Comments on: What Gordon should say at the summit

By: Puncheon

Puncheon — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 20:05:06 +0000

Great speech, but as long as we are in the EU it will get nowhere. The French and Germans will never, ever let go of the CAP. The biofuels directive was introduced under the Spanish Presidency for two reasons: they wanted a new lucrative crop for their large, but inefficient farming sector, and the Commission wanted a lucrative crop for the even larger and even more inefficient farming sector in Poland, ie Euro-Stalinism. The EU Commission is infested with marxists and mad greens – I recall one crazy Dane who had been fired by his own (at that time Green) Government for being too extreme, and who now holds a senior position in the Energy Directorate of the Commission.

John – Can you tell me why the UK political class are so obsessed with being in the EU, and whether the scales ever fall from their eyes?

By: simon k

simon k — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:44:23 +0000

Gordon Brown should say: "I announce my retirement (words left out) where i shall spend my time profitably writing the 'Big Bumper Book of Political Anecdotes'. Surely you must have noticed how I liberally sprinkle political bon mots to such effect in my speeches … as JFK said to Nye Bevin… O Nurse … nurse … i feel one of my turns coming on… As Disraeli said to Palmerstone …"

By: William B.

William B. — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:24:00 +0000

With any luck the likely further deterioration in government finances over the next two years will cause the Conservatives to stand back and think again about their current obsession with all things "green".

Even if one accepts the manmade global warming theory the predicted cost of amelioration is simply breathtaking, and the deeper the government puts the country in debt the more difficult it will be to justify the additional expenditure.

New research and analysis seems to undermine the theory on a weekly basis and by 2010 one can foresee that the "settled science" will, very publicly, be anything but settled.

One can but hope that this piece of (as I perceive it) lunacy will be put on the back burner.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:21:19 +0000

I agree with all your points. Two for three and one for two offers sound lucrative also.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:58:28 +0000

I feel, myself, from reading and looking on the TV and also from the record of his behaviour that Mr Brown is a man who is desperately shy. That is why he surrounds himself with much younger people (and many women who obviously adore him).
I think he is terrified of being disliked and shoved out of the crowd.
That is why your excellent words will not be heeded, I am afraid. The Europeans who are closest to him have their own ideas and he, if he is to be one of the gang, will have to go along with them.
The biofuels and climate change will not be discussed at all because they never were discussed at all. That is not how the EU operates. Climate Change is, to them, a fact. Biofuels and renewables are just commonsense. they have a White paper on this, so they know.
The French are not going to back down over their precious CAP. that's just dreaming.
He cannot reduce tax either because of the huge debt – well over a Â£ trillion (3% of GDP) as even the EU admits.
The only area in which he can make a change is nuclear energy.

By: John

John — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:30:29 +0000

Can I add another Government "answer" to a growing problem(or as I call them:nuts to crack a sledgehammer) Childhood obesity: Kevin Brennan's solution is to lock all pupils in at school lunchtimes to stop them going out and buying junk food (this will be happening at my daughter's school from September onwards). Brilliant problem solved, I think not. The children will simply buy junk before and after school.
Unless more effort is made to educate and promote heathier eating the obesity problem will increase further. You cannot solve these problems by simply locking children up.

By: Acorn

Acorn — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:14:05 +0000

A fine speech John, but a little timid me thinks. You could throw in a couple of quotes from Dr Bill White's swan-song – the departing chief economist at the BIS; in his 78th Annual Report.

Particularly, chapter VIII of the overview.
http://www.bis.org/events/agm2008/ar2008o.htm

Please can you tell us if there are any signs of the government cutting back on its spending, pending a reduction of its income as the economy slows? Or, should we taxpayers expect to pick up the bill for further government borrowing after the next election?

BTW. Make sure you have someone in your party working on a new employment law. Check-out what sort of cases are going to Tribunals, that is, which legislation is being abused by trade unions to further their left wing agenda. The public sector is rife with Disability Act claims and Human Rights / Discrimination claims. These are becoming easy pickings for trade unions.

By: Neil Craig

Neil Craig — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:57:54 +0000

I have been disappointed by Brown. When he spoke out in favour of Adam Smith I thought he had genuinely accepted the intellectual message but clearly not.

Most of our problems would be greatly ameliorated or ended if government would just get out of the way & let the invisible hand of the market work.

We see that 75% of the increase in food prices is because of the bio-fuel scam which. Subsidising this "industry" doesn't actually save oil anyway because growing crops requires fertiliser.

The high price of electricity & rapidly approaching shortages are because we haven't built nuclear which is half the price of conventional power & 1/4 of windmills. A free market allowed to do so would go nuclear.

The housing shortage is caused by government not allowing them to be built. Here I must admit Brown still at least sounds more free marketish than the Tories.

The economy has been buoyed up by a series of bubbles. Economic growth depends on low business taxes (when Brown came in our corporation tax was lower than the EU average now it is higher because the average has dropped), less regulation (we have more) & cheap & plentiful energy (see above).

I'm not sure about the Rock but either government could have arranged a quick sale, as happened in the US, or I suspect if put into administration the administrators would have done an even quicker one.

Most of these (food prices, housing, regulation, energy shortage) can be laid squarely at the door of pandering (by all parties) to the Luddites of the "environmentalist" movement who aren't really environmentalist anyway. If you take the above away almost all our economic problems are solved & all of them can be removed not by government doing anything useful but merely by ceasing to do harm.

By: Kit

Kit — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:56:30 +0000

I am surprised you did not mention the link between rising food and oil prices – biofuel. Scrap this silly policy and prices will drop.

By: Letters From A Tory

Letters From A Tory — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 09:52:04 +0000

If telling us to eat less is the best Gordon Brown has got, we are in serious trouble. I cannot believe that newspaper editors decided to make his stupid announcement front page news. http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com