The Wardman Wire

Paul Krugman

The Dour one is smiling

It has been described as the economic 9/11. We are told it is the once in a life time economic crash – something we haven’t seen since 1929… if ever at all. The housing market has virtually seized up and we are now all less than proud owners of a number of banks. In short, things are looking pretty miserable for us all.

Everyone, that is, except Gordon Brown. Have you ever seen the dour old ball of misery smile so much? He has the sort of glint in the eye usually only reserved for milkmen and Peter Stringfellow. And well he might, because the rollercoaster that has taken him from being the Iron Chancellor to Mr Bean is back on the climb. Unflash Gordon is back.

Some endorsement indeed

Yesterday Paul Krugman was awarded the economics Nobel prize. He is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. He has written over 200 scholarly papers and 20 books—both academic and non-academic. He has predicted just about every major economic downturn around the world over the past twenty years with phenomenal accuracy. And today he is touting Gordon Brown as the man leading the world out of this disaster. Now that, for me, is quite some endorsement.

Brown making sense

Krugman criticises the Henry Paulson’s plan for the $700bn bailout that purchased the so called toxic debt, while praising Brown for going “straight to the heart of the problem — and (moving) to address it with stunning speed.” He notes that Europe is now following Britain’s lead and, even more significantly, so too, is Henry Paulson and the American government. Krugman finishes with words that will widen that smile so much he’ll need a plastic surgeon to remove it*: “Luckily for the world economy, however, Gordon Brown and his officials are making sense. And they may have shown us the way through this crisis.”

Reports of Brown recovery may be exaggerated

Last week I said that reports of his demise are exaggerated. Well the latest poll has put him on 10% - just one point away from the magic single figures. OK, so reports of his recovery may well be exaggerated too. After all, as Yoda might say, one poll an election win does not make. People will be quick to point out that Brown played a role in the mess in the first place and that in a few months time it will not only be recession we are dealing with but any number of unknown other matters too. But Brown has shown in the past few weeks that he is not finished, and perhaps that he has only just started. We just might still have a titanic election fight on out hands yet.

The selfless one saves us all

Oh how the fortunes of our highest men and women in power can turn in what seems like mere rolls of a dice. How about David Davis. Remember him? You know, the man that was going to save Britain from the tyranny of government single handedly. The man who sacrificed his job so the rest of us could be free. The selfless being who had no illusions of undermining Cameron whatsoever.

Well, today he is back (though you do have to look quite hard). For Davis has been vindicated, he tells us, as yesterday the Lords rejected proposals for 42 days and the issue has been dropped by the government… sort of. How he comes to this conclusion, I have no idea. What role he thinks his resignation played in the Lords rejecting this Bill is, as yet, very unclear. Yet he says he is “happy to burn out a career for a success like that“.

Deluded… and dangerous

The man is quite clearly deluded. The Lords were going to reject this issue even if Davis had threatened to get (territorial) SAS on their asses. Admit it Dave, it was a stunt that went wrong. I predict that if things do start to get a bit hairy for Cameron in the polls, this won’t be the career burn out that Davis has spoken of. Far from it, he will back and it won’t be our civil liberties that he will be saving for us all, rather it will be an assault on Cameron’s leadership.

In other news, I wore blue socks at the weekend that clearly gave Brown a boost in the polls. Just go look at YouGov if you don’t believe me.

* - Brown’s widening smile reminds me of the classic National Lapoon’s Vacation quote from Chevy Chase: “We’re all gonna have so much f***ing fun we’ll need plastic surgery to remove our god damn smiles. You’ll be whistling Zippity-Doo-Dah out of your assholes!”

You can watch it here.