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TUC leader slams Brown Brown writes for the NOTW Ken Livingstone 1929 revisited? Reform proposals Archive |
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Brown's first year
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One Year On
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TUC leader slams Brown over 10p rate
The leader of Britain's trade unions launches an attack on the government today, accusing Gordon Brown of being lured by the 'siren voices' of the rich as a new poll shows the Tories making further inroads with voters.
On the eve of a critical vote over scrapping the 10p tax rate, in which Brown's leadership is at stake, TUC head Brendan Barber said the government had made a mistake.
Ministers could find the money to reimburse five million low-paid earners who could lose out if they clamped down on a tax dodge used by the rich to shelter assets in their wives' names, he said. ...
Barber said that ministers had made wrong judgments on a number of issues and more must be done to lift and inspire Labour supporters. The government needed to recover its political nerve, he told The Observer.
'We have concerns that on a whole range of issues the call has been wrong, that the government has been paying too much attention to the siren voices of those campaigning for the super-rich and the corporate elite,' he said. 'They should not be intimidated by self-interested lobbies. They should have greater political confidence to set out their programme.'
The government should reflect the values of 'ordinary people' and the centre ground from which British elections are traditionally won, he added: 'I remember Gordon talking about dominating the centre ground some time ago now. But the voices of the super-rich and some of the business leaders are a long way from the centre ground.'
The Observer 20 April 2008
PM Gordon Brown writes for the News of the World
Our first task, the way to help homeowners, is to keep inflation under control—the only way to keep interest rates low. We have agreed new long-term pay deals for key public sector workers from nurses to teachers, enabling the Bank of England to reduce interest rates three times in four months.
But despite lower interest rates, the cost of mortgages charged by banks to many families has actually risen. Banks are unwilling to lend to each other and have less money for mortgages.
To create the conditions where banks feed through their interest rate cuts to homeowners and new buyers, we must first rebuild confidence in the banking system and reduce the uncertainty that is currently holding the banks back from lending to each other.
If the world's largest banks could come together quickly and agree as a group to come clean about the potential bad debts they face, we could reduce the uncertainty and risk they face and restore confidence back into the markets.
Second, central banks around the world need to continue to provide support to the banking system. They have already been providing additional cash to the banks and the Bank of England is injecting an additional £15 billion.
We need to do more to see this feed through to improved availability of mortgage lending. Although the Bank of England has cut rates in recent months, the banks have not always been passing those reductions to their customers. So Alistair Darling will be meeting with the main mortgage lenders to discuss what further steps can be taken.
Third, we need to do more to help people, especially on low incomes, deal with the more difficult times we face. We have made it easier for first-time buyers to buy a share of a new property and have announced grants of £1,500 to help. ...
Mr Darling will also discuss what lenders can do to ensure customers are treated fairly.
We are taking action elsewhere to help the economy through this difficult time including freezing petrol duty, cutting the basic rate of income tax to 20 per cent, and more help for pensioners and low-income families with fuel bills. ...
So our plan for how Britain deals with the global crisis is in place: Low inflation to keep interest rates down and new measures to ensure those lower interest rates are passed on to mortgage holders; sticking to our public spending plans; new support for business investment; cleaning up banks' balance sheets and boosting global trade.
For 11 years we have kept the economy growing even when there have been recessions elsewhere. And we will continue to guide Britain's economy by making the right long-term decisions.
News of the World 13 April 2008
Gordon Brown is scared of losing London
On January 19, 2000 Gordon Brown wrote a passionate article in the London Evening Standard, headlined "Livingstone must not be London mayor." It was an openly personal attack upon Ken, then running for the Labour nomination against the leadership's favoured candidate, Frank Dobson.
"Does he still propose an old style back-to-the-Eighties economic agenda that would threaten to hurt Londoners?" Brown raged against Livingstone. "Every Labour Party member knows the last thing London or Labour needs is a return to the barren divisive fights over economic policy of the Eighties… And Labour Party members will want to ask whether he will encourage new business investment in London - or whether he still proposes to impose new business tax rises and six new taxes in total?"
On the furious polemic went: "What would threaten jobs and put the economy at risk is to attack the very policies that are creating stability and steady growth - and then to advocate huge business and personal tax rises, an Eighties-style economic policy and a rerun of the old fights over economic policy at the heart of the Labour Party… For Ken Livingstone the Tube has become an issue of economic dogma…The truth is that the Livingstone plan would gain London nothing."
Strong stuff. But what's this? Last Thursday, the very same Gordon Brown published an article on the very same man in the very same London newspaper, headlined: "Livingstone is the only choice for Londoners." And guess what? It turns out that, far from being the cause of "barren divisive fights", Ken is, in fact, a wholly admirable public figure who has "dedicated his professional and personal life to London", whose "lifelong commitment to London" has enabled him "to get so much done for Londoners".
And if you thought that electing Ken might jeopardise "business investment" in the capital (see above), think again. It turns out that Livingstone is the man "responsible for… investment in London". Worried that Ken's view of the Tube might have been infected by "economic dogma"? Relax: it seems that "it was Ken's commitment and leadership that has transformed London's buses and transport system". Strike a light, as they used to say in Whitechapel. ...
Telegraph.co.uk 23 March 2008
Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park'
... Tim Congdon, a banking historian at the London School of Economics, said the rot had seeped through the foundations of British lending.
Average equity capital has fallen to 3.2 per cent (nearer 2.5 per cent sans "goodwill"), compared with 5 per cent seven years ago. "How on earth did the Financial Services Authority let this happen?" he asks.
Worse, changes pushed through by Gordon Brown in 1998 have caused the de facto cash and liquid assets ratio to collapse from post-war levels above 30 per cent to near zero. "Brown hadn't got a clue what he was doing," he says.
The risk for Britain - as property buckles - is a twin banking and fiscal squeeze. The UK budget deficit is already 3 per cent of GDP at the peak of the economic cycle, shockingly out of line with its peers. America looks frugal by comparison.
Maastricht rules may force the Government to raise taxes or slash spending into a recession. This way lies crucifixion.
The UK current account deficit was 5.7 per cent of GDP in the second quarter, the highest in half a century. Gordon Brown has disarmed us on every front ...
Telegraph.co.uk 29 December 2007
Brown sets out reform proposals
KEY PROPOSALS
Give MPs power to decide whether to wage war
Setting up national security council
Parliament to ratify international treaties
Commons committees for each English region
New ministerial code
PM no longer to choose Church of England bishops
Elections moving from Thursday to weekends
MPs to hold hearings on key public appointments
People to be consulted on possible 'bill of rights'
Potential lowering of voting age to 16
BBC NEW 3 July 2007