Gormless Gideons future in freefall.

[Dick Knights Mumm]

What would you have done differently ?

Probably not got into a stand-off against speculators who knew a lot more than me.

I am sure the captain of the Titanic was a good man but he didn't handle the voyage very well.

 

[User removed 4]

Probably not got into a stand-off against speculators who knew a lot more than me.

I am sure the captain of the Titanic was a good man but he didn't handle the voyage very well.

Well thanks for that detailed description, I must admit from the confident way you decried Lamonts stewardship of the exchequer I was expecting a little more.

 

[Simster]

I dont see what they could have done differently to be honest, it was an unprecedented attack on sterling and I really dont see what they could have done , maybe have admitted defeat and bailed earlier ? So, more to the point , if you dont think it was handled well, how it could it have been handled differently ?

You've answered your own question - bailed earlier. MUCH earlier, instead of treating millions of mortgage borrowing home owners with contempt.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Well thanks for that detailed description, I must admit from the confident way you decried Lamonts stewardship of the exchequer I was expecting a little more.

Well - actually that was not me.

And if you are looking for experts on the economy, hanging around on another teams message board is likely to be a bit of a disappointment. I read fairly widely and have not seen a lot of (i.e. any) analysis saying that Lamont handled it well.

 

[User removed 4]

You've answered your own question - bailed earlier. MUCH earlier, instead of treating millions of mortgage borrowing home owners with contempt.

It was a pretty unprecedented attack on the currency ,i'd certainly never seen such a concerted effort by hedge funds to force a government into a course of action, so your course of action would have been to instantly capitulate ? It was hardly " treating millions of mortgage borrowing home owners with contempt " was it , do you honestly think that was their intention rather than defending the currency ?

 

[User removed 4]

Well - actually that was not me.

And if you are looking for experts on the economy, hanging around on another teams message board is likely to be a bit of a disappointment. I read fairly widely and have not seen a lot of (i.e. any) analysis saying that Lamont handled it well.

Why the comment " hanging around on another teams message board " struck a bit of a nerve have i ? dont the "chaps" like it that people dont conform their accepted wisdom ?

 

[ROSM]

Well - actually that was not me.

And if you are looking for experts on the economy, hanging around on another teams message board is likely to be a bit of a disappointment. I read fairly widely and have not seen a lot of (i.e. any) analysis saying that Lamont handled it well.

Wasnt Lamont the First Secretary to the Treasury when we joined the ERM? If so, wasn't he involved in the level at which we joined? In which case that was a part of the cause of the issue. Couple this with his handling once the pressure hit - a problem he was part of the cause, then its not a ringing endorsement of his capability.

Was he has bad as Dennis Healey though? maybe on a par

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

It was a pretty unprecedented attack on the currency ,i'd certainly never seen such a concerted effort by hedge funds to force a government into a course of action, so your course of action would have been to instantly capitulate ? It was hardly " treating millions of mortgage borrowing home owners with contempt " was it , do you honestly think that was their intention rather than defending the currency ?

It is the moments of crisis by which leaders are judged. Maybe he should have anticipated what was coming. The result was the government and the country looked foolish, at great financial cost - and his hand was on the tiller and so he is judged by that. That is Lifebuoy.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Why the comment " hanging around on another teams message board " struck a bit of a nerve have i ? dont the "chaps" like it that people dont conform their accepted wisdom ?

Not really. Why are you a bit sensitive about it ?

If everyone had the same view it would be a dull place.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Why the comment " hanging around on another teams message board " struck a bit of a nerve have i ?

Actually I take that back. I was feeling a tad waspish.

 

[User removed 4]

Actually I take that back. I was feeling a tad waspish.

It was like a dagger through the heart

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Second Quarter - 0.7% !

Holy Cow

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Second Quarter - 0.7% !

Holy Cow

Just been reading about this. The construction sector is to blame according to some opinion leaders, an area the government tried to stimulate 6-8 months back. Doesn't seemed to have worked. Have the government got any more ideas left or do we just sit here until the country finally grinds to a total halt?

And why wait until 2014 to spend 10b rebuilding the railways. Do it now!

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Just been reading about this. The construction sector is to blame according to some opinion leaders, an area the government tried to stimulate 6-8 months back. Doesn't seemed to have worked. Have the government got any more ideas left or do we just sit here until the country finally grinds to a total halt?

And why wait until 2014 to spend 10b rebuilding the railways. Do it now!

Construction down 5.2%

 

[Titanic]

Construction down 5.2%

how was it ever going to keep up after the billions spent on the Olympics?

 

[Seagull58]

The worst chancellor of my lifetime. And that is saying something.

Oh please. Not even close. Brown is way ahead in fanatical mismanagement of the economy and non-management of the banking industry. He even sold off the gold reserves at the bottom of the market and then spunked away all the money. It'll take 10 to 15 years to repair the damage Brown foisted on the country.

 

[Tubby Mondays]

how was it ever going to keep up after the billions spent on the Olympics?

Just think what construction industry there would have been WITHOUT the Olympics!

 

[Seagull58]

Agreed. Unfortunately u-turns seem popular in politics currently - both from the coalition and the local Green council. Add to that the fact that the official opposition have no alternative policies ( and they'd probably change their mind if they did ! ) and the whole political arena in this country at the moment is a joke. Like them or loathe them, at least Thatcher and Blair had some balls and stuck to their policies.

The difficulty for the opposition is that it was their economic policies under Brown and Balls that messed everything up. Balls is still there so it's dfficult for them to dump the policies that got us into the mess, although they do, at least, admit they "made some mistakes". The biggest one was letting Brown and Balls anywhere near the country's finances.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

I'm no Osborne lover (are there any) but I would just say that if the spending cuts hadn't been made, the UK's AAA rating would have been taken away years ago, meaning higher Interest Rates.

If you think things are bad now, what would it have been like if we were all paying 7-8% interest rates on our Mortgages?

 

[Tubby Mondays]

In need of some education here:

What is that makes a chancellor good or bad? (Besides getting the country out of this, er, situation) And why is Osborne so bad?

Part of Osbornes master plan was to get rid of most of the public sector (you know the pointless ones; nurses, the police, the armed forces etc) because, as every one knows; all public sector workers are crap. They were then meant to go and work in the private sector, for example; if you were a high ranking, long serving, highly experienced police officer you could go and work for G4S say for the minimum wage or if you were a nurse you could go and become a petro-chemist for Shell or B.P.

This would save the taxpayers millions, and pay for tax cuts to enable the Tories to win the next general election, which is a rehashed trick they used in the 1980s.

I should at this point say that Osborne is also the mastermind behind the Tories election campaigns, for example the one in 2010 when he failed magnificantly to beat the hated Gordon Brown government, such is the measure of the mans capabilities.

He was fortunate to be able to say that these cuts were necessary to reduce the deficit and had nothing to do with tax cuts, and some suckers beleived him. This was shown to be the lie that it is at this years budget when he announced tax cuts for the highest earners.

The genius of this plan was also shown, when it became apparent that there were no jobs for all of those people from the public sector to do, except for things like the G4S example given above. So these people rather than earning money, paying tax, spending money and therefore keeping other people in work, went on the dole, therefore costing the government money, stopped spending money in places like shops and therefore cost other people jobs. These people then couldnt find jobs and the circle went on.

I hope this helps in at leats part of your question.