Brownites now: “do you really want a prime minister who sleeps?“)- His attic bedroom as a teenager is [...]
Labour winning — at footy - The stars from the media football team have yet to return from their match, so I’m afraid we don’t know the full time score. But the word is that the hacks are being trounced.Labour — who had Bryan Robson, a former England captain, in their line up — were 3-0 up at half time.This is [...]
Johnson to Brown: call off the dogs - Did you feel it? The Labour balance of power shifted this morning. With his interview in The Times, Alan Johnson put the brakes on a coup (well, at least for a few months) while lifting the sights of Labour activists to a time without Browns, Straws, Blairs, Clarkes or Johnsons. He put his own ambitions [...]