I do not claim any direct link between my declaration in Kirkcaldy that I was seeking nomination as a SNP Westminster candidate and fancied taking on Gordon Brown, and his subsequent decision to let the media know he intends to stand down and not fight! But it is an act of remarkable political cowardice from a man who so spectacularly promised No voters massive devolution of powers to the Scottish parliament. That Brown promise was given more publicity by the mainstream media than any other event in the entire referendum campaign. The fact that Brown never had any locus to deliver what he was promising was bound at some stage to become acutely embarrassing. He now escapes responsibility for the cynical lies of his pledges, by simply running away.
Brown was always a feartie. He was scared to stand against Tony Blair for leader, scared to call a general election early when he could have averted Labour’s electoral disaster. He was even scared to stick to his guns when for once he got something right and called that dreadful woman a bigot.
Brown contributed directly to the crippling poverty of millions by his disastrous deregulation of the City of London and years of giving the bankers everything they desired. Nor must we allow the mainstream media unchallenged to cement the lie that there was no alternative to trillions of pounds in grants and effective subsidies from taxpayers being given direct to the fatcat bankers, which have crippled the public finances for generations. Letting bad banks go bust and bad bankers go on the dole (or hopefully jump) was a far better option. Contrary to the Brown myth, world recession was not averted. It happened, massively. The only thing saved was the multi-million incomes of the people whose greed and stupidity had caused the collapse.
Brown remains the greatest friend the bankers ever had.
Brown and Darling lead a large phalanx of Labour MPs who realise their best career move is to transit to the benches of the House of Lords while the going is good, and start pocketing their 300 pounds a day allowance for doing nothing but hoovering up comfy directorships.
I fear that they will find that Scottish independence is coming sooner than they think and that gig will soon get cut short too.
As for Brown’s devolution promises, frankly I don’t give a damn about the Smith Commission. Holyrood control of income tax is meaningless if most other taxes are set in London. Fiscal autonomy can only work if Scotland is given all its taxes, including those from hydrocarbons and from whisky. That will never happen. Any tax and spend devolution which reserves oil and whisky taxes to the UK Treasury will be perverted by Westminster, to only result in further public spending cuts for Scotland. Besides, if Westminster can still send our children to fight and die in illegal wars, the money is immaterial.
Which brings us back to Gordon Brown. Remember not only did he first deregulate the bankers then give them huge transfers from poor families’ taxes, he backed Blair to the hilt over the invasion of Iraq. Without Brown’s support, Blair could not have done it, and hundreds of thousands would not have died – nor would we have ISIS and linked chaos now.
Brown is an evil man.
Give or take some, the stats on Iraq were roughly this:
a Libdem – against the invasion (how things change when in government)
a Tory – a Friend of Israel (over 80%) and for invading
a Labour backbencher – against.
a Labour frontbencher – voted for their own career crawl. What could be more important than that?
The statistics suggest that whatever Brown may tell himself – he belongs in that last, most despicable, of categories.
The irony is, if he’d resigned and brought Blair down he might have been PM all the sooner.
It must have been an entirely different Craig Murray who waxed on about Brown:
Quote: “I have a guilty political secret. I do not detest Gordon Brown. That is such an unfashionable opinion that I don’t really expect any comments at all to agree with it.” (Continues at some length)
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/09/gordon-brown/
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“The fact that Brown never had any locus to deliver what he was promising was bound at some stage to become acutely embarrassing.”
The fact that so many Scots were stupid enough to believe a word of it is acutely embarrassing.
Reluctant Observer
No, same Craig Murray, just five years wiser.
Don’t forget Brown’s first move to prop up the banks; he sold gold at rock bottom prices and signalled his intention ahead of time specifically to transfer wealth from the government (us) to the banks.
Indeed. Five years ago, Brown hadn’t campaigned against Scottish independence, although he had done all those things you’ve since found such fault with.
Anyway, was September 2013 really five years ago? How time flies!
OT, Former Surrey Comet news editor gagged over reporting of alleged paedophile ring (in 1984, of all years!)
