osborne booed

[MacB]

Can we just clear something up here, Osbourne is neither inept nor clueless, though I accept that he may well be an odious person in real life. I seriously doubt he has the personal ability in economics to fully fathom the detail or to be able to argue his case in an open debate. But he can follow a game plan and act as a figurehead.

Using existing circumstances to justify making changes/actions that are ideological, rather than practical, in nature is nothing unusual. The most heinous and recent example would be Blair and Iraq.

The bollocks and spin that surrounds it all makes it seem inept because even spin has its limits and they're trying to polish a turd.

 

[swee'pea99]

I didn't say he was inept or clueless. He is a very adept modern politician. Even George Bush could follow a game plan and act as a figurehead, and compared to Dubya, Osbourne is a positive Einstein. What I did say is that he is a squit compared to Gordon Brown, who is easily maligned by the glib and superficial, but who, given different circumstances, could have been one of Britain's great Prime Ministers - transformative on the Thatcherite scale...and to the good - and who for all his failings had - and has - a great mind and was always ultimately driven not by personal vanity but by a genuine desire to serve the public good.

 

[MacB]

I didn't say he was inept or clueless. He is a very adept modern politician. Even George Bush could follow a game plan and act as a figurehead, and compared to Dubya, Osbourne is a positive Einstein. What I did say is that he is a squit compared to Gordon Brown, who is easily maligned by the glib and superficial, but who, given different circumstances, could have been one of Britain's great Prime Ministers - transformative on the Thatcherite scale...and to the good - and who for all his failings had - and has - a great mind and was always ultimately driven not by personal vanity but by a genuine desire to serve the public good.

To be fair it was a general comment and not directed at your posts specifically.

On the GB front, I don't know and we'll never know, too many ifs, buts and maybes. I didn't personally warm to him and always felt that he had a higher opinion of his own abilities and intellectual prowess than were merited. I felt he could be too stubborn and unwilling to consider/listen to alternatives, I was quite critical of him as a chancellor.

But if we're talking a comparative analysis then yes, he actually comes out rather well and I can certainly see the argument for what might have been. As for all the flak direct at Nu Labour in general, and GB in particular, most of it's nonsense. I believe where they went wrong was in going too far along the road of appeasement. Maybe a more ideological approach, as per the Condems, would have been better. They were ticking along but plenty of people warned about the fragility of the economics behind their ability to spend. They needed more in the way of structural and less in the way of window dressing.

That's with hindsight though and there were enough, from all areas, that believed the 'economic miracle' of the banks would be the gift that kept on giving. Naysayers weren't just ignored they were pilloried by the MSM. I actually thought that GBs finest moment was when he stepped up to the plate in the face of the banking crisis. What a window of opportunity existed to tackle the parasite attached to the global economy. I reckoned there were 3 months before that window closed and, much to my dismay, they were spun away.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

Because he is, of course, single-handedly responsible for the global financial crisis, manufactured the current recession all on his own, and has an odd form of Tourette's which compels him to call bigots 'bigots'.

He's a politician, so by definition, the enemy.

 

[marafi]

Love it could not stop laughing! It could of been worst though for him. At least no riots outside waiting for him.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

He's a politician, so by definition, the enemy.

I like the guy. Having met him a few times over the years. Besides, my imaginary friend says I have to love my enemies.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

I like the guy. Having met him a few times over the years. Besides, my imaginary friend says I have to love my enemies.

My ex mother in law went to school with his elder brother.

I have no personal issues with GB, and I am glad he called that woman a bigot because she was and the reaction of everyone should have been a shrug and to say "well, if the cap fits...."

I just have a problem with anyone who wants to hold a position of power over the general public - what is healthy about that?

I am an evil communist dictator, but I know I am evil. I am on "don't be evil" tablets and also I get too distracted by pastry products to actually ever hold a coup.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

I am an evil communist dictator, but I know I am evil. I am on "don't be evil" tablets and also I get too distracted by pastry products to actually ever hold a coup.

My attempts at global domination have always been thwarted by those pesky brightly coloured moving objects. And beer. And good malt whisky.

Folk like Brown, in my estimation, go into politics to be of 'service' rather than purely to get power. Sure they want power but not as an end in itself, or to satisfy themselves and their cronies, but because they want to see the world changed for the better and believe that holding the reigns is the way you do that.

For all that though it is still simply ego running riot.

 

[MissTillyFlop]

And beer. And good malt whisky.

.

ooh, whisky!

 

[subaqua]

My attempts at global domination have always been thwarted by those pesky brightly coloured moving objects. And beer. And good malt whisky.

Folk like Brown, in my estimation, go into politics to be of 'service' rather than purely to get power. Sure they want power but not as an end in itself, or to satisfy themselves and their cronies, but because they want to see the world changed for the better and believe that holding the reigns is the way you do that.

For all that though it is still simply ego running riot.

in my case it doesn't even have to be good malt whisky. even a crap blend has the same effect

 

[asterix]

Quite, but let's not get the rose tinted specs out for labour's last time in office yet though.

Indeed not, although I don't think Callaghan can be held to blame. He was shafted by the striking workers who, strangely enough, were complaining about a pay freeze in the public sector. The Labour government were attempting to control inflation through wage restraint.

 

[ASC1951]

To draw a comparison between Gordon Brown and George Osbourne is inane.
Even [Gordon Brown's] political opponents (at least the honest ones) would acknowledge him to be a genuinely serious financial brain. He is, among other things, widely credited for rapidly designing and efficiently orchestrating the global course of action that helped prevent the credit crunch taking us back to the '30s.

George Osbourne is, by common consent, a mental pygmy.

Now that's just silly. You may not like George Osborne or his policies, but he is up there with the brightest. His Oxford 2.1 is comparable with Gordon Brown's Edinburgh First; both in History, as it happens.

And for all his alleged grasp of economics, other assessments of Gordon Brown's performance with the national finances are available.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

in my case it doesn't even have to be good malt whisky. even a crap blend has the same effect

It's the crap stuff that sets my mind on thoughts of global domination!

Co-op own brand Highland is wonderful stuff though.

 

[asterix]

Now that's just silly. You may not like George Osborne or his policies, but he is up there with the brightest. His Oxford 2.1 is comparable with Gordon Brown's Edinburgh First; both in History, as it happens.

And for all his alleged grasp of economics, other assessments of Gordon Brown's performance with the national finances are available.

GB has often been criticised for selling off the UK's gold. When you consider the number of times the gold standard has caused economic problems, either through countries leaving it or returning to it, the decision makes a lot more sense! Once we had sold the stuff there was no going back, we sank or swam by our own performance and not some artificial commodity-backed measure. Had GB been given more time he might have surprised a few people.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I saw David Cameron and his chums the other day there now, and they were (quite rightly) booed too. They just smiled, laughed and carried on