short-term memory...
Fuckpig's post reminded me...

Ok, so a couple of banks that were doing some rather dodgy lending have gone tits up and suddenly we're gripped by panic.

But hang on a second, we didn't worry when Enron went under. Or Barings. Or BCCI. And does anyone remember the mass hysteria when Lloyds damn near went under in the early 1990s, wiping out half of their "Names" and almost taking the insurance industry with it? Nope, probably not.

Why is that, I wonder? Is it:
a) "Because it's MUCH WORSE THIS TIME, SO PANIC!"?

b) They were much smaller companies and didn't matter to the financial world?

or, c) we didn't have such fuck-witted, lowest-common-denominator courting media reporting so that halfwits who have zero understanding of economics didn't wade in and increase the wave of hysteria, whilst an incompetent government takes the opportunity to offlay blame for it's bad policy decisions onto the private sector, whilst raping the middle-classes for more revenue to plug the gaps in their floundering economic management strategy...?

I think I might go with...C
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:17, 21 replies)

I love you
for your hyphenation.
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:19, closed)

it is C
but i regret to announce i'm rather a fan of this government....mindless media circus aside.
Gordon Brown,par example,is responsible for the longest period of sustained economic growth in ...oh bugger...is it thirty years?I can't remember.
Anyway.It's not great but we're okay,really.
Everything's fine.
(Fuckpig "That's not even a pound a midget.", Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:20, closed)

But surely
what we've seen is that he was responsible for bugger-all. It's all global movements; he just had the good fortune to be Chancellor when things happened to be fine. It's like taking credit for keeping the beach dry just because you happened to be in charge of it when the tide was going out.
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:24, closed)

No, that's not true...
Yes, there are global cycles, but if you police your financial industry properly, they can't accrue toxic debt or lend to sub-prime borrowers.

The government should also then have enough revenue from tax left from the up-turn to help the economy ride out the down-turn, but Brown (and Blair) wasted all the cash, but now seeks to deny any responsiblity. Then again, it's typical (New) Labour policy - Tax the middle classes to breaking point (class war), then spend all the money like water. At no point in the 20th Century did a Labour Government ever turn a bad economy into a good one - so why would Brown be any different?
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:33, closed)

Sorry -
- I didn't mean to imply his policies were benign: they definitely weren't. I simply meant he shouldn't get any credit for the good times.
( Olembe Refuses to write in this space, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:39, closed)

ahhh...
sorry - I did think it incredible that you'd be standing up for him!
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:44, closed)

how can you support Brown?
Aside from the fact that I have grave doubts about the long term vision provided by a one-eyed man, they rode a wave of economic growth put in place by John Major (as no government policy takes effect for at least three years), whilst pissing away money on support immingrant-snigle-mother-gay-basket-weaving workshops, trying to federalise us into the EU state by the back door and starting two illegal wars. They let the Bank of England (which they privatised, not the Tories, remember) set interest rates, made them responsible for the Pound, but gave them next to no power to prevent bad economic actions by either government or the financial industry...

I could go on for a long, long time, but basically, Blair and Brown took us from prosperity to huge public debt and unprecedented levels of personal borrowing. Of course, people were happy because they could have their sovreign rings and Reebok Classics, but the fact is that anytime the average level of borrowing is 100% of the household income, plus at least another 100%, then there is a real problem and that, unfortunately, is how Brown "beat" the boom and bust cycle - he just turned a blind eye to irresponsible lending until such times as it became totally unmanageable and it brings the coutnry to its knees...i.e the present day.
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:29, closed)

alright,i agree.
what's an illegal war?
(Fuckpig "That's not even a pound a midget.", Fri 23 Jan 2009, 16:06, closed)

jeez...
you're almost as tedious as the cc reporting.

Give it a rest, dude.

Edit: in your answers to this QOTW, I mean. I think the average QOTW reader will understand your POV by now.
(haberman is singing in the changes, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:45, closed)

I agree
we get it. You don't like the current government. What are you going to do about it? Oh thats right, whinge on an internet forum.
(Bazongaloid, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 15:49, closed)

Well, pardon me...
but it's a little hard to look at the fucking economic wasteland we now have and not point the finger squarely at a) irresponsible lending and, b) incompetent government from Brown (who let's face it was Chancellor for 10 years).

