Gordon Brown's New Year Message 2009

[clearvision12]

Yes of course Gordon.

[mixmatosis]

gizza job brown

[m001900]

other than that happy new year all

[TheAnoyingFatGuy]

House finance policies will be be on da increazez. rezpect ya! its needz to be . groden bronw in da houze

[cheeryvibez]

wow, so may scottish people i know LOVE being called british... get real, welsh like to be called welsh, scots , scottish, english, english, i worked for a opinion poll company for 2 years, and we did political surveys amongst other things, you would ask people if there nationality was british and they would angrily reply "english" or "scottish" and this was the avarage response i got when asking peoples nationalitys..

[fistofonan]

What policies & regulation was needed? You see, despite having told me that I "don't know what I'm talking about", I'm beginning to sense that you haven't got the vaguest idea about what has happened to the world economy, other than its "something to do with mortgages".

So specificlly, what regulation was needed? And why didn't the govt enforce those regulations?

By the way, you are a socialist, aren't you?

[fistofonan]

He doesn't know. Thought not.

[cheeryvibez]

i think he works for labour, without him, there would be no pro labour opinions on this thread...

[fistofonan]

You support the Labour party like some people support a football team - ie blindly through thick and thin. You still haven't answered my question: What policies should the labour party have enacted, re: housing, house-financing, banking, and indeed anything you else you want to think of?

If the banks aren't capable of regulating themseleves, then *perhaps*, (and it's only a crazy idea) a socialist govt, in the 10 years available to them, might have stepped in and done something about it?

[fistofonan]

In what way should they have regulated the "housing market" better?

Which regulations were lacking/inadequate re; the banks?

How do you square a (vague) comment that they should have done more to regulate the banks with a comment that they shouldn't be responsible for the banks? That sounds contradictory to me.

Any other areas where their performance could have been a bit better? Think about it.

[fistofonan]

How could they have regulated the market better? And which market(s) are you referring to?

[fistofonan]

Yes, hilarious. Or you could just tell us what you do for a living? It can't be that shameful, surely? Or is it WORSE than a student?

So - who was responsible for overseeing and regulating the UK finance industry? Person or group. And why is it iresponsible to ask that question? Answers please, and not off the laminated card.

And while you're at it, what mistakes did the labour govt make re: the economy? 'None' would be a childish answer.

[fistofonan]

So, for instance, the performance of the British economy is in no way connected to the performance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer? I know it's a crazy thought, but if it isn't - what are we paying them for, my middle class, student, related-to-some-dead-workers, friend?

And why would it be "irresponsible"? What's this responsibility I have that I'm somehow abusing by expecting the govt to be accountable for its mistakes?

New sudden thought: are you actually a child?

[fistofonan]

So who was responsible for regulation of the UK finance industry during this period of mis-guided mortgage approvals? And all the other "problems" you vaguely allude to? Or is it that one not on your laminated card of Labour catch-phrases?

[fistofonan]

So who was responsible for regulation of the UK finance industry during this period of mis-guided mortgage approvals? And all the other "problems" you vaguely allude to? Or is it that one not on your laminated card of Labour catch-phrases?

We can all se that you think the Labour party is a wonderful thing. But it isn't enough just to be Not The Toty Party? Even you, my dim-witted friend, must see that

[fistofonan]

And I'm old enough to have lived and worked through the thatcher and major years. So I don't need to "read up on it", you patronising middle class student twat. And I don't need to ask my grandparents what it's like to work for a living. What a tool you are.

[fistofonan]

That's it is it? You're anlasyis of the entire problem is down to over-enthusiastic mortgage lending? That is about 5% of the problem.

And this from a man who had the cheek to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about?

I hope that degree you're studying for isn't in economics. Or politics. In fact, what *is* it you're studying for, my middle class friend?

And who was responsible for the regulation of the UK finance industry during this period of mis-guided mortgage approvals?

[fistofonan]

Student it is then. But a student with working class grandparents - so you *really* understand the proletariat. Patronising twat.

As to "look forward with hope" - do they give you some sort of laminated card full of this crap so you can spout it at the appropriate moments? Do you really think you're going to win any arguments or convince anyone with this lame nonsense?

