Brown solves world hunger and financial markets in a day.
I am becoming used to seeing Gordon Brown in his many guises or relaunches (currently around number seven) giving out the impression that he is more or less single handedly running every ministry in this country. From facilitating mergers between banks, solving Clostridium difficile in hospitals, greeting our hero Para Olympians back home to lagging. It is the latter theme I would like to dwell on as I was astonished to see the other day the Prime Minister of the country on national TV launching a very minor initiative that in more normal times would have been handled by a much more junior member of staff. Here we saw the great man extolling (well droning on about) the virtues of his new ‘lagging credit’ where if you are destitute or living in a croft somewhere in the god forsaking north of Scotland you can get a grant towards cavity foam insulation or lagging the turf on the roof. It was a careful exercise in avoiding any concession to the middle class and ensuring that only his clients in the north (well it is cold up there) would benefit from his largesse whereas the rest of us have to fork out – the proposal being completely riddled with caveats and exclusions designed to exclude anyone not minded to vote labour.
What was more annoying was that he was in fact not giving us anything. Dressed up as a government initiative and as a vehicle for relaunch it seems that the energy companies on threat of swingeing ‘windfall’ taxes have to do this. If you are living in a turf roofed and lined croft in Brown’s constituency you have to apply to the companies for the work to be done gratis or at the discount rate if you have some spare cash. This whole thing was yet another example of a politician making an announcement, claiming the credit whilst taking no responsibility for the implementation or the consequences. What is certain is the energy companies, quite rightly in my view, will have to cover these costs by adding ‘it’ to the bills of Joe Public you and me – of course turf living Brown voters will be able to claim relief. Now for me it is a good thing to concentrate on energy saving we cannot go on as we are but to dress all this cock and bull nonsense as some sort of give away by Brown is absurd. This was only designed to make him look good and defuse the Left of his party who regard any aspect of profit making by energy companies or otherwise as an anathema so wanted the so-called windfall tax and this boil had to be lanced before his next relaunch (the eight) at the conference this week.
I don’t think this (the seventh or is it eighth I forget) relaunch will work either – the labour party have to come to terms that Gordon Brown is not and never will be a leader – so stop trying to make him out something he is not. What we need is some management by ministers including Brown to at least steer the ship of state roughly in the right direction until the next election when thank god we have the chance of getting rid of these incompetent bunch of morons – although what job any of these could do when they bombed out is beyond me.
Cheers from a Croft in Wales
Royston