One of Brown’s best mates was Sir Victor Blank. HBOS and Lloyds brought down.
Sir Victor Blank: The crony with a gift for disaster
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1146069/PETER-OBORNE-Lloyds-TSB-boss-Victor-Blank–crony-gift-disaster.html
Chairman of the Social Mobility Foundation
Chairman of UJS Hillel.
Chairman of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ health research charity, as well as an Honorary Fellow and a Patron of the Royal College
Chairman of the Council of University College School
Honorary Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford.
Vice President of Oxford Philomusica
Chairman of the European Advisory board of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business
Member of the Advisory board of the British Olympic Association
Vice President of the Jewish Leadership Council.[34]
Member of the financial reporting council and CBI Boardroom Issues Group.
Speculation over Honours
In early 2012, a group of Conservative party MPs suggested that Blank’s role in the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS meant that he should be stripped of his knighthood.[35] However, sources within the banking industry have opposed this claim by highlighting that the original stipulations behind his Honour came in 1999, long before the banking crash and that a ‘witch hunt’ should be avoided.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Blank
Must not have any witch hunts must we.
~~~
Brown has always supported Zionist Israel of course.
Gordon Brown tells British Zionists he always loved Israel
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/mcmansions-suvs-megachurches-and-the-baghdad-embassy/
It seems I am not allowed to post this on The Telegraph. My option to do so got closed down as I was writing it..so it must have been being read as I wrote it..
Janet,
This entire thing really does frighten me to death, because I know it is not true. I learnt to shoot an air rifle on Langley Estate Oldham Middleton and had my first job at the age of 15 at Pilsworth Estate in Bury in Lancashire.
My Mum was Manageress of Johnson’s The Cleaners in the Centre of Middleton when I was a little boy..I came from a “Posh Part” of Oldham..but knew Langley Estate Really Well.
I Know That The Boston Bombing was Faked. I have done photography as a Passion all My Life, and I can tell the Difference…
As soon as I heard about Woolwich – which was on the Internet…I was actually posting on John Ward’s Blog – The Slog (He’s From Manchester too- but he won’t believe it) I literally threw up..I puked up..all my guts all over the floor…Its coming home to us in a Big Way..Please Janet..help Defend Us..
What more Can I say ..mention Chris Spivey ..and Have The SWAT Squad Around..
I am F’;king Terrified To Write The Truth
These Evil B@stards Really Have Taken Control..and You all Think I’m Mad
Great Acting Today..but too young For Kes
Tony
Interesting point re “Bigotgate”.If Brown had stood his ground and called the woman out for what she was-a bigot-he would have gained massive respect.IMO any politician who stands up for their beliefs and says “This is my position and I dont give a shit about the press” will be one seriously popular Politician.Forget “triangulation” and “focus groups”,just put it on the line and tell the press to go fuck themselves-in a manner of speaking 🙂
well,it would never be Gordon of the Lily liver.”great clunking fist”?more like “wee,timerous beastie”.
Reluctant Observer
You quoted somewhat selectively from that old post. you missed, for example,
“I do realise that he went along with the Iraq War and all the other horrors of the Blair era. Interestingly, I don’t remember the question of what Gordon Brown really thought about Iraq ever being discussed; he deserves condemnation for having not tried to stop it, and perhaps he was indeed an enthusiast. And I am well aware that the Private Finance Initiative is a terrible disaster, and that he oversaw creeping privatisation in the health services, and – worst of all – the introduction of tuition fees.”
Actually the comments on that blog entry convinced me I was mistaken, and had overlooked the banality of evil – I should not have taken his being quite nice in private life to excuse his public actions.
“and his subsequent decision to let the media know he intends to stand down and not fight! But it is an act of remarkable political cowardice from a man who so spectacularly promised No voters massive devolution of powers to the Scottish parliament.”
Perhaps given that he would be 69 at the end of the next Parliament, and he has a relatively young family one of who has a potentially life shortening illness and he no longer in operating in the senior positions that he is used to – there may be perfectly valid reasons other than cowardice as to why he has announced his intention to resign from Parliament.
