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As a Labour member, despite the hiatus over Brown, who will go eventually before the next election, when a country makes up its mind for a change of Government, which was on the cards long before Brown came into office, his speech will solve nothing.

Those who saw the unfortunate photo of Milleband on the front of today's Times will wonder if this is to be our next Prime Minister!!??
As I have blogged many times MP's are in the realms of cognitive dissonence, saying one thing but believing another. Both my hometown MP's on big majorities praise Brown to the rafters, but on examining their credentials closely one is a Cabinet Minister and one a Government whip. They know on what side their bread is buttered.

When you watch labour MP's supporting Brown, don't listen to their words but watch their eyes and their noses how long they grow. Perhaps we could solve the problem by getting them to take a lie test? Talk about whistling in the dark.

If Brown hangs on even beyond the next by-election what will "do" for him will be a significant loss of local Cllrs. (not MEP's) next year. These are the Party's footsoldiers, including myself.

What everyone is igoring but will see at next week's Tory Conference is that they also haven't a clue what to do and will talk in sound-bites and generalities.
If this is what you are all hoping for, God help you.

At least we won't have the anti Labour "posters" on any web-site blog as they will be all praising the magnificent Government they have elected with a majority of about 200-300 seats.

May the Lord have mercy on your souls.

I will continue in the faith and help to rebuild the party with policies fit for the 21st Century. A period in opposition could be the best thing to happen to my party. I can say that as I don't get their salary or paronage of high office. I just pay my subs. and knock on doors.

Brown has stifled debate and so dissatisfaction can not be expressed and there is consequently no direction to the internal opposition. It is a volatile malaise with no obvious solutions. Rather like Gordon it just exists and does little. There are no clear factions or policy lines.

The irony is that it weakens Brown. If he had allowed an election I would doubt that Miliband and others would have stood. Miliband does not have any great ideas and would only be a cosmetic change.

Personally I think Labour should be bold and go for a general election because its best for the country. The country have had enough of them. The Tories don't have any great ideas either and probably will slide into the large majority "believe your own publicity" arrogance that infected Labour.

The electoral pendulum swings are more violent with microscopic media coverage. Perhaps the big two will consider the country as a whole (before Scotland probably departs with Gordon) and consider electoral reform. The swings would not be so great with fairer voting and it would allow failing parties to be replaced. It is a corrupt system.

On the US could Paul Mason or somebody highlight where we are with derivatives "debt" and Credit Default Swaps? Is the crisis actually over despite the haggling over the $700 billion dollars to be spent on mortgage debts.

The Zardari situation is going to be very crucial. If there are doubts over the overall loyalty of the ISS (The Marriot bombing required very good intelligence if ministers WERE going to be there) then I assume that is critical to understanding what Zardari will see through that lense.

How are the current banking woes going to impact upon pensions? Most pensions are now largely equity based I think and with the FTSE dropping in value I assume that means low growth or negative growth after we have barely recovered from 9/11?

How about a pensions financial sector expert?

'3. At 1:09pm on 23 Sep 2008, thegangofone
How about a pensions financial sector expert?'

Or... and here's a thought, a balanced, objective collection of moderate folk who know what they are talking about around the topic at hand, and not the usual ratings-cranking, PR/producer-concocted, extreme bookend, 'usual-suspects on the speed-dial' classic Newsnight 'twofer', at the expense of anyone who knows what's really going on and what the average joe can make of it all, much less do about it.

No? Oh, well. Plus ca change.

So now we know Gordon Brown’s vision for the future; or do we? The elephant on the podium was the lack of a clear vision. The slogan, such as it was, was ‘A new settlement for new times – a fair Britain for a new age’.

Breaking this down, the core message was ‘fairness’; something we all would agree with. The rather strange idea was his ‘settlement’. It is not clear what that might add to the debate; quite simply, what does it mean.

Thereafter it was vintage (boring) Brown, with list after list of past achievements and almost nothing about the future; apart from his usual couple of minor announcements intended to show him in some sort of action. Yet what he needs is a very clear message which sets him apart; the missing vision. Even his personalisation of the speech largely boiled down to his wife introducing him; hoping perhaps to emulate Sarah Palin?

Surprisingly, given what should now be his one strength, there was really very little said about the economic crises. Maybe that was because he had almost nothing of his own to announce – apart from his coming jaunt to the US. He added nothing special that his government would do; and conspicuously failed to mention the borrowing requirements.

It seems his one key message, carefully trailed with the media, was ‘No time for a novice’. This was perceived by the commentators, I suspect correctly, as a comment on Milliband not Cameron. Tine will tell!

What about Peter Bernstein - editor of the newly released reissue of Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz's "The Great Contraction 1929-1933" to comment on the testimony being given by Ben Bernanke and Paulson?



This new issue of Friedman's classic study - heavily divergent from JK Galbraith's view and also from the other classic on 'The Great Depression' by Charles Kindleberger - just arrived through the post this morning (publication having apparently been delayed!) So I haven't read it yet ......

But as well as Friedman's text it also includes the 'Remarks' on this episode by Ben Bernanke, currently Chair of the Fed
(made originally in 2002 on the occasion of Friedman's 90th birthday) as well as the introductyr essay by Peter L. Bernstein
'The Great Contraction, Seen from the Perspective of 2207'. There is also a new preface by Friedman's co-author Anna Jacobson Schwartz.

Bernanke's comments are of course of interest in that as an economic historian of the earlier crisis he is now handling the current crisis which has some similarities.

Francis Cairncross was also on Newsnight Scotland last night - she is a member of the Scottish Economic Council of Advisors - and she was excellent on the unfolding crisis as it affects both the UK and the US. The First Minister of Scotland was in talks with the boss of Scottish Widows Archie Kane who is on the board of Lloyds TSB while Brown and Darling were at their party conference .......!

Brown "No time for a novice".

Yes hah hah Gordon!

It takes enormous skill and experience to lead us into Iraq, give us the 10p tax change and allow an economic crisis that is on a par with the Wall St Crash to brew up. To cap it off it takes experience to then announce that after the horse bolted you are a hero and visionary as you will introduce stricter regulation to the financial markets.

I keep thinking he has hit the bottom and can sink no lower in the publics opinion. But I think now Honest John Major is trailing him and he can go on to be a real legend of mediocrity.

neilrobertson (#6) Remarkable achievements of an extended family. To be a master of the universe, one just has to write a religious text which everyone else has to follow?

Plus ca change...

DON'T BLAME GORDON - HE ONLY READ IT

Who wrote the speech? Who put in all that stuff that was SO not Gordon and made him look silly, along with the words that said: WYSIWYG? And then there was the 'music': the soft passages that tugged at the gag-strings. How was that annotated?
This was not Labour - old or new - it was laboured. And as for the trailed apology for the 10p crime against humanity, all it elicited was: "I was stung". Job's a Gord'n.