What has caused this economic crisis then? Give us your insightful, unbiased analysis [chortle).

[fistofonan]

I'll ask one more time, in the hope that you've got something sensible to say. If labour aren't perfect, what mistakes did they make? Or are you saying they haven't made any mistakes that lead to the current economic shit-storm?

Reead my question carefully. It isn't about the tories. It's about Labour's economic policies of the last decade. Are you capable of giving a sensible, impartial, informed answer? Really?

And my money is still on you being a student.

[fistofonan]

So, what mistakes have the labour party made then, that have lead to the current economic crisis. Give us your impartial analysis.

aA to your "profession" - if your grandparents' socio-economic status is relevent to the debate, then so is yours. If you won't tell, I'm guessing you're a student.

[fistofonan]

See - you're still at it. The current govt is not above criticism just because they are not the tories. You don't seem to grasp that fairly basic idea.

So what do you do for a living, jprbritishcritic?

[MissMariQueen]

Well said! :-)))

[cheeryvibez]

not really, devouloution mate, you go scotland and run around telling people they british....

but

hating the guy cuz he scottish, not really on, sorta classifys as racism?

hate him for policys not nationality, and be objective, his party has done a lot of good with the bad..?

[cheeryvibez]

seeing as how labour have stolen a lot of there best policys from the libs that is a pretty stupid thing to say, on top of that saying *if you ask british familys wether they feel there better off under labour* is such a opionion poll type statement... lets face, i reckon u work for them.

[Billystream]

good plans

[Billystream]

In fact everybody is fetting through a hard time.I am from another country and I am suffering from world crisis,too. so I think all the citizins of the world should united.better or worse, it depends on today.

[cheeryvibez]

wow, what a comeback. i feel your skills. i know where im from and what my family are, as the council tax has increased and the taxbands tweaked im actually worst off than i was 5 years ago, even though minimum wage has increased. hooray...

[hugoegbert79]

FACT crime has fallen FACT the number of police has risen FACT we have the best exam results and best performing schools in british history since Labour came to power FACT we now have Civil Partnerships, the gay age of consent was lowered from 18 to 16, Section 28 was abolished and gay people were allowed to adopt children (all of this the Tories opposed) FACT Northern Ireland was resolved. The worst Labour government would still be better than the best Tory govt could ever be. FACT.

[BritishGentlemen]

Well said, Labour are the best possible party for our country.

[angelboo2008]

jprbritishcritic :thank you 4 your comment ,infact im a very pleasant person ,and its what you call freedom of free speech and i will express my views in any form of manner ,im not one of the sheepies.

[cheeryvibez]

your only free to express your opinion if your opinion is pro labour.. anybody who says to me *if you ask british familys..* is beliving labours polls a bit too much, so im not *working class* none of my people are *working class* (whatver the hell that is in this modern world)but sod it, better labour than the torys,personally i wanna see the libs in with a labour opposition, but dreams hey , besides most of the people i know who wld be classified as *working class* really dont care on politics

[cheeryvibez]

thats true definatly, the devide has actually increased.

[cheeryvibez]

FACT the poorest familys are now paying more income tax than they were under thatcher,FACT the tax band is now so screwed that you do a load of overtime and you make f all extra cuz u ramped up a tax band,FACT council tax is even more of a bitch than it was , while at the same time they have cut back on services like rubbish collection, FACT they bankrolled us into this war in iraq something that has cost us billions,for what result? all these countrys with worst rulers than saddam,but no oil..

[hugoegbert79]

FACT we now have the minimum wage FACT the poorer are better off with Labour than they were before FACT in '97 we had one of the worst socialised health services in the developed world (the Tories closed 246 hospitals) FACT Labour has made the NHS the best it has ever been FACT we had the highest child poverty rating in the developed world in '97 FACT we now have one of the lowest FACT we have had the highest employment figures in history over the past 12 years

[dissent2007]

Why do you smell like the establishment?

[cheeryvibez]

um, did you even read what this guys been saying, i dont agree with all he says, but, he definatly has a clue..

