Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

Original poster

...to want Gordon Brown to acknowledge his role in the financial crisis?

23 replies

goodnightmoon · 27/02/2009 22:18

Gordon Brown is all too happy to point the finger of blame at bankers at home and abroad. But hasn't he himself done much more to contribute to the crisis than Fred Goodwin or any other banking execs?

He put in place a "light touch" bank regulation system that failed.

He encouraged growth in the financial services industry to the exclusion of other industries, leaving us more vulnerable than other countries to the effects of a protracted downturn in banking.

He presided over unprecedented borrowing, and allowed the rampant inflation of the housing market bubble.

He put the budget deep into deficit.

I'd like an apology please.

OP posts:

TheCrackFox · 27/02/2009 22:25

YANBU. He was chancellor for 10 years and took all the credit when things seemed to be going well.

Personally, I think he has to go because he is awful.

alardi · 27/02/2009 22:30

I can't see the point. If GB accepts any blame, he'll be loudly and badly attacked by other politicians and the media. Then he'll waste yet more time and energy fighting off leadership challenges and opposition criticism. Even if you want him to go, him leaving would lead to chaos, yet more disorganisation and lack of action in the short-medium term.

Can't see any good coming of it at all.

Mutt · 27/02/2009 22:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Divineintervention · 27/02/2009 22:36

Who is Gordon Brown?

Mutt · 27/02/2009 22:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheCrackFox · 27/02/2009 22:37

I don't think he has the ability to sort the whole mess out.

Mutt · 27/02/2009 22:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jellybeans · 27/02/2009 22:38

YANBU I agree.

altagloria · 27/02/2009 22:48

Alardi "chaos, yet more disorganisation and lack of action"

Who knows, it might be an improvement! Couldn't be much worse surely...

YANBU.

VanessaParody · 27/02/2009 22:49

Agreed, GB has been appalling.

But what will really piss me off is when, sometime in the future, the government of the day gives 'our' share of the banks back to them for nothing. You just know it will happen.

TheCrackFox · 27/02/2009 22:54

And what, exactly, is the point of Alistair Darling? (Apart from idle musing about whether his pubes match his hair or his eyebrows).

Original poster

goodnightmoon · 27/02/2009 22:56

Alardi - let's get it over with. he's got to go. he doesn't have a chance in hell of winning a general election.

however, i think he'd actually win a modicum of respect if he could bring himself to mutter an apology.

i didn't even mention "no more boom and bust," or his selling the gold reserves.

OP posts:

expatinscotland · 27/02/2009 22:57

Well, I hope you're not holding your breath waiting for him to apologise.

He's going to swan off into the sunset with his gold-plated pension just like Sir Goodwin.

blueshoes · 27/02/2009 22:58

Agree with Mutt.

Hindsight it appears is 20-20.

FairLadyRantALot · 27/02/2009 23:01

well..who could do the job...who is the british obama

MaryMotherOfCheeses · 27/02/2009 23:01

I don't think you're unreasonable. The regulator didn't regulate properly. the buck stops with him I think.

I agree he took the credit when things were going well. I don't quite understand what he contributed to that. Just rode the crest of the wave.

But who questioned the borrowing at the time? Even when he became PM, wasn't he generally applauded for his management of the economy?

VanessaParody · 27/02/2009 23:04

fairlady - I don't care about having a British Obama but I'd settle for Ken Clark back at the Treasury.

FairLadyRantALot · 27/02/2009 23:09

well..you know what I mean, really...ANYONE WHO CAN DO IT..i REALLY HAVE NO IDEA...oops caps, sorry

Original poster

goodnightmoon · 27/02/2009 23:10

i think the rising levels of personal debt were questioned as it was happening.

a lot of people who couldn't afford to buy houses were also a bit displeased.

he has been applauded, i think mainly because he actually has a clue about finance and economics unlike most politicians.

really he just had good timing in that the world was enjoying the effects of globalisation and general economic growth on his watch.

OP posts:

FairLadyRantALot · 27/02/2009 23:20

and then there was the big downfall the recession....

tb...I always thought it was stupid for anyone to take out mpre than double/triple your wages...on high rates...

Original poster

goodnightmoon · 27/02/2009 23:32

it made sense if you believed common wisdom that house prices could only keep going up. i can't believe how many people i heard that from during the boom

average house prices to average earnings peaked at a ratio of 5.7x - hence the 125% mortgage.

OP posts:

FairLadyRantALot · 27/02/2009 23:35

I know...

only financilly clever move we made...Corby, is probably the only place in the uk that has not gone lower...there are no buyers, but houses have not gonew lower, indeed they are still higher than they used to be...

nannyL · 28/02/2009 00:59

YANBU

Flip