Nick Griffin & Question Time

I was unfortunately very disappointed with last nights Question Time and especially the way David Dimbleby chaired the discussion. Everyone knows that the BNP is a racist and vile party. Nick Griffin’s views are equally well known especially those relating to race, immigration and Islam i.e BNP topics. Yet more than three quarters of the show was devoted to these issues with quotes of what Griffin has stated in the past being thrown at him from all sides. Griffin despite being hated by almost all in the audience must have been delighted to have had the chance to say that immigration had been and was still out of control and that Islam was incompatible with western democracy. His message wasn’t to the studio audience but to those living in run down council estates and other deprived areas where such messages are so well received. He had several more open goals and had he not been so nervous and overwhelmed he could have made more of this opportunity to put forward his ideology and get his message across.

The panel discussions should have focused more on current concerns of the population on matters such as the economy, housing, education etc which would have exposed the shallowness of the BNP ideology. The BNP does well when it is criticizing others, highlighting or exposing populist concerns and being entirely negative and blaming a particular group for all society’s ills. Yet it doesn’t do well or win when it has to put forward policies to tackle these concerns or explain them in any detail.

Griffin would have looked even more out of his depth on discussions on education or crime or managing the economy out of the recession. In the end the BBC got its ratings and we didn’t learn anymore than we already knew about the BNP and Nick Griffin, who could have made much more of the oppurtunity afforded to him by the BBC to get his message out but failed to do so.

Brown Cuts

Record Unemployment

Unemployment increased by 281,000 to hit 2.38 million in the three months to May and is the largest rise since records began in 1971. It seems highly likely that the total number of unemployed will get close to 3 million within the next 12 months with the new Conservative Government in 2010 will have to deal with the issue of getting people back in to work.

No More Fiscal Stimulus?

‘Given how big [UK fiscal] deficits are, I think it would be sensible to be cautious about going further in using discretionary measures to expand the size of those deficits.

The level of the fiscal position in the UK is not one that would say: ‘Well, why don’t we just engage in another significant round of fiscal expansion?’

Mervyn King giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee has cast serious doubts on Gordon Brown’s preferred remedy for the UK economy. Brown might as well cancel the G20 summit and save the taxpayers millions earmarked for the policing of this event!

Hat tip: Coffee House, Ben Brogan

Two Million Unemployed

Unemployment has topped two million for the first time since 1997 and is confirmation of how severe the current economic slump is and how devastating its effect has been on working families. The consequences of unemployment are truly tragic with social breakdown, welfare dependency, family tensions all adversely increasing.

The number of jobless people is set to increase with the IMF predicting that the recession in the UK will last longer than any of the world’s other major economies. Already there are ten jobseekers for every vacancy advertised with this figure increasing to as many as 30 in some parts of the country.

The Labour Government promised to spend its way out of recession by undertaking huge public works programs but there seems to be little evidence of this actually happening as we see the unemployment figures rising rapidly on their march to the three million mark.

Timid Apology?

Does taking ‘full responsibility’ constitute an apology or is it simply a clever play with words to say that ‘it’s not my fault but being the magnanimous person I am, I am prepared to be held to account’?

Gordon Brown’s actual words are:

‘I take full responsibility for all my actions, but I think we’re dealing with a bigger problem that is global in nature, as well as national. Perhaps 10 years ago after the Asian crisis when other countries thought these problems would go away, we should have been tougher … keeping and forcing these issues on to the agenda like we did on debt relief and other issues of international policy.’

While looking at from past mistakes is obviously important, it is more important Gordon Brown puts in place the right policies now to get the country out of the current economic slump – something  he seems unfortunately incapable of doing. I’ve no doubt he and will look at this period in ten years time and wish he’d done things differently and not burdened the country with mountainous debt.

Extremely Gloomy Forecast

A report by City Investment bank Numis Securities says:

‘Despite UK house prices already having fallen 21% from the peak, we do not believe that the correction is anywhere near over.

Our core headline forecast is that UK property prices remain between 17% and 39% overvalued based on fair valuation. Moreover, history has shown us that when property…which has experienced a price bubble corrects, the price tends to fall below fair value for a period of time, as confidence in that market remains low. Prices could fall a further 40-55% if the over-correction was as bad as the early 1990s in our view

The bankruptcy of the UK is a very real probability as the UK Government is trying to stimulate a greater debt burden in a grossly indebted economy. We believe the scale of the macro imbalances in the UK means there is no prospect of a recovery in 2009 and we expect the UK to be mired in a deep recession through all of 2010.’

FTSE Down to New Low

FTSE this morning hit  a new low of 3694.16 which is its lowest level since April 2003. This has been partly triggered by HSBC’s decision to raise £12.5bn from shareholders through a rights issue at a price almost 50% lower than its closing share price last week of 491.25p.

The FTSE 100 index peaked at 6,930.2 at the beginning of 2000 and even as recently as November 2007 was at 6721 points but with the rapid deterioration of the economy it’s value has tumbled. It is yet another sign of the mess the economy is and a damning indictment of Gordon Brown’s handling of the UK economy in the last 12 years.

Ed Balls – Gaffe or Honesty?

‘The economy is going to define our politics in Britain in the next year, the next five years, the next 10 and even the next 15 years. These are seismic events that are going to change the political landscape.

I think that this is a financial crisis more extreme and more serious than that of the 1930s and we all remember how the politics of that era were shaped by the economy.

We now are seeing the realities of globalisation, though at a speed, pace and ferocity which none of us have seen before. The reality is that this is becoming the most serious global recession for, I’m sure, over 100 years as it will turn out.’

Put Labour in power for 12 years and you end up with the worst recession in 100 years!

Sarkozy’s Attack on Brown

First the Germans and now the French. There seems to be a queue of politician’s abroad wanting to attack Gordon Brown’s economic policies. No doubt we’ll see Downing Street twist this story to try and explain that this wasn’t aimed at Brown and he is still regarded everywhere as the saviour of the world economy!