[cheeryvibez]

som proper socialism would be great, but, what is it? marxes ideas were based on hegel, hegel saw something resembling socialism to be the end product of human society,are we that evoloved yet? we do have it good in this country education, some healthcare,what do you mean by proper socialism? a company i just did some seosenal work for during high profit years pay there workers more, now, that would be great, to me thats the spirit of the thing. the thing being with finacial systems, how could

[cheeryvibez]

gordon brown have predicted the hedgefund scenario? ok, he was a month moving on the subpar crises, but look at it like this, the torys would probably have allowed northern rock to collapse, as they did with barings, but think of the domino effect.. at least peoples savings are now gaurenteed to survive if a bank gets wiped (sort of..) as usual labour used the liberals soloution as they often do and onme fo the many reosens i tend to vote liberal,proper socialim would be nice. i wish i belived

[cheeryvibez]

they have done a lot of good, and david cameron is definatly not the man to steer us through this current finacial crises, but, they have done a lot of bad, i dont like the fact that im going to have to vote for them pureley to prevent the torys getting in,

[28October1961]

Even Jesus called for shepherds, how does Gordon Brown believe he could achieve this change without everybodys help, what scale of change would he alone achieve?

Thank you for allowing comments, thats abrave step.

[cheeryvibez]

brave? brave? if they dont allow comments and video responses on this thing then it is pureley a propaganda machine for them and nothing to do with advancing politics into the 21st century.

lets face it they should always allow comments and responses. not just carefully vetted real people via the goverments web site. they 2 scared to allow video responses... not bravery by any definition..

[fistofonan]

I don't care what happened fifteen years ago. What is happening NOW is a catastrophe. And nothing that Brown has done or said so far shows that he understands how deep and wide the problem is. It goes beyond the milk-mild fiddling he's coming up with. What we need now is a socialist, in fact a *revolutionary socialist*, response. The labour party has forgotten what that means.

[cheeryvibez]

revoloution is not an option, and tends to lead to a spiral of madness, you kill all the people in control, your a killer, so your suddenly the right person to make financial decisions? like a ghandi style thing would be nice, but, a full on war in order to determine a countrys administration? how many revoloutions socialist or otherwise, have happened without pointless killing? its a nice idea but it dont work, unless you mean like a trotskyist peacefull thing, but, cmon,

[fistofonan]

Correction to yourself: these trite phrases mean nothing. The British economy has over-valued its assets by 25-33%. If (and it's a big if) the current phase of Finance Capitalism comes through, the shocks we will go through as the economy adjusts to its real value will be absolutely brutal. Thatcher's Britain will, in comparison, seem like a picnic. And if capitalism *doesn't* come through, the outcome is unthinkable. Imagine the weimar republic and and double it.

[fistofonan]

Is that the best thing you can say about labour? That they're not the tories. Well, I'm not the tories - are you going to vote for m?. I'm sure you have a better rationale than the one you've given above - so why not give it/ And if *don't*, then god help you.

And I always imagained that you could only "rise up" against someone in power. How do I "rise up" against a political party that hasn't implemented a single policy since 1997? I might as well "rise up" against the Assyrian Empire.

[cheeryvibez]

its sad that that is the situation, that i will vote for the pureley to prevent the torys coming in but its the way of it, dont trust any political party, but the toruys will definatly rip us as much as they can, its what they do, labour ARE bad, but the torys are definatly worst. i would love to have some other options , but, where are they?

[cheeryvibez]

and actually thinking on it, lets talk about the good that labour have done, the regeneration of council estates and the general reconstruction that has gone on scince they were in power is a very very good thing. the estate i grew up on was a shithole b4 labour came in, also the estate that i grew up on had loads of closed down factorys on it, that had been rotting scince the the late 80s, scince labour came in these have been torn down and replaced with shopping centers

[cheeryvibez]

which means theres more employment in the area, and scince labour came in up untill this current WORLD finacial crises there has been more work around, we are talking a period of massive economic growth now this WORLD situations kicking in, seeing what they have done scince they got in, i got a blim more trust in them than the torys,

hell i h8 labour, but, youve forced me to point out some of the good, and, the worst thing is i can list more good they have done,

[cheeryvibez]

see how much of this current recession is down to the policys of labour, and how much of it is down to the policys of bush.... i know which, do you? this is a a world recession, not just a uk / america thing. yay..... and i say yay.... cuz i have personally lost a lot of money on land in europe, so, f it, i could just blame brown, but the subpar thing is bushes problem, just he were to slow to react..

