Fitaloon at MicroShaft

Fraser Nelson has fisked Brown’s interview in the Economist, and boy is it full of Gordon’s Brownies. A couple of them might whet your appetite. First on Debt

GB: Every country has had a build up of debt as result of the recession, no country has been immune from that requirement to add to its debt and every country is going to suffer a one-off rise in their debt levels that has got to be dealt with over the next few years.

FN: Yes, indeed. But let us look at how much these countries increased their debt by. Woooh, wait a minute, I just fell into one of Brown’s “verbal snares”. We’re not talking about a country getting into debt, we’re talking about governments saddling their people with debt. So, again, let us see how much debt the governments of various countries saddled their people with:

Second let’s have a look at one that gets most of the people all of the time, Brown’s “plan” to reduce the deficit. As Fraser so rightly points out when Brown says deficit people hear Debt, All he is supposedly doing in his unavailable plan is bring us back to spending what we earn, or at least halving the gap in the next 4 years. The debt we have built up in the meantime will still remain and have to be paid for, for years.

GB: I happen to think that our deficit-reduction plan over the first four years of halving the deficit is probably the most ambitious of any of the G7 countries.

FN: Brown has given himself seven years to get the public finances back in balance (he last balanced the government’s books in 2000/01). I know of no country with such a leisurely timetable. Again, observe the power of his spin. When he talks about halving the deficit by 2015/16, this is made out as some great national achievement. The PBR before last said (p190, here) that they would “eliminate the deficit on the current budget by 2015-16”. To downgrade this aim, from abolishing it to halving it, is a deplorable lack of fiscal discipline. But Brown uses rhetoric to suggest the reverse.

I suspect Brown’s aim is to exploit the lack of understanding of “debt” and “deficit” – a notorious blind spot in journalism (the BBC gets the two mixed up all the time). When he says “I’ll halve the deficit in four years” he wants people to hear “I’ll halve the debt in four years”.

Read the whole thing and understand how much this man can stretch the truth.

An interview packed with Brownies | The Spectator.

An interview packed with Brownies | The Spectator.

A rather good article from Matthew Parris in response to Fraser Nelson’s more strident thoughts.

His summing up is correct. The Tories need to be patient to effect the real change we want to make to this country. Going in with all guns blasting will not work.

Yes, political courage is needed; but no, all that is needed is not political courage. Patience, reticence and good timing are needed too, and discretion can be the better part of valour. If (like me) you are sure that David Cameron does not lack valour, and if you’re confident his heart and head are in a good Tory place, then give him that discretion

Time for a Change

I’d rather Cameron was patient than brave | Matthew Parris – Times Online.

It had to happen, Gordon Brown having been caught out with his Brownies or lies all over the place is now starting to alter the facts to meet his version of the truth. Fraser Nelson calls it back-pedalling, I just call it the typical dishonesty of Gordon Brown. Fraser has this to say in his article

Keep your eyes on this, because we could have a new distinction. Soon we’ll be told that Brown misspoke in the Commons when he listed those spending totals, and in fact they’re not spending totals at all. In fact, those Labour cuts – he’ll say – were all imaginary. The problem for Brown is that he can’t change anything until the Pre-Budget Report. And, by then, everyone will have stopped listening.

As I said earlier today,

the Brownie is then used for long enough, often enough and against all the facts until the lie appears to become the truth

Now it has started  to come true as the truth is altered and facts are changed to attempt cover-up the fact that we have a lying toad for a Prime  Minister.

When the Government attempts to alter the facts and attempts to rewrite history you know that your country is really up shit creek without a paddle, and in our case we have a dangerous and dishonest helmsman who is ignoring all calls to change direction to get us pack onto the right course.

The back-pedalling begins in earnest | Coffee House.