As for calling him evil – what does Craig Murray know of his personal motivations to form such a judgement.
But I daresay Craig has friends or friends of friends who are in the position to make such judgements – as for being swayed in his views commenters on his post just over 12 months ago the less said the better.
The only cowardice I see here is not from Gordon Brown.
Of course I suspect the real reason for the “evil” tag is I suspect his leadership of the castigated majority of Scottish people who voted no – the precedents for nationalists who show intolerance and shower nasty labels and insults on their fellow countrymen who don’t agree with them are not good.
Resident Dissident
There are many kinds of cowardice. One is posting invariably negative comments on a personal blog obsessively over years, while hiding your identity. That is cowardice of a pretty high order.
Craig Murray, September 2013:
“There are one nation Tories who seem to me perfectly decent people, genuinely trying to do good. I don’t hate them because their political conclusions on the best way to do good are different to mine. Gordon Brown I put rather in the same category – I feel he was trying to do good for ordinary people, he just got it wrong.”
Craig Murray, October 2014:
“Without Brown’s support… hundreds of thousands would not have died – nor would we have ISIS and linked chaos now.
Brown is an evil man.”
That is not quoting you unfairly selectively there. Anyone can read the original, and see the generally warm tones.
—————————-
What a difference 13 months makes! Could anything over the last 13 months (during which Brown was definitely not in power) have caused such a revision of a character, from his being someone who “was trying to do good for ordinary people”, to being “an evil man”.
Has he done anything of particularly evil note in the past 13 months. Does campaigning against Scottish independence make one “evil” ?
@”Reluctant Observer”: I seem to recall your enthusiasm for a NO vote during the referendum. Does that – in your opinion – therefore make Brown a good man, and so cause you to overlook his other considerable failings?
glenn_uk – If your recollection is so good, perhaps you also remember that I was not calling Brown the lowest form of humanity just a year ago either.
It seems to me discovering someone is a liar and a traitor to their country could change your opinion of them.
The SNP opposed the invasion of Iraq, but Labour at Holyrood backed Tony Blair.
SNP leader John Swinney told MSPs: “The US and UK governments are pursuing an inevitable path to war and I believe it is our duty to steer this government away from this inappropriate approach
“Threatening to take unilateral action does not uphold the UN’s authority, it helps to destroy it and we as a parliament should have none of it.”
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Meanwhile on devolving of Income Tax.
=====================================
1. Barnett currently sees Scotland given more money per head from the Treasury than most other parts of the UK, to the tune of about £1200 per head, or 16% more than the UK average spending per capita. (Scotland actually more than pays for this “subsidy” in extra contributions, notably from oil revenue, but we’ll leave that to one side for the moment as it’s not the point under discussion.)
2. Each £1 in revenue that Scotland collects for itself should therefore strictly result in the reduction of the block grant by approximately £1.16, as that’s the premium Scotland currently receives.
3. This would clearly leave Scotland significantly worse off. The only way to reduce that shortfall (other than large tax increases in Scotland) would be to INCREASE the size of the Barnett premium on the remainder of the block grant paid by Westminster to Holyrood each year.
(This will be extremely unpopular in England, and likely to increase the pressure from Tory and Welsh MPs for a future revision to Scotland’s detriment.)
4. In that scenario, in reality NO new tax powers are being devolved. Scotland will be exactly where it is now – it’ll have the ability to subsequently increase or decrease taxes, but it’s getting that ability anyway from the already-passed Scotland Act 2012, due to come into effect next year.
(Which, contrary to popular belief, does NOT stipulate any maximum increase. The “devo nano” proposals which are still Labour’s official position, regardless of what Jim Murphy says, would in fact REDUCE the flexibility of Holyrood’s tax powers compared to the 2012 Act.)
5. The same scenario also destroys the idea that Holyrood will be any more “accountable”. Westminster will be paying to maintain the status quo, because if Holyrood keeps taxes exactly where they are now, nothing will change (except that there’ll be some expensive and complicated new bureaucracy running an extra tax office). Holyrood can just sit on its hands.