[fistofonan]

Closed down factories replaced with shopping centres? You couldn't have come up with a better example of the weakness in our economy. We don't produce, we consume. We've struck lucky in the past 10 to 15 years, exploiting cheap 3rd world laboour to mass produce cheap goods, paid for with credit we raised against our over-inflated assett prices. We can't blame the US housing market, or old tory governments for this. This is an inherent structural weakness, and Brown is responsible.

[cheeryvibez]

its better than just closed down factorys which is what the torys left there. if i got a choice between closed down factorys full of rats or shopping centers i know what i will choose. also the construction of these centers created employment, and there are now more jobs on the estate, but hey lets see it as a bad thing...

[cheeryvibez]

unless the pound collpases completely we will never be able to return to being an export nation.

[fistofonan]

It just has. £1=1 euro!

[cheeryvibez]

yup, true, only 1.4 dollars to the pound also, this is not good in terms of buying direct download software from america, but if it continues, maybe becoming an export nation again would be viable, its a shame they didnt predict this and build factorys instead of shopping centers

[cheeryvibez]

god yeah, how long it will remain that way is anybodys guess, i suppose a return to manufactoring and export could well happen if the pund continues its descent.

[cheeryvibez]

hahahahahahaha, 4th term? are you mental? i wish, im gonna vote for them purley to prevent the torys getting in, but are enuff people gonna do that? mood on the streets seems to be for tory.....

[cheeryvibez]

see obama has won an election, what election have you won? what election will you win? people gonna blame you for 2008, not your fault, but the way of it, why the hell didnt you call an election in the early days, now the countrys gonna go tory cuz of you mr brown, even tho they have no policys and will blatantly mess it up even more for people, cuz thats what they do.. thanks.....

[ayrtonaiko]

Gordon isn't moving much!

[fistofonan]

That's because he's talking out his arsehole.

[cheeryvibez]

rofl

[lagundafire]

at least his arsehole makes sense!

[wonderfulkeithfloyd]

No, you're right of course, your name is simply hilarious. I'm not especially surprised you're so familiar with that onanistic fist of yours, even though (as a 38 year-old) you might have had a girlfriend by now.

[fistofonan]

Sigh.

Do you have something to say in defence of our Premier? Or is insinutaing I don't have a sex life the best you can come up with? What is so inspiring about Gordon's speech that you feel the need to attack critics? Do you have anything intelligent to say?

[fistofonan]

I'll take that as a 'no', then.

[wonderfulkeithfloyd]

Your screen name 'fist of Onan' does you credit.

[fistofonan]

Mostly cliches and platitudes. Come on Gordon, you can do better than that! Capitalism is in crisis. Economic collapse is in the offing. Revolution is in the air. The British people want to see some truly radical action. Dust off those "dangerous" books you were reading in your student days, and come back with something a bit more inspirational.

[arialchambersguitar]

i agree with everything you're saying but, the labour party was never really that socialist, even when it was under kier hardie in the 1880's. After replacing the original liberal party, it's been wildly recognised that Labour delt in social-democratic policies. So labour by definition would never allow the well needed Trotskyite uprising, the most we got was under Atlee with the birth of the fully developed wellfare system. :) It's time to stop dreaming comrade

[cheeryvibez]

what gets me about this current goverment the most, though it may seem minor, but they have during a period of econimc growth screwed with the dole system to make it harder for people to sighn on, and then we hit a recession... horray, well done... i had hopes for gordon in terms of socialism, but, alas, also putting cannibis back up to a class b so more people get put in prision pureley for helping people, not evryone can drink, but hey lets lock up the people who provide alternatives..

[fistofonan]

Alternatively, it might be time to start dreaming - but not expecting the Labour Party to make any of those dreams come true.

I hope all readers appreciate how very close the entire economic system is to complete collapse. We very nearly finished 2008 with no banking system and no functioning currency. Capitalism is in crisis, and as Marx noted, capitalism's crisis' are always sudden and brutal.

This really is time to start dreaming of alternatives.