Where did Gordon Brown find £60 billion?

[AtheneNoctua]

I just can't think of a single entity (company, nation, individual) who has extra cash laying around these days. Is this affordable? It may be a noble cause, but if GB has his "fair share" of £60 to contribute, well, maybe he could make my childcare tax dedutible.

twit.

[AtheneNoctua]

story here

[Iklboo]

Down the back of the sofa obviously - or in his 'gardening' jeans when Mrs B was doing the wekly wash

[AtheneNoctua]

Oh, I know, he could cancel the ID Card scheme scam.

[AtheneNoctua]

That's funny, Mrs. B doesn't strike me as a girl who does the washing.

[atlantis]

Gordon Brown just loves to spend the tax payers money and not on the tax payers.

Of course he's eager to sign up to whatever President Obama tells him to, just to get a nice picture of himself in the newspaper next to Obama for starters, but because, funnily enough, come the next election it isn't going to be his government who has to pay it and then he can point the finger and say, look what the conservatives are spending your hard earned tax on!.

Blair and Bush were bad enough, but Brown and Obama ! Oh dear, a couple of handwringing liberal do gooders.

[MrsHappy]

I reckon he thinks £60m is not that much. After all, he has pissed away billions in his time as chancellor and PM. He's lost perspective. Like a trader with his bottle of Petrus.

[MrsHappy]

Ah, tis £60bn? Oh well, still small potatoes to our Gordon, I reckon.

[PeachyTheRiverParrettHarlot]

wasn't there abolition of aneducational reg today where that saved 100 M on advisors (teletext news though so cant guarantee figures!)

Tis a start

[monkeytrousers]

Athene, if you think Brown is bad, have a google about Obama and the US national debt..

[AtheneNoctua]

Gald to see that everything being the fault of or at least worse in the US did not end with the departure of the Bush administration.

[TheCrackFox]

He has maxed out his credit cards.

It is OK though because someone will sort out the mess for him. i.e. those lovely tax payers. Lucky us.

[TinyPawz]

Is this not what we are supposed to do, as a 'Western' country to help those countries that need it?

[expatinscotland]

Oh, he's a freak. I wish I had that kind of Midas touch.

[monkeytrousers]

Athene, are you a member of the socialist workers???

[FAQinglovely]

ermm - isn't that a £60bn that we as a country would contribute to - not put up the whole amount ourselves?

"Speaking in London, Mr Brown said leading industrialised economies must support developing nations most at risk from climate change to enable them to keep on growing while meeting their environmental obligations.

He suggested £60bn would be needed to help poor countries adjust to climate change, stressing the UK would pay "its fair share" towards this. "

[slackrunner]

I don't think we have much choice. If we don't do something soon childcare tax deductions will be the least of our worries .

[monkeytrousers]

Sort out the mess for him?? It's our mess.

[cherryblossoms]

I've only read the link but is he saying that, as FAQ points out, it's only a share of 360 bn AND

it will come from existing foreign aid budgets AND

it will perhaps come in the form of GB et al buying the right to trade carbon permits with poorer/less developed nations? ie buy their share of carbon-production "rights"?

(In fact, there is even the opening for an inference that money paid for this "right" will come with pressure that it is ring-fenced for developing industry in an ecologically-aware direction.)

May have misinterpreted that last. Wouldn't mind elucidation.

But anyway, it all looks fairly business as usual, very capitalist and mildly depressing. I don't think that it means GB's found the money down the back of the sofa.

[monkeytrousers]

Well we are all capitalists now CB

[cherryblossoms]

Hey - but at least the foreign aid budget isn't being spent on subsidising the arms industry a la Mrs T.

[monkeytrousers]

Well arms is a dirty business, but all countries have to dabble.

What do you imagine were those 'dogdy' investments the bankers were making.

[cherryblossoms]

Indeedy, MT.

I just thought that I really should try to look for something a bit positive to say ... I really am turning into such a hippy. I'm actually a bit bored with the GB-bashing.

I could try and go into some thing about the difference between a government getting involved is subsidising private industry, etc, but ... I wonder how long we could hold that distinction - it would get quite circuitous and nebulous and abstract, wouldn't it? Interesting question, though.

[monkeytrousers]

We've all had it too good is the problem

[Kimi]

I found £1 down the sofa cushion,, maybe he has a really big sofa

[donnymouse]

Firstly you have to look into the history of how money was made.

We used to trade goods for goods. Then people started to trade in gold and silver.

Then one day a bloke started to store the gold for people and issue bank notes based on the value of the gold that was in the vault. Then the bloke got wise and thought, hmm nobody ever checks the levels of the gold agaisnt the level of the bank notes, so he started to lend out extra bank notes not based on any 'real gold' in the vault. As long as the people did not have a 'run' on the vault and demand the gold back he would be OK.

There are a whole series of videos and they are very interesting if you take the time to watch.

here