Oh, and you overlooked this one
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/01/gordon_brown_is/
Do you know Brown has gotten some of your posts about him removed from search using that european privacy thing laws. Look at the bottom of this.
You’re still a twat.
“The fact that so many Scots were stupid enough to believe a word of it is acutely embarrassing.”
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Yes Glenn, I’ll never forget the day the Lion Rampant, let out a squeak instead of a roar. On the upside though, Scotland has never been so politically alive, there has been an awakening a great wave of interest on all things national and international with a political tinge.
I must thank the referendum for that, for without it, Scots and residents of Scotland, would be like the frog at the bottom of the well, never knowing just how huge the sky really is.
I do think Brown was right to save the banks. Not because they deserve it, but because a failure of a bank is catastrophic for the economy, given the harm it does to creditors and depositors. Witness the damage done by the failure of Lehman and of Northern Rock.
We do badly need a way to punish banks (a way to destroy the bank without harming the account holders), otherwise they will remain too big to fail. However, as such a method does not yet exist (and certainly couldn’t be invoked in a crisis), Brown was absolutely right to save the banks when he did.
Also, it is only with hindsight that you can say that calling an immediate election would have saved labour (and I think one of the few decent things the coalition did was to set the election interval to a fixed period, so that the government of the day couldn’t game the system).
Craig
“There are many kinds of cowardice. One is posting invariably negative comments on a personal blog obsessively over years, while hiding your identity. That is cowardice of a pretty high order.”
_________________
If that is a reference to Resident Dissident then you are being unfair.
May I point out that the description on your second sentence would exactly fit a large number of other commenters on this blog. Commenters who are invariably negative (about the UK, the US, the West, the EU, the Ukrainian govt….), who are obsessive to the point of continually taking posts off-topic, and who are not exactly forthcoming about who they are (some have shown themselves pretty paranoid about their identity, come to think about it).
Fair enough. If one can demonstrate that they flip-flop and change their tune completely on another’s worth depending on how they feel on a given day, then they are only showing their genuine (in)consistency.
But did you really only conclude Brown to be a liar and traitor after his performance in the Scottish campaign ? No answer is required. Perhaps the majority of Scots are liars and traitors, or at least happy to be led by one.
Speaking of which… 😉
Police are investigating members of the House of Lords after one peer, Lord Hanningfield, was found to have abused his Parliamentary expenses.
Lord Hanningfield, jailed for expenses fraud, was exposed for regularly ‘clocking in’ to the House of Lords to claim a £300 daily attendance allowance despite spending minutes inside.
When his activities came to light, Lord Hanningfield said: “I could name 50 other peers that do it.”
______________________________________
What a bunch of fat greedy troughing B*stards.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11254629/Police-investigation-launched-into-House-of-Lords-expenses-fraud-scandal.html
Glenn-uk
“@”Reluctant Observer”: I seem to recall your enthusiasm for a NO vote during the referendum. Does that – in your opinion – therefore make Brown a good man, and so cause you to overlook his other considerable failings?”
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Glenn, don’t be silly (if that was a wind-up, I’ll forgive you… 🙂 )
@ Habbabkuk : Cor, thanks 😉
Just wondering what the game is here. Praising Brown, or attacking CM? Could be a “twofer”, I suppose.
“Police are investigating members of the House of Lords after one peer, Lord Hanningfield, was found to have abused his Parliamentary expenses.
Lord Hanningfield, jailed for expenses fraud, was exposed for regularly ‘clocking in’ to the House of Lords to claim a £300 daily attendance allowance despite spending minutes inside.
When his activities came to light, Lord Hanningfield said: “I could name 50 other peers that do it.”
______________________________________
What a bunch of fat greedy troughing B*stards.”
____________________
A sorry tale indeed, and one which reflects badly on the rules governing the award of the daily allowance by the House of Lords.
By the way, did you hear the news item on BBC radio this evening about the £100.000 contract awarded by Stormont to a firm of consultants run by… two Sinn Fein MPs? Apparently the work was never carried out.