The two are inextricably linked to the current situation. Frankly, if Brown turned things around, I'd applaud his efforts, but the problems are a) largely of his making and, b) he has fuck-all idea how to fix them - aside from increasing National Debt to record levels, plowing the Pound into the shitter and making sure our great-grandchildren will be paying out for his fuckups.

So, no, I think he's a cunt. Having said that, I have secure work, a good income and a nice home, so I really don't give a bollocks personally, but I see stories on here of people getting screwed because of the situation he helped cause and it makes me angry. Maybe I should just say "I'm alright, Jack" and not give a toss about anyone else, eh?
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 16:03, closed)

Yeah.
That's what I do*



*May not be what I do.
( gareth_alien will be human again at, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 16:21, closed)

Surely one would plough the pound
and plow the dollar. Or something.

Also, you categorise too frequently. I don't need my paragraphs broken down into As, Bs and Cs - I'm quite capable of retaining uncategorised information long enough to make sense of it as a whole, thankyouohsoverymuch.

Other than that, I more or less agree with you. Crash Gordon, Failure of the Universe.
( Happy Phantom has been to Hastings, Brighton, and Eastbourne too, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 20:04, closed)

Did you
used to be in a Harry Enfield program as Tory Boy?
(Fuckarma was masturbating into your handbag, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 16:14, closed)

Pffft!

(Bazongaloid, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 16:18, closed)

Nope...
I've just been around long enough to see things like this happen before.

Thatcher came in and had to pick the pieces up of a totally fucked economy and we had some hard times because of it. She should have gone after the first term, though, but Kinnock was such a twat no-one would ever have given him the reins... Oddly, I liked John Smith, but he unfortunately died. Major did a reasonable job of turning things around after the 92 recession, whilst Blair seemed to offer a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, he never lived up to the promises, pissed away millions of public funds and Brown is just doing the same whilst trying to stay party leader long enough to lose an election and pass the buck to Cameron.

No political party is perfect, but the cycle is (and always was), Tories put things on an even keel, generate governmetn revenue and start to improve the economy at the expense of stern and austere times to live in, Labour get in and blow money of public spending, putting in middle-managers, stewards and increasing wages, etc, without any idea of where the money comes from. They usually increase tax on the middle-classes (stamp duty, death duty, etc) - the lower orders, however, usually get to have a bit of fun (Festival of Britain, etc). Meanwhile, the Liberals sit on the fence and promise a penny on income tax for everyone in return for us living in a home-made, hand-woven, organically-ethical Utopia.

Basically, the system only works if no party is in power for more than eight years. That way, no-one can fuck things up too much. The lack of viable opposition (Labour being crap in the 80s and Tories self-destructing in the 90s) meant that balance got broken. Hence the pig's ear the country has now become.
(Chad, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 16:23, closed)

As much as Brown might have had a hand in this
I'd rather see him in power than give control to Cameron and Osbourne. Something about them, can't put my finger on it, but I don't have any trust in them.

Agree with your point on John Smith, but to redress the balance, I also thought Heseltine would have been a half decent leader. For some reason, old Paddy Pants-Down seemed an OK type, maybe it's the stories of him serving in the SBS and thus being double hard makes me think he'd have faced down the EU, USA, and so on.
(randomstupidname would really like this signature field to be bigge, Fri 23 Jan 2009, 21:25, closed)

Yeah
Paddy was actually rather good. He was wasted in the lib dems, unfortunately. I think a reasonable front bench would have been heseltine, ashdown and smith. Oddly enough, portillo made a good orator but his policies were awful...
(Chad, Sat 24 Jan 2009, 0:46, closed)

For God's sake man...
Listen to yourself. 'gay basket weaving'? Been reading the Daily Mail have we? Portillo was a cunt. Standing up and defending the poll tax? That's a cuntish thing to do. As is making a big deal of your opponents's homosexuality during the 1997 election only to be outed shortly after. John Major was a shit chancellor and shit Prime Minister.

What is your point exactly? That Gordon Brown is partially sighted and therefore can't be trusted? That he's a Labour politician?

