Saturday, 11 October 2008

The Economy Is Sinking




When the opposition in parliament gives up and agrees with the government it's a sad day for democracy. On the one of the biggest issues of the day Tory and Lib Dem voices are saying Brown is right on the dire economic situation, shame on them.

Nick Clegg summed up this attitude with
When a ship is sinking, you send out the lifeboats. You don't argue about who has steered it into an iceberg. That can wait for another day.


I think they have all failed this country, and the voters know it. To give the captain of a sinking ship more money and power, rewarding failure, is to throw away our future. Where are the calls for an enquiry so we can learn more? The financial regulatory authorities should be investigated for criminal negligence, and Gordon Clown is responsible for a large share of this. He has been acting smugly on the media recently, as he loves talking about financial matters. But to a large extent he is the one that put us in this mess, he has vastly increased borrowing for the last few years, using stealth tactics such as PFI or PPP to hide the debt, but future generations will still be paying for his folly.

He has used some dodgy terrorist laws to freeze the assets of Iceland, instead of helping a fiendly country. He is clearly trying to shift some of the blame onto them. A film called 'Wag the dog' http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/ shows a desperate leader declaring a phoney war to distract attention from their own failures. Watch out Reykjavik.

Perhaps what has been forgotten is the simple advice 'share values can go down as well as up'. The Clown has been altering his policy after watching the effect on the stock exchange, and they are still going down. But they are merely one indicator of investor confidence, watch where the money is going to see what people think, and in some cases its Ireland. For investors I would recommend smaller institutions such as credit unions.

He uses stock phrases about stability at every opportunity, but this is not a stable time, to pretend it is is dangerous folly.
The creative person is flexible, he is able to change as the situation changes, to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress. He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are."
Frank Goble


A sensible leader would look at the situation today and see a need for radical changes, not a return to the 90s with Mandleson and Alistair Cambell. Its time to stop spending billions on nuclear weapons when they were designed for a war that is long over. Time to give up unpopular and expensive schemes like i.d. cards, subsidies for nuclear power and the arms trade. Quit wasting money expanding roads and airports, invest in things that people actually will need in the future like public transport.

In short, time for a greener leadership, step forward greens with radical policies. The Green New Deal calls for public investment in green-collar jobs in areas including renewable energy. Dr Caroline Lucas said
"When the world faced economic depression back in the early 1930s, it was President Roosevelt's New Deal that got people back to work with a massive investment in infrastructure. Today we stand on the brink of a triple crisis – a combination of a credit-fuelled financial meltdown, accelerating climate change, and soaring energy prices. We need a Green New Deal in response. The core would be a 21st century project to make the nation's buildings truly energy efficient, with local authority bonds being issued to raise the necessary funds for a major investment in insulation, efficiency and renewables, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process."


http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2008-09-06-NewDeal.html
http://www.gordonclown.com/
http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/gordon_is_short_for_clown
"Can be used against any jokers, e.g My manager is a bit of a 'Gordon'"

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