Yeah, record investment in the NHS, introducing a national minimum wage and making the Bank of England independent (NOT privatising it- do you even know what 'privatisation' means? Of course you don't you spackcock, unless of course you can tell me where I can buy publicly traded shares in Bank of England plc) are all terrible, terrible things. Aren't they?

What an utter, abject cock you are.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Sun 25 Jan 2009, 0:46, closed)

well...let's see
1) Under Major, our economy came out of global recession faster than any other first-world economy.

2) Under Blair/Brown, we have seen a national surplus turn into a national deficit, as they piss away public money.

3) Under Major taxes were nowhere near as high as they are under Labour (and don't get me started ont he so-called stealth taxes - surplus charges on god knows what, charging to use roads you already pay for with your Road Tax, etc.

4) The so-called socilaist Labour party basically took University education back to the 1800s by making it the preserve of those rich enough to pay, as opposed to those bright enough to go.

5) Domestic debt has increased hugely. When the last recession was around, most people owed out on a mortgage and, maybe, a credit card. Now the average level of debt is 200% of the income (excluding mortgages) - no wonder we saw increased trade on the high street - more idiots had access to credit they couldn't pay for...why? because Blair and Brown decided they could beat the laws of economics and enforced deregulation of credit laws and cut the Bank of England loose from the treasury.

Yes, I might have made a quip about the monocular cunt having no "vision", but the truth of the matter is he and his jug-eared pal have done more harm to this country in ten years than the combined efforts of the French and Germans over the past 800 years. We're fucked - under their lowest-denominator-wins regime, we have teenage illiteracy and pregnancy rates that Guatemala would be ashamed of, we're scared of our children, we're obese, lazy, stressed, over-worked, have fuck all quality of life, no privacy and laws that state that you could technically be tried as a terrorist for disagreeing with government policy. Oh yes, they've done a great job. And the money for the health service? Well, if they've spent so much, how come you can't get a doctor or a dentist (or a nurse)? Oh, that's right - it's becase all the money has gone into middle-maangement and public-private trusts that generate revenue for the government without actually getting any more nurses or doctors into the health service - for fucks' sake, they can't even get the bloody places cleaned properly, despite using immigrant labour.

So, no, I don't think I'll vote Labour come the election. Sorry for not being "right on" and going with the consensus of the Notting Hill brigade, but I happen to think that this country needs a kick up the ass. Education is a joke, healthcare is a joke, Law and Order is a joke and I say that having spent time takling to many friends I have in medicine, education and the police - they're all voer-worked and fundamentally targetted towards filling out paperwork to allow spin doctors to create press-releases than they are about actually doing what they need to do.

So, if that makes me unpopular, so be it, but I don't blame the teachers, the nurses or the coppers for the state of things, I blame Balir, Brown, Blears, Prescott and all the other fuckwits who have turned us from a well-respected country, in the top five economies, with the most envied healthcare and education system in the world into a total fucking joke. Cunts.
(Chad, Mon 26 Jan 2009, 13:50, closed)

Erm...
The reason I'm panicking, is because aside from the fact that my boyfriend was made redundant twice in the last year (CAD technician - back in work for the moment thankfully, but things are looking seriously rocky); over the past three months, two of my three brother-in-laws have been made redundant (a software engineer and a mortgage advisor), as have five of my friends (a plasterer, a HR manager, a mechanical engineer, a financial analyst, a graphic designer). I am about to be unemployed for the first time in my life, not for the lack of trying (over-qualified people going for the same jobs as me).

So yeah, I'm young (28) and probably naive, but I have never seen so many people I know lose their jobs so quickly. Especially from such a range of industries. I have always been able to find work if I need it (being prepared to do what it takes). I haven't had a day out of work since I was 16, even through 6 years of uni, whether that has meant agency work or filling in job applications every night. So yes, this is a huge shock to me. I'm looking at the potential of my flat being in negative equity, and claiming job-seekers allowance.

Couldn't give a rats ass about the banks themselves. Hence, I think, the general ambivalence about financial institutions going under (Hahaha - greedy bastards had it coming + shit, will it affect me at all = bleurgh, whatever).
(cherrynicola, Wed 28 Jan 2009, 13:37, closed)